Internal Question

[QuillingQuillQuiller]

I wonder if someone care to explain the usage of "within" and "inside"?

Thank you before.

Budi

[Ali]

Hi Budi,

These words are very close in meaning and can sometimes be used interchangably.

"Inside" is often used for physical things (buildings, boxes, etc) where we could refer to "outside":

- Are there any people still inside the building?
- I put the chocolate inside the cupboard.

"Within" tends to be used more often for non-physical things, or where the boundary between "in" and "out" isn't so clear.

- Is he within the same team?
- Are you happy within your own mind?

"Within" can also be used to mean "between":

- The data was within acceptable boundaries.

There are some phrases which always use inside, when talking about being part of an exclusive group (by implication, that group has a very clear membership and other people are "outside" it):
- An inside job
- He had inside knowledge

Hope some of this helps! Anyone got more to add?

Best,

Ali

[QuillingQuillQuiller]

Thanks for the informative explanation. One more ...

altogether or all together
show off or show-off

Budi

[susabelle]

All together is altogether different than altogether. LOL

We are altogether horrified by the events of last week.

All together, now, repeat after me.


Show off and show-off are different depending on how you use them.

He was such a show-off!

She wanted to show off her new hair-do.

[QuillingQuillQuiller]

Thx susabelle and ali for the explanations.

[Maeve]

I agree with everything you say, but this example threw me:

Is he within the same team?

Wouldn't the idiom be "on the same team"?

[--Deb]

I would say "on" a team--never within. Or, at least, not unless the rest of the team has clustered around him!

Unless that's a non-American idiomatic expression?

Oh, and I'm laughing at myself--Susabelle's example about being horrified by the events of the last week? I immediately started wracking my brain, trying to think of what horrible events she meant! And then realized, duh, it was an example. Silly me!

--Deb

[Ali]

Thinking about it, I would usually say "On the same team" too! I was trying to think of a synonym for "group" above (as in being part of a particular group/team/department at work).

I think "department" or "group" would have worked better, though, perhaps because we think of teams as having a clear in/out divide (I guess from a sports context, when one team competes against another.)

Ali