If you ask those who have never committed any preposition-related error to cast the first stone, even the hand of the most experienced English teacher will begin to shake. The part of speech is as stubborn as that. As a result, we will always have cause to revisit it in this class, especially in terms of some of the naughty errors it provokes.
In the bus?
No! When you are a passenger of a bus (commuting from one place to another), the standard way to express this is to say you are on the bus — not in it. Experts add that as a passenger, you are to use ‘on’ for vehicles you can walk or stand inside, like a bus, train and a plane. On the other hand, you use ‘in’ for smaller ones like a car or taxi. In other words, you don’t say you are on a car or taxi:
Solomon is in the bus that just overtook our car. (Wrong)
Solomon is on the bus that just overtook our car. (Correct)
Basir is on the taxi. He will soon be home. (Wrong)
Basir is in the taxi. He will soon be home.
Note that you can use a semicolon instead of a full stop in the above example. If you do, this is how to put it:
Basir is in the taxi; he will soon be home.
Meanwhile, what is the difference between being on a bus and travelling by bus?
Prepositional tautology
I think I should be credited for coining this phrase: prepositional tautology. Sounds smart. Although the idea referred to is not new, I doubt if any other authority had put it so succinctly: prepositional tautology. So, if checks reveal that I am the one who birthed the term, Guinness World Records may have to take note.
Joking apart, there are tautological errors that derive from overusing or needlessly using prepositions. This is the idea being captured in ‘prepositional tautology’. An ageless example to avoid, here, is ‘discuss about’, which is the second prepositional error we are identifying today. You discuss an idea, a topic or something else. You don’t discuss about them. All you can do in the alternative is ‘talk about’ them:
The party executives discussed about the upcoming convention. (Wrong)
The party executives discussed the upcoming convention. (Correct)
The party executives talked about the upcoming convention. (Correct)
NOTE: Hope you know the difference between ‘upcoming’ and ‘up-and-coming’.
Enter into
This is another example of prepositional tautology when it means going into a place like a house, room or car. The preposition ‘into’ is redundant and, indeed, useless in the expression. You can only enter into, say, an agreement, not a place:
He wanted to enter into our house but the dogs scared him away. (Wrong)
He wanted to enter our house but the dogs scared him away. (Correct)
To be continued
