The preposition dans can mean "in," "inside," or "into," depending on context. For example, elle est dans la maison could either be "she is in the house" or "she is inside the house," and elle va dans la maison could be "she goes inside the house" or "she goes into the house." In this lesson, we'll focus on "inside" (and its opposite, "outside"), which has a few other translations besides dans.
The first is dedans. Unlike dans, which is a preposition, dedans usually functions as an adverb. It can either mean "inside" or "indoors":
Là y'a nouveau jeu. Ils doivent deviner combien il y a de bonbons dedans.
There's a new game. They have to guess how many candies there are inside.
Caption 49, Actu Vingtième - Fête du quartier Python-Duvernois
Play Caption
Je n'aime pas rester dedans toute la journée.
I don't like staying indoors all day.
Like "inside," dedans can also be used as a noun:
Le dedans de l'église est très sombre.
The inside of the church is very dark.
We could also say l'intérieur de l'église est très sombre (the interior of the church is very dark), or simply il fait très sombre dans l'église (it's very dark inside the church). In fact, l'intérieur is the other word for "inside" in French. You'll often see it in the phrase à l'intérieur (de), which can also mean "within":
Maintenant, on va la laisser reposer
Now we are going to let it rest
pour que les levures à l'intérieur puissent permettre à notre pâte d'être aérée.
so that the yeast inside can allow our dough to be airy.
Captions 32-33, Alsace 20 - Grain de Sel: le Lycée hôtelier Alexandre Dumas
Play Caption
Alors des maisons, c'est très rare d'en trouver, euh...
So [standalone] houses, it's very rare to find them, uh...
à l'intérieur de Paris, je vous le promets.
within Paris, I promise you.
Captions 19-20, Antoine - La Butte-aux-Cailles
Play Caption
We could easily rewrite these two examples using dedans and dans: les levures dedans (the yeast inside), en trouver dans Paris (find them in Paris).
Now let's move "outside." Though French has a general word for "in" (dans), it doesn't have one for "out." However, dedans and à l'intérieur (de) do have direct opposites: dehors and à l'extérieur (de).
Dehors functions in the exact same way as dedans, as an adverb or noun:
Dois-je payer pour ce qu'ils font dehors?
Should I pay for what they do outside?
Caption 20, Alain Etoundi - Allez tous vous faire enfilmer!
Play Caption
Le dehors de la maison est plus joli que le dedans.
The outside of the house is nicer than the inside.
There's also the phrase en dehors de, which means "outside of" in both a literal and figurative sense:
Parce qu'il y a énormément de personnes qui vont travailler en dehors de Paris.
Because there are so many people who go to work outside of Paris.
Captions 47-48, Adrien - Le métro parisien
Play Caption
En dehors de ça, je ne vois aucune autre solution.
Outside of that, I don't see any other solution.
Sometimes you'll see hors de rather than dehors de:
J'aurais du mal à vivre hors de Paris maintenant.
I'd have trouble living outside of Paris now.
Captions 38-39, Elisa et sa maman - Comment vas-tu?
Play Caption
But hors (de) usually means "outside" figuratively, along the lines of "beyond," "without," or "excluding":
C'est hors de question!
That's out of the question!
Le loyer est de 600 euros hors charges.
The rent is 600 euros excluding utilities.
Finally, there's à l'extérieur, the opposite of à l'intérieur:
Ce quartier-là, à l'extérieur, il a quand même une certaine réputation...
This neighborhood, on the outside, it has a certain reputation, nevertheless...
Caption 52, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois
Play Caption
Ça m'a permis d'aller travailler à l'extérieur de ce pays.
It's allowed me to work outside of this country.
Caption 24, Annie Chartrand - Grandir bilingue
Play Caption
Il y a des gargouilles sur l'extérieur de la cathédrale.
There are gargoyles on the cathedral's exterior.
Now you know all the ways of saying "inside" and "outside" inside and out!
In the latest installment of Le Jour où tout a basculé, we find two very different uses of the verb passer. The first is a direct cognate of the English verb "to pass," referring to time passing:
Quatre mois ont passé.
Four months have passed.
Caption 30, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mon père s'oppose à ma passion - Part 6
Play Caption
The second, referring to taking an exam, is a false cognate. You might assume that passer son bac means "to pass one's baccalaureate exam." But that's wrong! Passer in this context actually means "to take":
J'ai passé mon bac.
I took my baccalaureate.
Caption 41, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mon père s'oppose à ma passion - Part 6
Play Caption
If you want to talk about passing an exam, use the verb réussir (to succeed):
Demain il réussira son examen.
Tomorrow he will pass his exam.
Caption 27, Le saviez-vous? - Conjugaison des verbes du 2ème groupe au futur simple
Play Caption
Passer's other meanings are more predictable. You can use it transitively (i.e., with an object) to to talk about passing something to someone:
Passe le micro.
Pass the mic.
Caption 54, Arles - Le marché d'Arles
Play Caption
Or you can use it intransitively (without an object) to describe someone passing by or passing from one place to another:
Tous les ans, effectivement, nous demandons à Saint-Nicolas de passer.
Every year, in fact, we ask Saint Nicholas to pass by.
Caption 44, Grand Lille TV - Focus: la tradition de Saint-Nicolas
Play Caption
Et maintenant on va passer en cuisine avec le chef.
And now we'll go into the kitchen with the chef.
Caption 33, Parigot - Le bistrot
Play Caption
Just as you can "pass time" (or "spend time") in English, you can passer du temps in French:
Et puis ça permet de passer un bon petit moment ensemble.
And then it allows us to spend a good bit of time together.
Caption 47, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois - Part 2
Play Caption
The expression passer pour means "to pass for," as in "to be taken for" or "seem like":
La maîtrise des synonymes vous permettra donc d'élargir votre vocabulaire, mais aussi, de ne pas passer pour un psychopathe.
Mastering synonyms will therefore allow you to broaden your vocabulary, but also to not be taken for a psychopath.
Captions 23-24, Le saviez-vous? - Les synonymes
Play Caption
As passer is such a versatile verb, it's no surprise that it's used in many, many common expressions. We'll pass along a handful of them to you:
passer à autre chose - to move on to something else
passer à l'acte - to take action
passer à la caisse - to pay/checkout
passer à la télévision - to be on TV
passer à table - to sit down for a meal (also has the figurative meaning "to snitch" or "spill the beans")
passer un coup de fil - to make a phone call
passer de la musique - to put on some music
passer au bloc - to go under the knife/have surgery
passer au peigne fin - to go over with a fine-tooth comb
passer à côté de - to miss/miss out on
laisser passer sa chance - to miss one's chance
You can find even more expressions on this WordReference page.
And to learn about the reflexive form of passer, se passer, check out our lesson Se Passer: To Bypass and Pass By.
Spanish
German
Italian
Chinese
English
English 
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
