'In' or 'On'? / ‘In’ ’还是 ‘On’?

A common mistake that Chinese people make when learning English is selecting the wrong preposition when talking about transportation methods. Why do we say ‘in the car’ but ‘on the bus’? How do we determine the correct preposition for each transportation methods?

中国人在学英语时常犯的一个常见错误是谈论交通方式时选择了错误的介词。为什么我们说‘in the car’(上车)但说‘on the bus’(上公交车)呢？我们该如何判断每种交通方式的正确介词？

To select the correct preposition we need to think about how you enter the vehicle.

要选正确介词，我们需要考虑你是怎么上车的。

If you enter standing on your feet we use ‘on’. That is why we get ‘on a bus’, ‘on a train’, ‘on a tram’, ‘on a plane’ and ‘on a boat’. The space is big so we can enter standing up and therefore use ‘on’

如果你是站着上去的，我们用‘on’。这就是为什么我们会说‘on a bus’(上公交车)，‘on a train’(上火车)，‘on a tram’(上电车)，‘on a plane’(上飞机)和‘on a boat’(上船)。空间很大，所以我们可以站着上去，因此用‘on’。

The opposite of ‘on’ is ‘off’, so we get ‘on the train’ and then we get ‘off the train’.

“On” 的反义词是“off”，所以我们说“on the train”( 上火车)，然后说“off the train”( 下火车)。

If you enter a vehicle by bending over and then immediately have to sit down because the space is so small, we use ‘in’. That’s why we say we are ‘in a car’, ‘in a taxi’, ‘in a truck’ and ‘in a helicopter’.

如果你弯腰进车，然后因为空间太小马上就得坐下，我们用‘in’。所以我们说我们在‘in a car’(上车) 、‘in a taxi’(上出租车)、‘in a truck’（上货车）、‘in a helicopter’(上直升机)。

The opposite is ‘out’ so we get ‘in the car’ and go somewhere, and then we get ‘out of the car’.

“In” 的反义词是“out”，所以我们会说‘in the car’(上车) 然后去某个地方，然后我们会说‘out of a car’(下车)。

What about a horse? We are not getting inside a small space so we get ‘on a horse’. Similarly we get ‘on a motorbike’ and sit ‘on a cart’.

那马呢？我们不会进入一个小空间所以我们是‘on a horse’(骑上马)。类似的我们也说‘on a motobike’(骑摩托车)和‘坐在’on a cart’(上马车)。

The opposite of ‘on’, of course, is ‘off’, so we get ‘on a horse’ (骑上马) and then later get ‘off a horse’ (下马).

‘On’的反义词当然是‘off’，所以我们有‘on a horse’ (骑上马)，然后再有‘off a horse’(下马)。