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Utan = without, and utanför = outside, just like in oldy timey English, where you could say witout for outside. I love languages!
I was just thinking this too - and people still sometimes use 'without' as the opposite of 'within'!
Yes! That is how I remember that! Utan - without (lacking) Utanför - without (outside)
A world outside people is a world outside languages... Outside = without? Can I say this in modern English lol?
890
This just makes me think of the classic Groucho Marx quote: Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
Well you could, and it sounds poetic! But it doesn't exactly sound equivalent, more figurative, you know?
Without just has a few meanings, the most common ones mean lacking something, or refraining from doing something. Outside doesn't share that meaning, so you can't really switch them around in that case. But when you mean 'not inside', outside and without both carry that meaning, so in that situation you can use either.
It's like... say trip and fall. In one sense they can mean the same kind of thing, if you mean having an accident where you're walking and you end up on the floor. But if you mean trip as in 'travel', then you can't say "I'm going on a fall" - that would be weird!
Not like this is a prime language resource or anything, but just to show you it's still used in some situations and not just old books:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EnemyWithout
It is older English but I personally like the way older English sounds and I think that we could use many of the things we lost from the older English. I am standing without the restaurant. Jag står utanför restaurangen.
Edit: this comment is about the old TTS.
TTS pronounces it something like ja e utanför which is not incorrect. Pronouncing är as e is characteristic of the Stockholm dialect so it is important to know. TTS messes up restaurangen though. The au is normally just pronunced as a u.
It’s not only in Stockholm that är is pronounced this way, and while there is no Standard Swedish pronunciation, you are normally taught that är is pronounced e or ä depending on dialect.
What, exactly, is the difference between these two sounds? From what I can tell so far, the Swedish e can sound like a short or long English e, and ä sounds like a short English e.
That was immensely helpful, thank you! The trick now is to learn when they are to be long or short, but that will come with time, I think.
Can I use utanför to mean 'outside' generally (I am outside), or does it have to relate to a location (outside the shop / your house)?
- 890
No. For the other meaning we say either just ute, or utomhus (which is more like 'outdoors').
Can't I translate this as "I am in front of the restaurant"? This should be accepted as a possible translation?
Hej! Thanks! That makes sense! I guess I am just too tired after a long workday!
How do you say "inside?" And are there separate words like utanför/ute/utomhus for "inside" as well or is it one word? Tack!
- 890
Yes, it works the same, innanför/inne/inomhus. (also go inside as in 'go into the house' is gå in – particle verb, stress on in).
Without is a perfectly valid (older) English expression for referring to outside. Although you will sound a little oldfashioned and perhaps confuse some. :)
Would it make sense to say "jag ar utanfor hos mannen" to communicate the idea "I am outside his place"
No, I think "hos" kind of implies you are currently inside visiting him, or at least about to go inside. As a native Swede I'd translate that as "Jag är utanför mannens hus", "I am outside the man's house".
It told me I was wrong but not what the correct answer was. It just gave me the English translation. I have reported it.
