4 ms·

I think my takeaway is that English is very weird. You can ride a horse and you can ride in a car. You can get off a horse but you get out of a car. Many oth

I think my takeaway is that English is very weird. You can ride a horse and you can ride in a car. You can get off a horse but you get out of a car. Many other languages use the same verb for dismounting a horse as alighting from a vehicle, it seems somewhat unusual that we specify whether or not the vehicle is enclosing you. But, not all vehicles. You get off a train and get off a bus, but even if you're in a convertible with no ceiling, you'd get out instead of off. I think the automobile broke English.

selimthegrim 3y ago
You can still say get down from the train at least in Indian English
- defrost 3y ago
  There's good reason for that though, where else is riding train roofs as common? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdgZO7M4hgQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdgZO7M4hgQ
- chrismorgan 3y ago
  That’s probably because the train’s floor level is normally higher than the platform, so you are literally getting down from the train. In Indian English you can also detrain, which you certainly wouldn’t do in Australian English. In Australian English, you’d seldom get down from the train any more (unless it’s a piece of playground equipment), because the train floor and the platform are almost always level these days. You would instead get off the train, but you could also exit the train or even disembark (typically used as an intransitive verb). You don’t normally get out of the train, for some reason.
  - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
    Disembark is one of those words that appears only in certain contexts. Any official announcement is going to use disembark or alight preferentially to leave or get off, but almost no one would use them in normal speech. (Here in Ireland, anyway.)
    - inkyoto 3y ago
      Interestingly enough, in Sydney, one can alight a train or a tram, yet they set off when they get off a bus. But I think set off is on the way out now and won't survive for long.
      - chrismorgan 3y ago
        I hope it would be alight from a train or tram? As for “setting off”, how is that used in a sentence (with what subject and object)? In Victoria, the bus (or driver) could set you down or let you off, is that the structure you’re talking about? “Set off” has long been used in English to describe when you get underway on a journey (“and so we set off on our journey”).
        jrockway 3y ago
        When I was writing my original comment I first wrote "alight a train", but did some research and found "alight from a train" to be more common. I think it's fine to omit "from", however. We wouldn't be the first people to do it.
        inkyoto 3y ago
        It is predominantly «alight to…» (to walk to a point of interest, to do something remarkable and similar), with no object. RE: «set off» vs «set down». It is «set down», of course. My brain was passing the gas at the time of typing it up.
    - chrismorgan 3y ago
      When I first wrote it, I had “if you’re feeling particularly fancy” there, but as I expanded and adjusted the content, I condensed it to just “even”.
  - selimthegrim 3y ago
    Detrain in American English is just the opposite of entrain.
ben_w 3y ago
German has "fahren" for both driving and riding a vehicle (although as always I'm never entirely clear how much of what I know about the language is specific to here in Berlin). Which made me realise how odd it is that English has "ride a motorbike" for even the driver of the motorbike…
- saghm 3y ago
  I think in terms of how you move and position your body, riding a motorbike looks a lot more like riding a horse than a car. "Driving" a car is more like "driving" a carriage; you sit with both legs in front of you rather than split between the thing you're riding.
- mhandley 3y ago
  Riding a motorcycle obviously derives from riding a bicycle, and that presumably comes from the earliest bicycles where you pushed the ground with your feet. Riding definitely seems a better term for that than driving. I guess you can say that the language came along for the ride as technology developed (sorry!).
anthk 3y ago
In Spanish it's "getting yourself down" of a car or a horse (_bajarse_ del coche o del caballo).
mabbo 3y ago
> "Get on the plane. Get on the plane." I say, "$&#@ you, I'm getting IN the plane! IN the plane! Let Evil Knievel get ON the plane! -George Carlin
- jrockway 3y ago
  He's also right about "a collision is a near miss".

selimthegrim 3y ago

You can still say get down from the train at least in Indian English

defrost 3y ago
There's good reason for that though, where else is riding train roofs as common? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdgZO7M4hgQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdgZO7M4hgQ
chrismorgan 3y ago
That’s probably because the train’s floor level is normally higher than the platform, so you are literally getting down from the train. In Indian English you can also detrain, which you certainly wouldn’t do in Australian English. In Australian English, you’d seldom get down from the train any more (unless it’s a piece of playground equipment), because the train floor and the platform are almost always level these days. You would instead get off the train, but you could also exit the train or even disembark (typically used as an intransitive verb). You don’t normally get out of the train, for some reason.
- TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
  Disembark is one of those words that appears only in certain contexts. Any official announcement is going to use disembark or alight preferentially to leave or get off, but almost no one would use them in normal speech. (Here in Ireland, anyway.)
  - inkyoto 3y ago
    Interestingly enough, in Sydney, one can alight a train or a tram, yet they set off when they get off a bus. But I think set off is on the way out now and won't survive for long.
    - chrismorgan 3y ago
      I hope it would be alight from a train or tram? As for “setting off”, how is that used in a sentence (with what subject and object)? In Victoria, the bus (or driver) could set you down or let you off, is that the structure you’re talking about? “Set off” has long been used in English to describe when you get underway on a journey (“and so we set off on our journey”).
      - jrockway 3y ago
        When I was writing my original comment I first wrote "alight a train", but did some research and found "alight from a train" to be more common. I think it's fine to omit "from", however. We wouldn't be the first people to do it.
      - inkyoto 3y ago
        It is predominantly «alight to…» (to walk to a point of interest, to do something remarkable and similar), with no object. RE: «set off» vs «set down». It is «set down», of course. My brain was passing the gas at the time of typing it up.
  - chrismorgan 3y ago
    When I first wrote it, I had “if you’re feeling particularly fancy” there, but as I expanded and adjusted the content, I condensed it to just “even”.
- selimthegrim 3y ago
  Detrain in American English is just the opposite of entrain.

ben_w 3y ago

German has "fahren" for both driving and riding a vehicle (although as always I'm never entirely clear how much of what I know about the language is specific to here in Berlin). Which made me realise how odd it is that English has "ride a motorbike" for even the driver of the motorbike…

saghm 3y ago
I think in terms of how you move and position your body, riding a motorbike looks a lot more like riding a horse than a car. "Driving" a car is more like "driving" a carriage; you sit with both legs in front of you rather than split between the thing you're riding.
mhandley 3y ago
Riding a motorcycle obviously derives from riding a bicycle, and that presumably comes from the earliest bicycles where you pushed the ground with your feet. Riding definitely seems a better term for that than driving. I guess you can say that the language came along for the ride as technology developed (sorry!).

anthk 3y ago

In Spanish it's "getting yourself down" of a car or a horse (_bajarse_ del coche o del caballo).

mabbo 3y ago

> "Get on the plane. Get on the plane." I say, "$&#@ you, I'm getting IN the plane! IN the plane! Let Evil Knievel get ON the plane! -George Carlin

jrockway 3y ago
He's also right about "a collision is a near miss".