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Stephenlearner Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary

Car skidded?

Hi,

My car was stuck in the mud. Its wheels kept spinning, but it did not budge.
Can I say this car skidded ?
Does skid mean the car is still moving, though slowly?

Thanks
  

Top answer

Skidded is a correct past-tense of skid. Skidding would be still moving. However, the context of the sentence seems to imply some other action, not skidding.

  • Skidded is a correct past-tense of skid.
  • Skidding would be still moving.
  • However, the context of the sentence seems to imply some other action, not skidding.
  • To skid would be where the car kept moving, but the wheels did not rotate; more like a slip sideways.
  • What you describe is the opposite, the wheels spinning, but the car not moving.
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7 Answers
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Skidded is a correct past-tense of skid. Skidding would be still moving. However, the context of the sentence seems to imply some other action, not skidding. To skid would be where the car kept moving, but the wheels did not rotate; more like a slip sideways. What you describe is the opposite, the wheels spinning, but the car not moving.
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Thanks.
So, in my situation, skid is not a correct word.
How about slip?
Can I say "my car slipped" or "some wheel slipped"?
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If you are speaking of how your car got in the mud in the first place, then you can perhaps use "skidded" or "slid into", but if you are speaking of the wheels spinning and being stuck, I think what you have written makes sense without using "skid" at all.
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Excuse me, can a person says, the project got stuck in the mud. ( it doesn't make progress).
Do you say so or you just use got stuck in the mud for cars? I mean can I use this expression for other things when there is no improvement?

Thank you.
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I assummed "mud" literally meant "mud" I was not reviewing the intial question as an expression. I do not think you would ever want to use it figuratively toward a person (unless they are literally trapped in mud), because it would be too similar to another expression "a stick in the mud" which is an idiom that is a pejoritive and implies that someone is unwilling to participate, or is little f
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Thank you KJinCali79 for explanationEmotion: rose. Sometime unconsciously I translate from my mother language into English. But ''a stick in th
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Thanks for your answer.
Do you have a word to describe the state into which the car was?
When I say "the car is skidding", I think that people have no great problem in understanding what state the car is in.
But when I say "the car's wheels are spinning", I think people would be confused.
Am I talking about the car in normal moving condition or stuck in the mud?
So I hope I can

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