Advanced English Vocabulary for Driving [20+ Common Expressions & Questions]

Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

This is exactly where you want to be to get the confidence you want for daily

life and work in English.

This week I'm answering a very specific question from one of my students who

asked for vocabulary about driving. For example,

how to offer to pick someone up or drive them to pick someone up is a very

common phrasal verb that we use when we're talking about driving an English.

She also wanted to know about how to ask an Uber,

Lyft or taxi driver to drop you off in a particular place or how to give

directions when they're lost. And yes,

I know that Uber and Lyft drivers all have GPS maps on their phone,

but sometimes those maps aren't always correct.

So we're going to talk about all of that in today's Confident English lesson.

You're going to get the expressions collocations and questions that native

speakers use when we are offering to drive someone,

when we need someone to drive us somewhere.

How to talk to your Uber and Lyft driver and some common things that we say when

we're having car troubles or for example,

if we're going to be late to work because of traffic problems,

and then at the end I'm going to share with you a very common question that we

ask our friends or colleagues when we're planning a night out together and we

need to arrange transportation.

All right,

let's start right away with common expressions and questions that native

speakers use when you are the one driving,

let's say that you're at happy hour after work with some of your coworkers or

maybe you're at a friend's home for a weekend party and in a conversation you

realize that someone needs a ride home.

If you're able to give that person ARIDE,

which means you're able to drive them somewhere or you know that you live in the

same location, so it would be easy for you to offer them a ride.

Here are some things we often say, I'm already headed in that direction.

I can give you a ride if you'd like. I live in the same area.

I'm happy to give you a ride. You can also simply ask someone,

would you like a ride home or do you need a ride?

Now if you're with someone or a group of people and no one drove a car but

you're all going in the same direction.

Another common question is do you want to share a taxi or share an Uber or Lyft

and in that situation you share the cost of a taxi or Uber drive home.

Now, let's reverse the situation.

When you are the one who needs a ride somewhere,

whether it's a ride to work or a ride home,

how can you politely ask a coworker or a friend to do that?

Here are several example questions that we often use.

Number one, where are you headed? Could I get a ride from you? When we ask,

where are you headed? It means what direction are you going in?

And if they're going the same direction you are. For example,

maybe you live on the North side of the city,

then you could ask for a ride because you know it's in the same direction and it

might be easy for them to do so. Number two,

would you mind dropping me off on the way? Again,

this is something we would use when we know someone is already going in the same

direction that we need to go.

If it's really far or if they need to go out of their way to drop you off if

they need to go in a completely different direction.

It's always polite to add.

I'm happy to chip in some gas money.

What that means is that you're happy to give them a little bit of money toward

gas because honestly it can be expensive.

It's a really kind and polite thing to do. Question number three,

I think my apartment or home is on the way to yours.

Could I get a ride with you? And number four,

could I ask you a big favor?

Would you mind giving me a ride to work in the morning? My car's in the shop.

When we say our car is in the shop,

it means it's at the mechanic shop and it's getting worked on for whatever

reason.

Now let's change this up a little bit and talk about how to communicate with

your Uber, Lyft,

or taxi driver when you need to let them know where to drop you off,

which means where to stop the car and let you get out or how to give them

directions if they're lost or the GPS map is incorrect.

Let's start with how to ask them to drop you off or leave you at a particular

place. So most of the time we simply say,

could you drop me off at and then give them the location. For example,

could you drop me off at the corner on the right or could you drop me off at the

end of the block at the end of the street?

Could you drop me off just in front of that store on the left?

Could you drop me off w hen you get to the stop lights?

If you want to make it extra polite, you could simply change the language to,

would you mind? Would you mind dropping me off at the corner?

Would you mind dropping me off at the stop sign on the left?

What you'll notice in each of those examples is that I'm being very specific

about the location and I'm giving a visual cue, for example,

in front of the store on the right or at the stop sign up ahead.

Now,

if you live in a big city or it's a particularly busy time of day with a lot of

traffic,

it can be really hard to get someone to drop you off in exactly the place.

So if you're flexible and you're okay walking a short distance,

you could also say something like,

my apartment building is up one block on the right,

but you can drop me off anywhere. That's easy for you.

You could even acknowledge that you recognize the traffic is bad or that it

might be difficult to drop you off in a very specific place.

So that might sound something like, I know traffic is really bad right now,

so feel free to drop me off anywhere that's easy for you or that's convenient

for you. I'm happy to walk a little bit.

Now let's say that your driver is lost or they're following the directions on

Google maps or Apple maps, but the information isn't accurate.

Here's something that I often say when that happens to me.

I know you've got Google maps,

but for some reason the directions are always wrong.

It's much faster or it's much easier if you take a left at the lights and go up

Dodge Street or take Farnam Street, or if the driver is lost,

you could say something like, it looks like Google maps is confused.

I can give you directions straight to my home or straight to my work.

That's a really polite way to acknowledge that the driver is lost.

You're not blaming the driver for getting lost.

You're blaming it on GPS or Google maps.

Now if you want a more in depth lesson on how to give directions,

I actually have a full lesson on that topic and I'll leave a link to it just

below this video in the comments,

but now let's move on to common problems that we have with our car or traffic

issues and I'm going to share one very common question that we use when we're

coordinating transportation with friends and coworkers.

One of the biggest frustrations about driving is when we know we're running

late, maybe we're running late for work,

maybe we've got a meeting or maybe we're on our way home and we have a dinner

party to get to, but we're not going to make it on time.

There are usually just a few reasons that happens and here's how we talk about

them in English. Number one, there's bumper to bumper traffic,

so I'm going to be a little late to the meeting.

Bumper to bumper traffic is when the cars are back to back to back and there's

no movement. Maybe there's an accident up ahead.

Maybe there's construction or a road is closed,

so everything is just at a standstill and that's also a word that we often use.

The second thing that you might say is, I'm so sorry I'm on my way,

but I'm running late because of a car accident or road construction or a

bottleneck.

A bottleneck is when you have many streets with cars all going to the same place

and it gets narrower as you continue. For example,

if you're coming from outside the city where there are highways and interstates

and roads that all come into the center of the city where the streets get

smaller and fewer.

Now what if you're running late because you got lost?

A common thing that we say is, I'm so sorry I'm running late,

but I made a wrong turn. I'll be there soon. All right,

so we've talked about bumper to bumper traffic, road construction,

car accidents, and bottlenecks as reasons why you might be running late.

The last common reason is car problems.

Usually when something goes wrong with our car,

it either just stops working or we know something isn't working correctly and we

should probably stop driving. When that happens,

we say our car broke down. The phrasal verb is to break down,

so if you need to call your boss in the morning due to a car problem,

you might say, I'm sorry, I'm running late to work this morning.

My car broke down. I've got to take it to the shop.

Similar to your car breaking down,

you might not be able to drive because you have a flat tire.

A flat tire is when all the air goes out and you have to change or replace it.

All right.

We've got just one more thing to cover and that is a very common question that

you'll hear native speakers use when they're coordinating a night out with

coworkers or friends. You'll often hear someone ask who's going to be DD.

A DD is a designated driver.

This is someone in the group who has decided not to drink any alcohol for the

evening so that there are no worries or concerns about driving a car safely.

So you or a colleague might say, I'll be the DD tonight,

which means I won't drink any alcohol. I will drive everyone so that we're safe.

Now, to be honest, if you live in a big city,

you probably won't hear that question as much because we have so many

transportation options, whether it's a Metro, a bus, a Lyft,

Uber or taxi.

But if you live in a smaller city or outside of a city,

that is still a common question that gets asked.

And with that you have over 20 common expressions and questions that we use for

talking about driving in English. If you found this lesson useful to you,

I would love to know, and you can tell me in three ways,

you can give this a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe to this channel so you

never miss a future lesson. Share it with friends on Facebook.

And if you know someone who would love to get more advanced vocabulary on

driving an English, you can email this to them as well. With that,

have a fantastic week and I'll see you next time for your Confident English

lesson.