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I’d like to ask a question. What’s the difference between these two sentences?

  1. The work should be finished inside a week.
  2. The work should be finished within a week.

Do these two sentences sound natural to native speakers? For me, No. 1 doesn’t sound natural, and I found on a website that ‘inside a week’ is an American slang. Is it true?

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  • "within a week" is ok. "Inside a week" is not natural, because inside is not used for time period but it is used for physical things. For instance, "He is inside the building."
    – yunus
    Jul 21 at 5:39

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While waiting for some native speakers to chip in, here is my tuppence:

Both sound correct to me but to double-check, I looked them up in Oxford Dictionary:

inside:
in less than the amount of time mentioned
The job is unlikely to be finished inside (of) a year.

within:
before a particular period of time has passed
You should receive a reply within seven days.

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