word choice - "By the bus" or "on the bus"


Is it more correct to form a sentence such as



John went to academic conference by the bus



using by as the preposition indicating what he took to the conference, or is using on the correct way? Better yet, could both of them stand for the same meaning?



Answer



The only thing wrong with your assumption is that anyone but a non-native speaker would say "by the bus." As the others have pointed out, the construction would be "by bus" or "by train" or whatever.


Nevertheless, it is certainly possible to say



John went to the academic conference on the bus.



Here is a movie poster that illustrates what I'm talking about:


enter image description here


Some may object that this might seem ambiguous, that it might seem as if the conference were being held on the bus itself, but in normal informal speech it would be easily understood. More likely the sentence would be reordered in this case, such as



John went on the bus to the academic conference.



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