'ON' vs. 'BY' FOR TRANSPORT

Good morning / afternoon / evening everyone, depending on when you are reading this. Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin.

Which one of these sentences is correct?

i) I go to work with my car.
ii) I go to work by car.

Sentence (ii) is correct and sentence (i) is technically incorrect. Sentence (i) can only be correct if you mean that you "accompany" your car to work, which you would never do. However, if you use sentence (i), people will understand you.

We use the proposition BY with means of motorised transport (by car, by plane, by boat, etc.) to indicate how we get somewhere.

Example 1:
Mike: My in-laws went to Mallorca for Easter break.
Janeen: How did they get there, by boat or by plane?
Mike: By plane?

Example 2:
I almost never use my car during the week. I prefer to get to work by underground or bus.

The exception is when we walk. If our form of transport is walking, we say ON foot.

Example 3:
Luckily I work very close to home so I can get there on foot.

⇒ To get some writing practice, I encourage you to write your own sentence (or two) using ON or BY with transport. You can post your sentences to one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback about your writing as soon as we can.

Have a good day and a great weekend!