Skip to content

au-delà

beyond

adverb o-deh-LAH Less Common
Grammar & Structure Adverbs

Origin: French 'au' (to the) + 'delà' (beyond), from Latin 'de illac'

Also means

the beyond, afterlife

Usage Note

Au-delà functions both as an adverb (aller au-delà = to go beyond) and as a noun (l'au-delà = the afterlife, the beyond). As a preposition it takes de: au-delà de ses limites (beyond his limits). Note the hyphen: without it (au delà) is also acceptable in modern French but the hyphenated form remains more common.

Examples

"Il faut aller au-delà des apparences."

Natural Translation

You need to look beyond appearances.

Literal Translation

It is necessary to go beyond appearances.

Free starter pack

Building your French vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common French words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Explore French by topic