Page 268 - English Grammar in Use

Unit
128 by

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) LIGHT SWITCH

E You can also use by… to show the difference 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)

CARL

256 Passive + by ➜ Unit 42B by + -ing ➜ Unit 60B by myself ➜ Unit 83C by (time) ➜ Unit 120