10 Common Driving Expressions

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's lesson, we are going to talk about... Can you guess?

Driving. I'm going to teach you 10 common driving verbs. So let's get started. Okay,

and these are pretty common. Some of them are very, very common; you hear every day.

So the very first one is probably the most common word you will hear when it comes to

driving: "Brake" or "Hit the brakes". What is "the brakes"? "The brakes" is what stops

the car. I put a big "X" here because when you brake, you don't go; you stop. So, if

you and I are in a car, we're driving, I'm driving very fast and suddenly there's a stop

sign, you can say: "Emma, brake." Or: "Emma, hit the brakes." It means: "Emma, stop. Stop

the car." Okay. And notice it's not: "Hit brakes", "Hit the brakes". And because there's

more than one brake in a car: "Hit the brakes."

Okay, our second common verb is a very bad thing to do. "Run a red light." So, first

of all, red light when you're driving... You might come to something that looks like this

where you'll have a green light, a yellow light, and a red light. Green, of course,

means go. What does red mean? It means to stop. So if you don't hit the brakes, and

you see the red and you keep driving, and you drive fast even though you see the red

- it means you run a red light. So this is a very bad thing to do. "Run a red light."

And notice we have an article there. So what's an example? Yesterday-this isn't true-yesterday,

I was driving, I ran a red light. I didn't hit the brakes.

Number three, another common verb we use when we're talking about driving. "Cut someone

off." Okay, now this is a phrasal verb, very important. First of all, before I tell you

the meaning, with phrasal verbs, you can have a different preposition and it can mean something

totally different. For this: "Cut someone off", "off" is the preposition we're using.

Now, what does it mean to cut someone off? Okay, when you cut someone off... Pretend

I'm driving, vroom, vroom. What happens? Someone comes in front of me very fast. Okay? This

can cause an accident. If you cut someone off, again, it's a bad thing. It means you

drive in front of someone very fast and you don't give them a lot of room. So: "Cut someone

off." We cannot say: "I cut off someone.", "I cut someone off." Okay.

In terms of this also... So, again, it's important to notice the "off". We can also use it in

a conversation. If you're talking to someone and someone interrupts you, you just cut them

off. Okay? You cut someone off. Oh, sorry, they cut you off. An example: "I'm sorry,

I have to cut you off." Meaning: "I have to interrupt."

Number four: "Tailgate". If you tailgate someone, this is another bad thing. So this is bad,

bad, bad. Tailgate is when you drive too close to someone else. So your car is here, someone's

here, it means they're tailgating you. "That man tailgated me.", "I was tailgated by that

man." Example sentences.

Now, for running a red light, cutting someone off, and tailgating someone - you may be "pulled

over" by the police over. "Pulled over", can you guess what that means? If you're pulled

over, it means someone, maybe a police officer stops you, and you pull your car to the side

of the road. So, "pull over" means you're driving and then you move your car to the

side of the road and stop. You know, maybe, for example: you hear an ambulance - you might

pull over, meaning you might go to the side and stop the car. I hope you do that.

So now let's look at 10 more driving verbs.

Did I say 10? I meant five more. Sorry, guys.

Okay, so our next one on the list is like the previous one. We said: "Pull over", "The

police pulled me over." This one also uses the word "pull", but it's a phrasal verb.

We have a different preposition. Instead of "Pull over", now we're saying: "Pull out of".

So this has a different meaning, even though both verbs are "pull". "Pull out of" means

you're going backwards or forwards out of a small space. Usually, it's a parking lot

or a driveway. So usually you park your car in your driveway, and you go forward, you

look, make sure no other cars are coming - you pull out of your driveway, you pull out of

the parking lot.

Okay, next one. I like this word: "Accelerate", "accelerate". It's not only used for driving.

What "accelerate" means is to go fast, to go faster. When you accelerate, you start

going faster than before. So, if you're going on the highway, you will be accelerating;

you will need to go faster. "Accelerate" means to go faster.

Similar to "Accelerate", "Speed". First, if you're speeding, it means you're going too

fast. So: "I was speeding", means: "I was going too fast." "Speed up" is the same as

"accelerate." "I sped up.", "You have to speed up.", "You have to accelerate." So, "speed

up" and "accelerate" are pretty much the same things. But without the "up", "speed" it means

you're going too fast. "I was speeding.", "He was speeding.", "Don't speed." Okay.

Next one: "Make a u-turn." So this is a verb: "make". You can do a lot of things with the

verb "make". Make a cake, make art; you can do a lot of things with "make". One thing

you can also do is: "Make a u-turn." What's a "u-turn"? When you're driving and you realize:

"Oh, no. I'm going the wrong way. I'm going this way, but I want to be going that way."

What do you do? You turn your car like a "u". So you're going down this way, you turn, and

you go the other way. That's a "u-turn".

Finally, number 10: "Park". So a park is a place you go; you can go to the park, you

can go on swings, you can go down a slide. When we're talking about driving, "park" which

can be a verb means to stop the car, but it's different than brake. "Brake", you stop the

car but then you're going to go again. You brake at a red light. "Park" is when you stop

the car and you turn it off. So I hope you guys are all good at parking. It's a very

difficult skill to have.

So to practice these words, I invite you to come visit our website at www.engvid.com.

We have a test you can do there; great practice. Until next time, I hope you drive safe, I

hope you don't do any of the speeding, I hope you don't do any of these dangerous behaviours.

Be careful on these roads. So, until next time, take care.