Learn English – Difference between “In front of” and “In the front of”

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I am learning the duolingo English course. In some sentences, they use In front of, but the others use In the front of. Would you please let me know what is the difference between those two? Thanks

Best Answer

In front of is a common phrase which functions as a compound preposition: in modern English it has almost completely replaced before in a spatial sense. If you try to analyse it, you need to interpret "the front of" as referring to a space outside the thing, which is a relatively uncommon meaning for it.

In the front of is not an established phrase in English, and so would normally be interpreted literally: "inside the front part of something". It is not common, because "the front of" something is usually a surface, and we don't often talk about things being in surfaces. An example where it might occur is I've got some water in the front of my watch, where we could understand "the front of my watch" meaning the space between the glass and the watch face.

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