В интернете

by Don  

The other day I committed a linguistic sin in an e-mail and wrote that I had read something на вебе "on the web." I was immediately shot down like a clay pigeon at an NRA convention. "We don't say на вебе." Actually, you do say it sometimes: I first encountered it in an e-mail sent by a Russian. Still, just because one person said it doesn't mean it's a good idea for me to repeat it. I should double-check myself. I googled the various phrases that had been suggested and came up with the following stats (07 Sep 2008):

Search phrase Hits
в интернете 28,500,000
на интернете 155,000
в сети 22,100,000
на сети 20
в инете 7,300,000
на инете 31,600
в нете 1,970,000
на вебе 20,200

Conclusion? Very few people say на вебе. So few that I'd have to consider it “incorrect.” My bad. Henceforth I'll stick with «в интернете» or «в инете».

PS. There is also a bit of unsurety among some Russians whether they should say в сети в сети. I'm not touching that one.

2 comments

Comment from: Al [Visitor]  

В сЕти means direction of motion into a net.

06/13/13 @ 15:55
Comment from: Ivan [Visitor]

В сетИ, только так.

03/05/11 @ 06:15


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