Mastering the Use of 'By' in English: Expressions, Travel, and More

A. You can 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 accident etc. (not by the chance / by an accident).
In these expressions we use by + noun without the or a

B. We use by … to say how somebody travels. For example, you can travel:

by car by train by plane by boat by ship by bus by bike etc.

• Jess usually goes to work by bus / by bike / by car.

We do not use by if we 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, which arrived at 8.30.

Note that we usually say on foot (not usually by foot):

• Did you come here by car or on foot?

We also use by to say how we do other things. For example, you can:

send something by post pay by card / by cheque do something by hand

• Can I pay by credit card?

But note that we say pay cash or pay in cash (not usually by cash).

C. We say that ‘something is done by …’ (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 any poems by Shakespeare?

• Who is this painting by? Picasso?’ ‘I have no idea.’

D. By also means ‘next to / beside’:

• The light switch is by the door.

• Come and sit by me. (= next to me)

E. You can also use by… to show the diff erence between two things:

• Clare’s salary has increased by ten per cent.(= it’s now ten per cent more than before)

• Carl won the race by five metres.(= he was five metres in front of the other runners)

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Language Level