past belief or beyond belief (2025)

Hi all

I understand the use of preposition past when it means beyond (further than).
E.g. Beyond: past belief

However, in the above sentence I am not sure about the exactly meaning of past.

Ah, ok, in that case, if you are using past as a preposition, it can mean "beyond" in a variety of ways. Here are some examples:

It's past midnight (beyond in time) = it is later than midnight
The shop is past the church (beyond in place) = the church is the first building, then a bit further up the street, there is the shop
He walked past me (move beyond) = he walked on by me
His stupidity is past belief (beyond the scope of, or the limit of, something) = I can believe many things, but his stupidity is beyond the possibilities of even my imagination
I can count past ten in Chinese (beyond in number) = I can count from 1 to more than 10 (up to maybe 20) in Chinese

Does this help?

Thomas Tompion said:

There are two expressions in BE - past belief and beyond belief: they both mean that it's impossible to believe whatever it is that is past or beyond belief.

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And in my experience, in AE "beyond belief" is a more common expression than "past belief." But I have heard both used here.

I have a grammar book here that gives the most common collocations with past and beyond:

Past bearing
Past explaining
Beyond endurance
Beyond belief
Beyond compare
Beyond control
Beyond imagining

Hope that helps you

rebaco said:

Just curious about the difference between "past" and "beyond" in this type of sentence:

"Her smile went (past/beyond) his armor and straight to his heart".
Which one is more suitable between the two? thanks.​

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rebaco said:

Thanks!
Really helpful.
I'll go with " through" then.

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You can also say "Her smile passed right through his armor and straight to his heart"
...and you are very welcome.