En vs. Dentro De

Question

I was watching one of my favorite shows last night ("Leverage" if you are interested). Two spanish speakers were talking about an item that was supposed to be in a car. One person asks the other exactly where something was. The answer was (part in English and part in Spanish): "He said 'está en el coche.'"

The first guy then said: "¿Está 'en' el coche or 'a dentro del' coche?"

What is the difference?

Answer 1

"en" can be used for "on", while "dentro de" is "within" or "inside of"

• Welcome to the forum - nice answer :) - Kiwi_Girl Dec 21, 2011
• En can also be "at" - pacofinkler Dec 21, 2011

Answer 2

Dentro de has a nuance of deep inside as in belonging to something, ie: Estás dentro de mi corazón, los asientos están dentro del coche.

En has a nuance of temporarily being inside of something as in not belonging to that thing, ie: El libro está en el coche, estás en mis pensamientos.

In and inside of are pretty good translations.

Aside from the basic differences, there will be cases where the two can be interchanged.

Answer 3

It's on the car or inside the car?

Answer 4

"En" and "dentro de" could be used equally.

But "en" also could mean "over" or "on"

Answer 5

I think either can work here.