Recently saw this question:
えきで でんしゃを \_\_\_\_\_\_。
I chose the answer as: のります (X)
The right answer was: おります (O)
Can anyone please help me to understand why, as I thought “のります” means getting on the train and “おります ” means getting off the train so shouldn’t both answers be acceptable?
Btw this is a multiple choice question with both answers as single selections. TIA!
6 comments
Because you use に not を with のります
I’m no expert. But answers like rainbow city, that are correct but are just ‘rules’ never helped me. Someone correct my why if you want. But I think of を as a verb acting on the object. When you get off a train, The action acts on the object. It’s a single instantaneous action. When you ride a train. You’re riding (in the location of a train) Not necessarily riding the train.
Also, if you think of で as ‘by means of’ like I do, you can’t really continuously ride a train by means of the train station because once the train departs its not at the station. The only action you can do ‘at/by means of’ the station is getting off.
To me I have to visualise how or why the grammar works even if that means making up my own explanations to explain it.
のります is used with に: (mode of transportation)にのります。 Common examples are じてんしゃ (bicycle), くるま (cars) and でんしゃ。に is usually used to represent direction, which in this case is “to board onto (mode of transportation)” in this example that you have given.
A good habit is to just look out for the particle being used in the sentence. Hope it helps! がんばって！
I had to say this out loud a couple times. 電車をおります is correct, but just for reference, I think you’ll also hear (and maybe more commonly) 電車からおります, which pairs more logically with its opposite, 電車にのります.
に is used with のる。The way I see it is that noru means “ride”, and I ride *on* or *in* something, so に makes sense to me. I ride ON a bike or I ride IN a car, so this helps my English thinking brain use ni.
Oriru means to disembark, so I think of disembarking a plane or a ship, which helps me think of を。
Since I’m a native English speaker thinking in these terms helps me translate to Japanese thinking when using these verbs, YMMV.
Fun fact – my first Japanese teacher is from Kyushu, and when he moved up here to Ibaraki to work at Sumitomo Steel he met a new friend on the train. They reached the new friend’s stop and he said
じゃ、次の駅に落ちる！
Because in Ibaraki dialect some say “I fall off the train”