bus
part of speech
noun (bus, buses); verb (bus, buses, bused/bussed — to take by bus)
meaning for a pupil
1) A bus is a big road vehicle that carries many people, often on a set route with stops. tree →
2) A school bus takes children to and from school. tree →
3) To bus people is to take them somewhere by bus. tree →
4) (casual) «Hop on the bus», «catch the bus», «get the bus» all mean travel by bus; «the 12» means the bus number 12. tree →
5) (casual) «Throw someone under the bus» means blame them to save yourself. tree →
6) (rude) «The bloody bus is late again» is everyday grumbling. tree →
7) (formal) Notices and exams say «omnibus» (old), «public transport vehicle», «passengers alighting» (getting off) and «passengers boarding» (getting on), «coach» for a long-distance bus. tree →
8) Old Southern speech uses "bus" or "bust" to mean to break or burst out suddenly. tree →
sense in the lessons
a vehicle where passengers get on (add) and get off (take away); also buses that carry equal numbers; road safety: wait at the stop, cross behind the bus only when it has gone; phrases: «get on the bus», «get off the bus», «by bus», «bus stop», «school bus», «miss the bus», «bus pass», «bus fare»; in casual talk «catch the 12», «bus at 8:40», «hop on»; in rough talk «bloody bus is late again», «he threw me under the bus»; in the exam voice «7 passengers alighted», «5 passengers boarded», «a vehicle with a seating capacity of 40»
examples
- There were 28 children on the bus. tree →
- At the stop, 7 children got off. tree →
- 5 more got on. tree →
- Each bus holds 40 people; how many buses are needed for 120? tree →
- I go to school by bus. tree →
- Hurry or we'll miss the bus! tree →
- Stay in your seat while the bus is moving. tree →
- bus at 8:40, its 8:25 now, how long? tree →
- Bloody bus is late again, 20 minutes! tree →
- He threw me under the bus and told Miss it was my idea. tree →
- A vehicle conveying 28 passengers halts, whereupon 7 alight and 5 board. Determine the number of passengers thereafter. tree →
- The bus fare is 2 dollars for kids. tree →
note
Plural: buses. A place whose count changes: «got on» adds, «got off» takes away; «boarded» adds, «alighted» takes away. Trap: «how many more got off than got on» asks for a difference of the changes, not the people on the bus. Trap: «how many buses are needed» rounds up: a part-full bus still counts. «bus at 8:40, it's 8:25» asks for the wait: 15 minutes.
In the corpora
- Shops, hospitals, buses and factories need people at all hours, so their workers follow a rota that can change every week.
- He writes on the back of an envelope: food £45, bus fares £20, power £15.
- «The bus left at 3:15 and arrived 20 minutes later.» When did it arrive?
- Cover each part: «you'll catch the bus» makes sense alone, so that is the main clause.
- When a bus or car brakes suddenly, the people inside lurch forward.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «bus» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.