Crowded Trains
Sep 13th 2011 04:21
verb-selection
number-selection
(A)
This morning the train was too crowded to ride.
I just came from America and there are no train services in my town, so I always use a car.
And so I don't think my friends can imagine a station or a train filled with people.
(B)
This morning the train was too crowded to get on.
I have just come from America and there are no trains in my town, so I always use cars.
And so I don't think my friends can imagine a station or a train filled with people.
Are these sentences both correct?
This morning the train was too crowded to ride.
I just came from America and there are no train services in my town, so I always use a car.
And so I don't think my friends can imagine a station or a train filled with people.
(B)
This morning the train was too crowded to get on.
I have just come from America and there are no trains in my town, so I always use cars.
And so I don't think my friends can imagine a station or a train filled with people.
Are these sentences both correct?
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And so I don't think my friends can imagine a station or a train completely filled with people.
I would change the last sentence slightly, though.
I'm a bit confused about all of the sentences. "I have just come from America" means to me that you are now back in Japan. You say that there are no trains in your town, but in the first sentence you speak of the train being too crowded to get on.
Since I'm not sure where you are now, I don't know whether you mean your friends in Japan in the last sentence, or your friends in America, or your Lang-8 friends.
I found the sentence (A) as an example in some English grammar book.
And of course this sentence is not my case.
By the way, you said in this comment "too crowded to get on".
Is it correct to change "get on" to "ride" here like (A)?
Although "ride (in/on) ~" and "get on ~" can both be translated by 「～に乗る」, they have distinct meanings in English. "Get on" (also "board", for trains, buses and airplanes) means to enter the vehicle. "Ride" means to be inside a moving vehicle and to go somewhere or be taken somewhere as a result.
It's interesting that in this case that difference leads to the different nuance, the choice of transportation or just focusing on the possibility to enter the train.
Thank you very much for additional explanations!
I just came from America, and there's no train service in my town there, so I always drive.
Consequently, I don't think my friends can imagine a station or a train filled with people.
I have just come from America and there were no trains in my town there, so I always drove.
I don't think my friends can imagine a station or a train filled with people.
I've also seen photos of a crowded jeepney in Manilla. Those are actually worse, because the sides are open, so when it's crowded people actually hang out the sides while the thing drives down the road.
However, I've only personally seen the inside of a passenger train once (unless you count the train ride at Cedar Point, but that's different). It was up in Cleveland, and there were only people on about a third of the seats.
Wow, what a terrible situation ...
That is just what I can't imagine!
By the way, in the first correction you changed "no train services (plural)" into "no train service (singular)".
Is it that you considered the point that the speaker can't imagine there will be many stations in his town?
For example, if a law firm helps people write wills, that's one service, but if the firm also argues court cases and provides legal advice, those are other services, so you would say that the firm offers "legal services". OTOH, if they do the same thing for you on multiple occasions (e.g., help you defend yourself against multiple lawsuits), that's not services; it's just service, because it's all the same kind of service.
I only know of one kind of passenger train service -- getting people from one place to another. I suppose you could talk about "train services" if you had passenger service and freight service, but I didn't think that was what you meant here.