Let\u2019s start with hitch a ride. This originated with the practice of hitchhiking, which is not very common anymore. However, you\u2019re probably familiar with the concept. If you don\u2019t have a car, or any money for a bus ticket, what can you do to get from point A to point B? You can stand on the highway and stick your thumb out and hope a generous driver pulls over to take you part of the way to your destination. That\u2019s hitchhiking. And that\u2019s the origin of the phrase to hitch a ride. The way we use the phrase today, it means you go with someone who\u2019s offering you a ride along a route they were taking anyway.<\/p>\n
So, if I offer to drive you to the airport, that\u2019s not hitching a ride, since I probably wasn\u2019t going to the airport anyway. But if I\u2019m driving home from work, and a colleague lives between my office and my home, that person can hitch a ride with me, since I was going that way anyway. That person is just coming along on a trip I was going to take anyway. In the original context, you heard that the Harteau family hitched a ride on a barge going upriver. The barge was going along the route and offered to let the Harteau family ride along. In that sense, the Harteau family hitched a ride on the barge. When\u2019s the last time you hitched a ride? Maybe if you ran out of gas, you hitched a ride to the nearest gas station with someone driving by. Or if you had a few drinks at a party and didn\u2019t want to drive home, maybe you hitched a ride with one of your fellow partygoers. I\u2019m not sure when the last time was for me. I live in big city and with buses, trains, taxis and Uber, I don\u2019t usually need to hitch a ride anymore. Actually, hasn\u2019t Uber has transformed the whole idea of hitching a ride with Uber pool, which lets multiple people share an Uber if they\u2019re going in the same direction?<\/p>\n
The other expression today is on behalf. I originally said that Selena\u2019s sister accepted the Walk of Fame star on her behalf. That just means in her place. Selena isn\u2019t alive to accept her own star, and her entire family couldn\u2019t accept the award, so someone had to accept it on behalf of the family and that person was her sister Suzette. You do something on behalf of someone, or on someone\u2019s behalf, when you are acting in place of another person or if you are the representative of a group. I couldn\u2019t accept the award last night, so my coworker accepted it on my behalf. You can also make a phone call on behalf of someone. Maybe you\u2019re an executive assistant and you call a restaurant to make a reservation on behalf of your boss. You\u2019re not the one going to lunch; your boss is. But you\u2019re making the call for him, so you\u2019re calling on his behalf. Or, maybe you want to say something that comes from a whole group and you are just the representative. You could say, \u201cOn behalf of the whole company, I want to thank you for being a loyal customer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, on behalf of the whole entire team of two behind the Plain English podcast, I want to say thanks for listening this week. If you haven\u2019t been to the web site, PlainEnglish.com, I encourage you to visit and check out the transcripts. I think it\u2019s easier to listen if you have the full word for word transcript nearby just in case you miss a word. The website looks great on your smart phone, so you can always listen and read along on the go.<\/p>\n
And if you want to test out on behalf of, or hitch a ride, you can send me your examples on Facebook or Twitter\u2014the show\u2019s handles are PlainEnglishPod on both. Thanks again for listening and we\u2019ll be back in a week\u2019s time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To “hitch a ride” is to ride along with someone else; “on behalf of” means in the name of someone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"terminology_category":[139],"lesson_number":[197],"keywords":[1245,1243,1244],"content_tag":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n