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In French, there are a lot of prepositions of place: basic ones such as dans, sur, derrière etc and prepositional phrases of place.
How to use prepositional phrases of place in French
Look at these sentences:
La boulangerie est près de l'hôtel.The bakery is close to the hotel.
Je suis à côté de la piscine.I'm next to the swimming pool.
Je suis à côté du cinéma.I'm next to the cinema.
The following prepositions are used to indicate relative physical positions of one thing to another.
Note that the indefinite article de must contract if followed by a masculine article le (du) and the plural les (des).
| à côté de | next to |
| en face de | opposite |
| à l'extérieur de en dehors de |
outside |
| à l'intérieur de | inside |
| près de | close to / near |
| loin de | far from |
| au coin de | by / at the corner of |
Case of à l'extérieur de versus en dehors de:
- À l'extérieur de means outside in a geographical way, literally out of [something]
La statue est à l'extérieur du parc.The statue is outside the park.
- En dehors de is more the abstract outside, in the sense of apart from, but can also be used with locations.
En dehors de cela, je pense que c'est une mauvaise idée.Apart from that, I think it's a bad idea.
Tu vis en dehors de la ville.You live outside the city.
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