inuti
Swedish
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Preposition
inuti
Adverb
inuti (not comparable)
- on the inside
- Jag undrar hur en tennisboll ser ut inuti
- I wonder what a tennis ball looks like on the inside
Usage notes
Inne i sounds better for being inside a building, as inuti puts a weird emphasis on the location as within ("in the bowels of") the building (possibly also stuck in a wall). Inne i implies a point of entry and plenty of space, while inuti sounds cramped and/or inaccessible. It is perfectly understandable either way though.
- Jag är inne i huset ― I'm inside the house
The inne i construction can be understood with the following (very artificial) conversation:
– Jag är inne. (I am inside.)
– Var är du inne? (Where are you inside?)
– I huset. (In the house.)
– Aha, då är du inne i huset. (Ah, then you are inside in / inside the house.)
One way to think about it is that the in (i) in inside in (inne i) is implied in English but not in Swedish.
For a building one is normally inside for a particular reason (with which it is associated), like a club, a museum, a hospital, or a station building at a train station, inne på is common, putting less emphasis on the building itself and more emphasis on the activity it's associated with. This is also used for attending social media.
- Jag är inne på klubben ― I'm in (inside) the club
- Jag är inne på stationen ― I'm in the station building
- Jag är inne på Facebook ― I'm logged onto Facebook
Dropping the inne makes things even less about the building.
- Jag är på klubben ― I'm at (attending) the club
- Jag är på stationen ― I'm at the train station
- Jag är på Facebook ― I'm on Facebook (have an account)
- Jag är vid klubben ― I'm at (standing outside) the club (for comparison)
I is used for attending school as a student.
- Jag är i skolan ― I'm at school
See the usage notes for på for more on schools.
Synonyms
Antonyms
See also
Further reading
- inuti in Svensk ordbok.