[Grammar] Transport related issue

[friizzhead]

Hello! =D
So, I was helping this friend of mine with her homework and we have a question. When we talk about transports, can we say "on train, on bus, on boat..." or are we supposed to say "by train, by bus, by boat..."? The thing is both options sound good to me and since we can say "on the train, etc", I really don't know if either way is correct or not, or even if it is some kind of NAmE/BrE variation. This is really bugging me!
Thank you very very much in advance!

 

[HanibalII]

Hello! =D
So, I was helping this friend of mine with her homework and we have a question. When we talk about transports, can we say "on train, on bus, on boat..." or are we supposed to say "by train, by bus, by boat..."? The thing is both options sound good to me and since we can say "on the train, etc", I really don't know if either way is correct or not, or even if it is some kind of NAmE/BrE variation. This is really bugging me!
Thank you very very much in advance!

No. You would say 'on train, bus and boat' or 'by train, bus and boat' or 'by train or bus or boat.'

Depending on further context.

 

[jalcoser]

hi, interesting question!!
Someone tell me; you should use BY, when you can walk in that transportation way exmple:
BY airplane, by traain, et al
But when you can not to walk, you should use ON example:
on car, on bike, et al

 

[5jj]

No. You would say 'on train, bus and boat'

No.

When we talk about transports, can we say "on train, on bus, on boat..." or are we supposed to say "by train, by bus, by boat..."?

I can speak only as a speaker of BrE, but in my variety we never say 'on train/bus' or 'on boat'. I have broken my own rule (Never say 'Never'), but I'll stick with it. I have no doubt that someone will prove me wrong.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi, interesting question!
Someone [STRIKE]tell[/STRIKE] told me that you should use BY, when you can walk in that transportation,[STRIKE] way[/STRIKE] for example:

BY airplane, by [STRIKE]traain[/STRIKE] train, [STRIKE]et al[/STRIKE]etc

but when you [STRIKE]can not[/STRIKE] cannot [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] walk, you should use ON, for example:

on car, on bike, [STRIKE]et al[/STRIKE] etc.

Welcome to the forum.

Please abide by the rules of the forum and state at the beginning of your post that you are not a teacher.

Also, please use correct written English:

- Start every new sentence with a capital letter.
- End every sentence with the appropriate punctuation mark.
- Put quotation marks around the words you are querying or mentioning specifically for the post (or put them in bold).
- One full stop, question mark or exclamation mark is sufficient.

In addition, your advice is not correct. Depending on the context, we frequently use "on a train", "on the bus", "on a bike" as well as "by train", "by bus", "by bike".