In / On with Transport Types

Hello and welcome to Episode Two of Season Two of the Gold Forest English Podcast. My name is Jordan and to today I want to talk to you about prepositions - two prepositions - to be specific: in and on.

So I want to talk about in and on relating to transport. So I'm sure you are familiar with something things like on the train or in the taxi. We use in or on for different types of transport, but many students get confused about which ones do we use? Do I say in the bus or on the bus? So today I wanted to talk um briefly about in and on relating to transport. If you hear my voices a little bit rough, uh please excuse me. I have a bit a little bit of a cough, a bit of a sore throat, um but I'm I'm doing okay. I am recovering.

So, on with the discussion topic in and on. So first let's think about different types of transport. When we're thinking about this topic, we've got two main types of transport. There's large shared transport, things like a train, a plane or a bus. These are large large transport forms and often are shared with many other people. So this type of large transport that's may be shared with other people, it's like a public transport… transport you can walk around inside. You can walk on the train, you can stand up and walk on a plane or in a bus. um you can move around this internal space. So with this type of transport, we use on. So we would say, I am on the bus. I am on the train. I am on a plane. on with these large public or shared transports that you can walk around inside. Similarly with large ships, like a cruise ship, you are on a cruise ship, you are on a large ship.

Opposite of a large ship is a small ship, a small ship like a fishing boat, a rowboat. you might not be able to stand up. you can't really walk around in a small fishing boat and for these kind of small boats we would use in. He's in the boat. He's in the boat, he's sitting down, he's fishing on the lake. So for small transport, small transport that you can't really stand up, you can't walk around, you can't move around inside, this small transport, often private, like cars and taxis we use in. He's in the car. She is in a taxi.
So it's small, uh small transport. It's not shared with many other people. It's often private. If you have a car, it's your car. It's for you. If you're in a taxi, you have hired the taxi, the taxi is for you. We say in, in the taxi, in the car. and with the small boats in a boat.

There is one other special category which is about open vehicles, open vehicles like a bicycle or a motorbike with this open style that you are you are kind of sitting with your legs either side, left leg and right leg on the sides of the transport like a bike, we use on, so on the bike, on a motor bike, and on a horse it's an open transport. It's not closed you don't have protection around you and you're sitting with your legs either side of the vehicle, we say on on a bike.

So that's our three main rules. We've got large shared transport that you can walk around. We've got small, closed transport, you can't walk around, small private transport, and then the open transport that you sit with your legs either side.

on the plane on a train on the bus, on a cruise ship

in the car, in a taxi, in a rowboat

on a bike, on a motor bike on a horse

So I hope that can clarify why we use in or on for different types of transport. Hopefully that helps you understand it a little bit better.

There is a blog post that talks about this topic with some practice questions on our website GoldForestAcademy.com and I also put an infographic image on our Instagram. So please feel free to check them out and I wish you all the best for this week. Keep practicing with your English and have a great week!

OK. Thank you very much for listening. Goodbye.