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I am visiting a small village in China.
There is a kindergarten near the small village.
Every morning, the children in the village walk to the kindergarten.
I don't get it why my professor says it is definitely wrong to say this,

the children go to school on foot.

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  • 6
    You should ask your professor for an explanation, because I'm stumped.
    – J.R.
    Jan 15, 2017 at 9:56
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    It is definitely understandable. Is he saying it should be "by foot" or simply "walk to school"? Why is it wrong?
    – Peter
    Jan 15, 2017 at 9:57

2 Answers 2

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Normally we would simply say

The children walk to school.

The phrase on foot is typically used to draw attention to the fact that some other mode of locomotion was not used or could not be used:

We drove into the jungle in our 4x4 vehicles, but we had to abandon them and proceed on foot when the dirt road ended. The vegetation was nearly impenetrable.

It is possible that your context could support the use. For example:

The school bus gathers children from the surrounding villages and brings them to the school parking lot. But the school is perched high up on a hill, overlooking the valley, and the children must go the final quarter mile on foot.

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    So, is "going to school on foot" definitely wrong , as suggested by the OP's teacher, or not? Because that is the crux of the question.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jan 15, 2017 at 12:46
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    I think the crux of the question is "How to use the collocation on foot?" If you think the crux of the question is "Was my teacher wrong?" then feel free to answer it.
    – TimR
    Jan 15, 2017 at 13:05
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    The OP didn't ask "how" to use the idiom on foot, I'm merely pointing it out. Feel free to ignore the clarification.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jan 15, 2017 at 13:11
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    I do, and will.
    – TimR
    Jan 15, 2017 at 13:13
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You can say: "The children go to school by walking. "

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  • This is grammatical but by walking is not truly idiomatic. We would not say "I went to school by walking" but "I walked to school".
    – TimR
    Jan 15, 2017 at 11:31
  • Ohh, but it's grammatically correct, isn't it?
    – Grevak
    Jan 15, 2017 at 11:33
  • Grammatically correct it is.
    – TimR
    Jan 15, 2017 at 11:34
  • Ok, I have just learnt something more :D
    – Grevak
    Jan 15, 2017 at 11:35

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