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According to the dictionary: We can say "to lease something to somebody" or "lease something out to somebody"

Eg:

  1. We lease the land to the forestry people.

  2. We lease the land out to the forestry people.

SO, what are the differences between the two.

Are they the same or almost the same?

Does the adverb "out" mean "completely" or "given to many people" in this case?

2 Answers 2

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Lease out means the person doing the leasing owns the land or property being leased.

Only an owner or management company can "lease out" land.

As just lease can be ambiguous, lease out makes it clear the direction of the lease: by or from the owner to another party.

So, we lease out the land or property means we own it and we are leasing it to someone.

That said, since the OP's sentence specifies: "We lease the land to forestry people." there is no need for "out" here.

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To lease and to lease out are essentially interchangeable in this context, since the sentence specifies both parties to the lease arrangement.

To lease simply means that one is in a leasing contract; it does not indicate whether one is the tenant or the landlord.

To lease out indicates that the speaker is the landlord. So...

We lease the land

...is an incomplete statement. It could be read that 'we' rent the land from someone else - indeed, that would be the plainest reading.

We lease out the land OR We lease the land out

Both of these are complete. They indicate that 'we' are the owner of the land, and we allow someone else to use it according to a contract.

We lease the land to the Forestry Commission

This is complete. It indicates that 'we' own the land, and the Forestry Commission are the tenants.

In your example sentence the "out" is redundant, but not incorrect. Since it also specifies the direction of the lease - from the speaker to the Forestry Commission - it is not strictly necessary to include out. While it's not necessary, it's not incorrect, either. This means that both sentences are effectively identical in meaning.

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    Compare: "We lease the land from the Forestry Commission", which means we are the tenants and the Forestry Commission are the landlords
    – user253751
    Dec 9, 2020 at 16:00

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