We use
by in many expressions to say how we do something. For example, you can:
- send something by post
- contact somebody by phone / by email
- do something by hand
- pay by credit card / by cheque
- Can I pay by credit card?
- You can contact me by phone or by email.
But we say
pay cash or
pay in cash (
not usually by cash).
We also say that something happens
by mistake / by accident / by chance:
- We hadn't arranged to meet. We met by chance.
But we say 'do something
on purpose' (= you mean to do it):
- I didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident.
Note that we say by chance, by credit card etc. (not by the chance / by a credit card). In these expressions we use by + noun without the or a.
In the same way we use
by ... to say how somebody travels:
by car / by train / by plane / by boat / by ship / by bus / by bike etc.
by road / by rail / by air / by sea
- Jess usually goes to work by bus.
But we say
on foot:
- Did you come here by car or on foot?
You cannot use
by if you say
my car / the train / a taxi etc. We say:
by car but in my car (not by my car)
by train but on the train (not by the train)
We use
in for cars and taxis:
- They didn't come in their car. They came in a taxi.
We use
on for bikes and public transport (buses, trains etc.):
- We travelled on the 6.45 train.
We say that 'something is done
by somebody/something'
(passive):
- Have you ever been bitten by a dog?
- The programme was watched by millions of people.
Compare
by and
with:
- The door must have been opened with a key. (not by a key)
(= somebody used a key to open it) - The door must have been opened by somebody with a key.
We say 'a play
by Shakespeare' / 'a painting
by Rembrandt' / 'a novel
by Tolstoy' etc. :
- Have you read anything by Ernest Hemingway?
By also means 'next to / beside':
- Come and sit by me. (= next to me)
- 'Where's the light switch?' 'By the door.'
Note the following use of
by:
- Clare's salary has just gone up from £2,500 a month to £2,750. So it has increased by £250 / by ten per cent.
- Carl and Mike had a race over 200 metres. Carl won by about three metres.
