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around (preposition): (especially North American English)(usually British English round) on, to or from the other side of somebody/something

Our house is just around the corner.

The bus came around the bend.

There must be a way around the problem.

Around (preposition) d : on or to another side of (something)

We were surprised by what we saw when we walked around the corner.

There's another door around the back of the house.

See this picture: enter image description here

In this picture, the girl & the man are standing in front of the "front door" of the house

The man: "Where is the back door?"

The girl: "The back door is just around the corner" / "The back door is just on the other side of the corner" / "The back door is just around the side of the house"

If the girl said "The back door is just around the side of the house", then she might mean "The back door is at the back of the house" as in pic enter image description here

Which of the sayings of the girl are correct?

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    To this US English speaker, the picture is very strange, because the "back door" is on the side of the house. The back door would be on the back. I would call the thing in the picture a side door.
    – stangdon
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 12:56

1 Answer 1

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In British English the back door is not necessarily at the back of the house. The term can refer to the secondary door of the house wherever in the building it is located. In that usage it is the door that friends come to. The front door (which does not have to be at the front either) can be reserved as the grand entrance used for special visitors. In my grandmother's house the front door was opened no more than a few times a year: almost everyone came to the back door (which was at the side). To describe where that door was I would have said it is "round the corner" or even "round the back".

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