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| Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. |
| Welcome back to Top Words! |
| Today, we're going to talk about 10 words and phrases for driving. |
| Keep in mind, you'll see a lot of phrasal verbs in driving and in transportation in general. We're going to talk about a few in this lesson. Let's go! |
| 1. start |
| The first word is "start." To start is just to turn on the car. So, I don't know, old cars, it was just turning the key and that would, you know, ignite the engine, get the engine going. But now, you can just like, you can push a button to start cars too, so depending on the type of car, I don't know. But essentially, to begin your car experience, we need to first start the car, so start the car. |
| In a sentence… |
| "Start the car! It's freezing!" |
| 2. pull out / pull in |
| The next one is actually a pair, so we have "pull out" and "pull in." So we use these two words when we're leaving or when we're going into, for example, a parking space. So when we are leaving a parking space in a car, we often say "pull out of the parking space." When we are entering a parking space, we can say, "pull in to the parking space." So just keep that in mind. So when you're leaving, "pull out," pull out of a location. When you are entering something, "pull in" to a location, so "pull in to the garage" or "pull in to a parking space." |
| In a sentence… |
| "Pull out of the garage and go left." |
| 3. merge |
| The next word is "merge." So to merge means two or more things come together as one. So you might hear this with like companies, like company A and Company B merged. We use this in driving four lanes, so the lines on the road show us the lanes for driving. Sometimes, these lanes merge together to become one lane or to become one highway as well, we can see that too. So merging just means that the roads or the lanes are going to come together. You will see this on signs like merging lanes up ahead, for example. |
| In a sentence… |
| "The lanes merge up ahead." |
| 4. change lanes |
| The next expression is "change lanes." So if you're on a road that has more than one lane… So we use the word lane to mean those like the separate lines on the highway that we can drive between. If you would like to move to the neighboring one, the next lane, we use the expression "to change lanes" like change lanes before the intersection, for example. |
| In a sentence… |
| "Look all around your car before you change lanes." |
| 5. blinker |
| The next word is "blinker." Blinker is kind of a casual word for it because it's like the, it's an onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia means like the sound that a word makes. So "blinker" is many, many, many of these, kind of a tik, tik, tik sound as they're on, so that they flash to show we're going to make a turn. So blinker is kind of a casual word for this on the, on the back and the front light. But we… we also use the word "turn signal." So these are the lights on the fronts and the backs of cars that show a driver is turning. So a right turn signal, left turn signal, front and back, so, but we also call them "blinkers." |
| So in a sentence… |
| "Use your blinker when making a turn." |
| 6. windshield wipers |
| The next expression is "windshield wipers." So these are those objects on the front. They're outside the car. They're in front of the glass that protects the driver from the wind, so the windshield. So on rainy days or on days maybe with bad weather, I don't know what's happening, but when there's something on the windshield, we use the windshield wipers to wipe the shield clean. So windshield wipers are these things, they do this. So a windshield wiper keeps the windshield clear of maybe, like debris or like maybe leaves or something or rain as well, so windshield wipers are important. |
| In a sentence… |
| "Windshield wipers are important on rainy days." |
| 7. pass |
| The next word is "pass." As a verb, "to pass." So if you are behind a very slow-moving vehicle like a really big truck that's transporting something, you want to go around that vehicle. We use the verb "pass" to describe that. So if I'm following a truck and I say oh so slow, I'm going to pass this truck and then that means you wait for a passing lane in some cases to go around safely. So to pass someone is to go beyond someone. So yeah, that's all it means. |
| In a sentence… |
| "You need to pass this guy. He's so slow." |
| 8. fast lane |
| The next expression is "fast lane." Especially on highways, there might be one lane that's used for the fastest driving cars, the cars that want to move at the fastest speed, so we call that the "fast lane." There is also a slow lane. We can say that, you know, actually on highways, on highways, typically, the outermost lane is the slow lane and the innermost lane is the fast lane. Why? Because the outermost lane is closest to the exits, so if there's an exit or an off-ramp for the highway, the slow lane has the most direct access to that. The fast lane; however, is cars that want to continue down the highway for a longer period of time, so they don't have any need to stop for a while. So fast lane and there's a slow lane. |
| In a sentence… |
| "Use the fast lane!" |
| 9. break the speed limit |
| The next expression is "break the speed limit." So we use the verb "break" for laws, for rules, to break a rule, to break the law. We use it in this case too. The "speed limit" is a law, how fast you are allowed to go, the maximum speed, the speed limit. So to "break the speed limit" means you are breaking the law. It's a bad thing. So to break the speed limit, if you are caught by a police officer, you may have to pay a fine or you may get a ticket or you may go to jail, I don't know. |
| So in a sentence… |
| "You're breaking the speed limit. Slow down." |
| 10. get pulled over |
| The next expression is "get pulled over." To get pulled over means, in your car, the police stopped you. So, the police turned on their sirens and follow you in their car and you have to pull your car over to the side of the road and speak to the police officer because of some problem that you have. So maybe, you were speeding, you broke the speed limit. We use the expression "speeding" for that. Or maybe, you have a light, one of your blinkers is out, for example, or maybe there's a problem with your license plate or the tags on your car. So the "tags" refers to your car's registration. So maybe, there's some problem with your car or maybe you had some kind of bad behavior, I don't know. But to get pulled over is typically a bad thing. A police officer has identified you in your car as a problem somehow, so to get pulled over means the police make you pull your car off the road to speak to you. |
| In a sentence… |
| "I was speeding and got pulled over by the police." |
| So, those are 10 words and phrases for driving. I hope that those are useful for you. If you have another phrase or another expression that you like to use a lot, let us know in the comments. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye! |
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