Лететь НА / В самолёте?

[Sergei Erofeev]

You can say "я прилетел на самолете" (I have arrived by plane). But you say "я летел в самолете" when you mean that "I flew and read (thought, ate etc)". "В" refers to the internality of the action and situation, while "НА" to their externality.

Sergey

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Kingdom
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 8:35 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS] Лететь НА / В самолёте?

Hi all,

I checked google, and the useage seems to be 50-50 between В and НА:

Лететь в самолёте

versus

Лететь на самолёте.

Are they both right, and there's some difference I'm not understanding?
(Highly likely.)

Thanks!

Mark

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