Get in vs. get on (transportation)

Question

Okay, it may not be fair for a native English speaker to ask an English question, but a comment by Amy Moreno on my andar post has precipitated me to ask a question I have been thinking about for a while.

This came up when my wife and I flew to Mexico, and I joked to my wife that I thought I would rather get in the plane than on the plane.

Logic would say that we get in things that are enclosed and on things that are not enclosed, but reality does not.

Things I get on: a bus, a ship, a boat, a train, a plane, a raft, a bicycle, a horse, a motorcycle

Things I get in: a car, a truck, a rowboat, a motorcycle sidecare, a convertible(with the top down), a kayak, a canoe.

I validated this by testing someone else at work, and they picked the same as me (an “n” of 2 isn’t great, but I can’t drive everyone at work crazy).

So I figured:

If I would normally stand on it at some point (even if I ultimately sit down)- I get on it (whether it is enclosed or not).

If I would not normally stand on it and it is concave, I get in it (whether it is enclosed or not), but if it is convex or flat, I still get on it.

And I thought it seemed to work the same for “ride in vs. ride on” and “go in vs. go on”.

Then I tested it on “submarine”. And I think I “get in a submarine” but “go on a submarine” and “ride on a submarine”. However, I am getting a lot of ambivalence as to whether you use “in” or “on” in these cases. I did get one co-worker to say “just board the &#$% submarine and take it to wherever you are going”.

I did find one single ESL site rule that says that if you have to bend to enter it, you use in, if not, you use on- but I am not sure how that works with horse (not something I have done recently, but I think I would have to bend forward at some point to get on), rowboat (I step in then sit down), airplane (I hit my head if I do not bend forward), bicycle (I cannot swing my leg over without bending forward) or even the submarine example (where you descend a ladder).

I do find it interesting that if I say “get on the car”- the mental image is definitely of being on top of it, whereas for substituting “get in the bus” for “get on the bus” really doesn’t seem to change the meaning, and if I want to get on top of the bus, I actually have to use the word “top”.

Anyway, it is nice to remind myself when I can’t figure out what the rules seem to be in Spanish, that I don’t understand what they are in English either.

The rule is that if you are actually on it or can walk inside it, you get on it. Like all rules, there are exceptions, eg. you get in a limo even if it is big enough to walk in. - lorenzo9, Jun 18, 2011

Answer 1

Anyway, it is nice to remind myself when I can’t figure out what the rules seem to be in Spanish, that I don’t understand what they are in English either.

While there is regional variation, in Spain you can use "montar en" with all those means of transportation you mentioned earlier, although sometimes things like "montar a caballo" are used more often.

Interesting analysis in English, but the rather arbitrary rules of in/on/at in English are a headache for learners of English, and you need many years of practice just to get used to the most common ones, but you end up hesitating with unknown circumstances. If English natives do not hesitate with new scenarios, it means that there is some logic to it, but it might not be what you think. Also, bear in mind that when these rules were fixed in English, boats did not look like they do now, and probably some parallelisms were used for newer vehicles that did not exist in the past. People still say "hot water bottle" even though it is no longer a bottle, but a bag, but the usage became standard when bottles were the norm.

In other words, there is a logic to the choice of one preposition over another, but it has to do with the way native speakers perceived things at some point, but since the world and the perception of the speakers change, what used to make sense seems arbitrary now. Forget about finding a simple key curvature or enclosure clue that will work like a mathematical equation. The beauty of languages is that you accept their conventional randomness as it is, or you study its evolution, which is more interesting... but time consuming and impractical for learning the language as a non-native.

Yes, and of course I have no way of knowing if I have simply memorized each case, of if my subconscious is using some rule that my conscious can't quite grasp. - Stadt, Jun 17, 2011

And it's funny how we "dial" a phone, and they don't have dials any more. - pesta, Jun 17, 2011

Or when I said to someone that my wife taped the Royal Wedding, then had to say, no she didn't, she recorded it on DVR. ;-) - Stadt, Jun 17, 2011

I still say "pull the chain" when I flush the toilet, even though there is no longer a chain to pull the water from a deposit placed high above the seat. - lazarus1907, Jun 17, 2011

Answer 2

There are no rules. There is only usage.

You board a ship because ships (used to) have boards that you walked across to get on the ship. Why do you board a train or an airplane but not a car? You can, however, board a bus. Or you can board at a hotel.

No, there are no rules. Anyone who claims otherwise is a grammarian trying to sell you a book.