''Tu es monté en voiture rapidement.''

Question

Why does this sentence use "en" instead of "dans"?  I thought "You got into the car quickly" should be "Tu es monté dans la voiture rapidement."  Is there a difference in meaning or can I use "en" and "dans" interchangeably to express getting into a car?

Answer

Hi Thalia,I found the answer from Aurelie, someone has asked a similar question earlier. I have copied and pasted it here, see below.'In practice, "Je suis monté en voiture." and "Je suis monté dans la voiture." mean the same thing.The nuance here is that "monter en ..." is more general, literally "to get in car", so it's used when the context is clear which car you're getting on.Any time you need to be more specific (i.e. I'm getting in your car.), you will use "monter dans [ta/leur/cette...]...".'

Answer

Thank you so much @Winifred for your excellent explanation!  I haven't been back on this website in months so apologies for this delay in my reply.  :)