ABSTRACT
In the middle of the garden there is a pond She put the vase in the middle of the table in the middle of the night in the midst of all the excitement I was in the midst of the people in the street He forced his way through the middle of the
crowd halfway up/down the ladder
außen and innen mean ‘on the outside’, ‘on the inside’, i.e. they refer to the outer or inner surface of the object, whereas draußen and drinnen mean ‘outside’ and ‘inside’, i.e. away from the object or contained within it:
Die Tasse ist außen schmutzig Ich musste draußen warten Die Äpfel sind innen faul Drinnen ist es aber schön warm Dieses Fenster geht nach innen auf Wir kommen von draußen Er schloss die Tür von außen zu von außen/innen gesehen
The cup is dirty on the outside I had to wait outside The apples are rotten inside Indoors it’s nice and warm, though This window opens inwards We are coming from outside He shut the door from the outside seen from the outside/inside
The use of außen and innen to mean ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ is now archaic or regional (especially Austrian).
