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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / November 2007I need help
Hello, im from Croatia. I need to know what this means: "he was swept on to the train". What im curious about is does this means that he is being pushed ON the train, or that he is being pushed inside the train, couse my english teacher says that he is pushed ON the train, but i say that he is pushed inside the train. Thanks > Hello, im from Croatia. I need to know what this means: > "he was swept on to the train". What im curious about is does this means > that he is being pushed ON the train, or that he is being pushed inside > the > train, couse my english teacher says that he is pushed ON the train, but i > say that he is pushed inside the train. Thanks A lot depends on the context, but "on the train" can mean inside the train, not only on top of it. Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" was committed inside the train, where passengers normally are during a journey, not on the top of a car or on the chimney of the locomotive. All the best, L. Looting schrieb: > Hello, im from Croatia. I need to know what this means: > "he was swept on to the train". What im curious about is does this means > that he is being pushed ON the train, or that he is being pushed inside the > train, couse my english teacher says that he is pushed ON the train, but i > say that he is pushed inside the train. Thanks I would write it "He was swept onto the train". Without further context I would say that this means the person was standing in the middle of a crowd waiting to get on a train and when the crowd eventually got onto the train he was carried into one the carriages by the pressure of the crowd around him. Regards, Einde O'Callaghan On Nov 5, 3:20 pm, Einde O'Callaghan <einde.ocallag...@planet- interkom.de> wrote: > Looting schrieb:> Hello, im from Croatia. I need to know what this means: > > "he was swept on to the train". What im curious about is does this means [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Regards, Einde O'Callaghan It's almost impossible to say without knowing the context as noted by the previous writers. Yet, like most languages, English contains a number of metaphorical expressions and given the relatively few folks who ride on top of trains in the first world, I almost automatically agreed with your teacher. However, I can imagine situations in India, Mexico, or other developing nations where you could be correct. What's the source material? |
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