"On the street" vs "In the street"

[Ana Laura]

Hi

Is there any difference between these sentences?

A) I saw him walking in the street.

B) I saw him walking on the street.

I appreciate your help.

[Skrej]

'In the street' implies that he's walking out in the middle of the street.

'On the street' implies that you've seen him outside, as compared to indoors.
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[Jamie (K)]

Then there are also "along the street", "by the street", "up the street", "down the street", and a lot of others.

[Kitosdad]

UK usage recognises " walking in the street " as, walking along the pavement, not in the centre of the road which the pavement borders.
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[KingLion]

inside the street but on the street

[Jamie (K)]

[Kitosdad]

Not really Lionking.

" I was walking along the street, on the pavement, when the car swerved off the road and nearly struck me."
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[Kitosdad]

Jamie, we would say that he is walking, " on the road." He is permitted to walk across the road, but not on / along the road.

The road being the designated part of the street for traffic.
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[Jamie (K)]

So, evidently in the British mind, the sidewalk is part of the street. That's a new concept to me, because for Americans the sidewalk is a separate entity from the street, which is why walking "in the street" for us is literally walking on the road. When I hear the British say that someone walking "in the street" can mean walking on the sidewalk next to the road, I imagine that this could only have derived from the image of one of those narrow European streets with buildings directly abutting it, so that when you enter that street it feels like you're walking into something.

Both the sidewalk and the street are covered with pavement. So if the British call the sidewalk the "pavement", what do they call the pavement? Calling the sidewalk the "pavement" makes it sound as if the road is not paved, or that one shouldn't just assume it's paved.