Cars & driving - some expressions

Question

Hi,could someone please answer my (slightly unusual) questions that came to my mind when I was driving home yesterday?1. ParkingWhat is the most common and natural question about where someone parked their car?Where are you parked? OR Where did you park? OR something else?2. SeatbeltsIf you're driving, how do you remind your "passengers" to fasten their seat belts? Fasten your seatbelts(, please) seems to be the obvious choice but can you just say "(Your) seatbelts (, please)." ?Can you use the phrase Fasten your seatbelts non-literally, such as in "You want to hear that story? Well, fasten your seatbelts. It goes like this..." or "Fasten your seatbelts because it's not going to be an easy task..."I'm quite sure you can but is this usage common and are the contexts in my examples correct? In the former example: I want to say/do something surprising. In the latter example: I'm talking about a difficult situation / task.3. Driver / PassengersIs it to OK to call the people who are not behind the steering wheel passengers when speaking about a car (not bus/train)?4. IndicatorsImagine the driver has forgotten to indicate. What is the common way to remind him/her to do it?In my opinion, "Indicate!" seems to be the obvious choice. The reason why I'm asking for confirmation is that in my mother tongue we would say "Indicators!"(i.e. the name of the blinking orange lights, not the verb describing the action) in such a situation. Thanks in advance.

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

1. What is the most common and natural question about where someone parked their car? Where are you parked? OR Where did you park? OR something else?

These are both fine and very common.

2. If you're driving, how do you remind your "passengers" to fasten their seat belts?

Fasten your seatbelts(, please) Good

Can you just say "(Your) seatbelts (, please)." ? - Not really. Guys, fasten your seatbelts

Can you use the phrase Fasten your seatbelts non-literally, such as in "You want to hear that story? Well, fasten your seatbelts. It goes like this..." or "Fasten your seatbelts because it's not going to be an easy task..." Absolutely! There's a famous quote in the movie All About Eve with "fasten your seatbelts," which was said by Bette Davis.

3. Is it to OK to call the people who are not behind the steering wheel passengers when speaking about a car (not bus/train)? Yes

4. Imagine the driver has forgotten to indicate. What is the common way to remind him/her to do it? Usually, you don't. That's called "being a backseat driver." Most people would find it annoying. But if you really thought you had to...

In my opinion, "Indicate!" seems to be the obvious choice. No, this is very odd! "Did you want to put your blinker on?" "Oh, the turn is coming up - put your turn signal on now." Either "turn signal" or (less common) turn indicator or (quite common in the U.S.) blinker is what we call it, but we don't use it as a verb - you turn [it] on.

LearningNerd · Answer

1. Both of those sound perfectly natural, and both are used a lot.

2. I'm not sure how people usually say this, because I never hear it -- I guess most people don't remind their passengers to fasten their seatbelts. And yes, it is often used in those other situations, too. I usually hear people say "Well, buckle your seatbelts -- it's gonna be a bumpy ride!" I think it's used more for introducing wild or crazy stories or events (or even classes at school), but not so much to introduce difficult tasks.

3. Yes, they're usually called passengers in cars, too.

4. We don't call them "indicators", and we definitely never remind someone to "indicate!" In the U.S., at least, we call them "turn signals", and if somebody forgets to turn them on, we say, "Turn on your signal!"

Let me know if you have any more questions. I enjoyed answering those because I'm going to get my driver's license soon, and I never realized how many specific expressions we use for driving!

Nona the brit · Answer

In British English you indicate with your indicators <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

BarbaraPA · Answer

Way to make things complicated, English!

But do you "indicate" or do you "use your indicators"? If I were driving with you and made so bold as to remind you that you needed to do this, would I say "Nona, indicate!" or would I say "Nona, don't forget your indicators" ?

Pastsimple · Answer

Thanks for the answers!

A note on (BrE) indicators - well, I do know it's only a noun, not a verb. The verb is "to indicate". However, I'm surprised you don't use it: the Internet is full of expressions with "to indicate": e.g. "Annoying drivers who forget to indicate" or "Do you forget to indicate?". I thought it was the most common indicator-related verb.

P.S. Surprisingly, I can't think of the proper/formal word for indicators in my mother tongue. Colloquially, we use the American and German"blinker" except we don't write the "e".

EDIT: This is a reply to GG's first post.

Pastsimple · Answer

Grammar GeekWay to make things complicated, English!

But do you "indicate" or do you "use your indicators"? If I were driving with you and made so bold as to remind you that you needed to do this, would I say "Nona, indicate!" or would I say "Nona, don't forget your indicators" ?

With European driving style, the shortest sentence would be the best. I.e. I'd definitely say "Nona, indicate!". Anything more verbose might get Europeans killed.

Just joking about the American stereotype of European drivers.

Also, we do often remind our passengers to fasten their seatbelts because in many European countries, the driver and all the passengers are required to use them. You know, it's the driver who gets punished if caught by the police.

LearningNerd · Answer

Despite their quirks, I always liked the English.

I think the law is the same here regarding seatbelts, but in my experience, the driver usually just assumes that the passengers fasten their seatbelts automatically.

Oh, I just thought of another way to say it: "Put your seatbelts on!" I've heard that a couple times, but I don't know if it's common.

Pastsimple · Answer

LearningNerdLet me know if you have any more questions. I enjoyed answering those because I'm going to get my driver's license soon, and I never realized how many specific expressions we use for driving!

Thanks for the offer. There we go:

1. Expressions for "not stopping at the red light".

How many of them can you think of? I know only the "shoot the lights" idiom. Do you use it in the US?

2. Can you use the noun "automatic" for a car with automatic transmission, e.g. is "Most Europeans have never driven an automatic" OK or do I have to say "Most Europeans have never driven a car with automatic transmission"?

3. What is the most common expression for what you do at a crossroad? Giving way? Giving preference? Yielding the right of way? I think "to give preference" is common in BrE.

More later

.

Thanks in advance.

LearningNerd · Answer

1. I never heard "shoot the lights" before, but we call it "running a red light" or "running through a red light."

2. Yup, we use "automatic" as a noun that way all the time.

3. I usually hear "yeild" or "yeild the right of way."

Happy to help.

Goodman · Answer

Just a couple more cents…

Turn signals – are the lights that tell other drivers that you are intending to make a left or right turn.

Indicators – usually are referred to the lights that tell you something is wrong or lights that are normally off until a function is activated. For the troubled conditions, the lights are turned on by the sensors when a condition started to develop, like radiator over heating, low oil level, low brake lining, or defrost heater on/off. Etc.. For on/ off status indicators, they are lit when the driver manually activate or turn them on, like the high beam or defrost heater.

Please your seat belt or buckle up

Cars & driving - some expressions

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