Ir with preposition en

[Cifi]

I know that this can be used for means of transportation, as in "vamos en coche", but I encountered a Duolingo sentence where this doesn't seem to apply (and it also is different from vamos en coche in that it uses an article).

Va en el carrito de compras

Might that mean "it - e.g. the the item I just took out off a shelf in a supermarket - goes into the shopping cart" (thus indicating movement which usually uses a instead of en)?

Or am on the wrong track? Can someone shed some light please?

[Fer²]

There is a colloquial, and rather peculiar, use of ir. It is related to motion because it prompts you to place the item in the given place. Still, it uses a static preposition, because it's really talking about where something belongs: Eso va en el carrito de compras. La mesa va junto a la pared. Los juguetes van dentro del baúl. La escoba va detrás de la puerta.

But your sentence may also work as ir en coche: «¿Hemos cogido la leche?» «Sí, va en el carrito de compras». We're moving, and the milk is moving along with us, safely stored in the shopping cart. The article is needed because it's specific, just like you would say «Voy a la boda en el coche de mi tía».

[Cifi]

But your sentence may also work as ir en coche: «¿Hemos cogido la leche?» «Sí, va en el carrito de compras». We're moving, and the milk is moving along with us, safely stored in the shopping cart. The article is needed because it's specific, just like you would say «Voy a la boda en el coche de mi tía».

This second meaning, would that be something like "the milk rides (in?) the cart"? Or maybe "we give it a ride" (and we are "driving" the cart)?

And if it were a bare noun, we'd actually omit the article: la leche va en carrito? (It's a bit hard to get this one down because I'm not aware of any similar constructions in the languages I'm more familiar with.)

[Cifi]

There is a colloquial, and rather peculiar, use of ir. It is related to motion because it prompts you to place the item in the given place. Still, it uses a static preposition, because it's really talking about where something belongs: Eso va en el carrito de compras. La mesa va junto a la pared. Los juguetes van dentro del baúl. La escoba va detrás de la puerta.

This is how I interpreted it after a lot of this thinking about the Spanish sentence and its German translation. I thought of Cinderella sorting the lentils. Actually the original version skips the verb, and so does the Spanish translation: https://www.grimmstories.com/language.p ... &l=de&r=es, but gehen (to go) would definitely be possible.

If I was at an airport with lots of counters and queues in front of them, I'd imagine someone telling me "tienes que ir a esa fila" in case it's some distant location that actually involves walking there, while I'd understand "tienes que ir en esa fila" as something like get into that line/queue, join the others waiting in front of that counter.

It still is difficult, possible it conveys to something like go to vs go/get into?

[gmads]

I'll start by just using a "carrito," without specifying what kind of "carrito" it is.

*** Talking about an object

Context. As we are speaking about an object, the word "carrito" would usually be interpreted as a shopping cart.

• "va en carrito," would definitely sound weird because given the indefiniteness one would expect to be talking about an animated being

• "va en el carrito," sounds natural, and could indicate two possible situations:
  1. to indicate where something should be located
     — Dónde va (or dónde pongo) esta caja?
     — Va en el carrito (no en la bolsa).
  2. to indicate where something is already located
     — Dónde está la caja?
     — Va (or está) en el carrito.

*** Talking about a being

Context. As we are speaking about a living being, the word "carrito" would now need to be interpreted as a stroller.

• "va en carrito," implies that the child is habitually carried around in the stroller
  – por su edad, el niño va en carrito
  Notice again how this would be a weird expression if "carrito" were to mean a shopping cart.

• "va en el carrito," would now be only used to indicate where is the child
  — Dónde está el niño?
  — Va (or está) en el carrito.
  It would be a little strange to use this expression to indicate where should the child go, in which case one might use the verb "poner."
  — Dónde pongo al niño?
  — Ponlo en el carrito.

Once a noun is made specific by using an adjective, like in "de compras" in this case, the accompanying definite article is usually used, though one could also use the indefinite article to specify that we are talking about one non-specific noun.

• va en el carrito de compras
• va en un avión de pasajeros

The article may be omitted if one is talking about where something is transported (or not) in general terms.
– ese tipo de equipo va en tren de carga

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