Use of à l'extérieur de and en dehors de; aussi au-dehors de (which is not mentioned)

Leslie S.B2Kwiziq community member

Use of à l'extérieur de and en dehors de; aussi au-dehors de (which is not mentioned)

Can one say, "Daniel habite à l'extérieur de la ville" to say "Daniel lives outside of the city", or is it wrong or odd? Also, when I was in school, we were told to use "au-dehors de" but you do not include it in the prepositions lesson. Do people use this preposition? It is in the Collins dictionary.


Asked 4 years ago
Jim J.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

It is a question of "how far from".

If we want to express "outside of the city" for example, then to communicate the scale of distance involved we need another description.  Peripherique, banlieue, environs.

One could use "l'extérieur de" but this does not give a sense of scale without further information.

Dehors  --  en plein air, but again insufficient information without further context.

It is not "odd" nor "wrong" to use your text -- but lacking context without further information.

Stephanie S.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

I'm also curious about "au dehors de".

Leslie S. asked:

Use of à l'extérieur de and en dehors de; aussi au-dehors de (which is not mentioned)

Can one say, "Daniel habite à l'extérieur de la ville" to say "Daniel lives outside of the city", or is it wrong or odd? Also, when I was in school, we were told to use "au-dehors de" but you do not include it in the prepositions lesson. Do people use this preposition? It is in the Collins dictionary.


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