Hand brake (emergency brake lever for our American cousins) lever on right hand

[Merc_Girl]

Ah ha

So let’s explore our cross continent universal language for our old friend the motor vehicle.
Perhaps  using the German and Welsh way of putting several words together

So:
wing/fender/mudguard = winderguard?

Engine = moteurmaschine (as an homage to genius French and German engineers Creating the first engines)

Glove box =  Guanto Coffre  (as an homage to the fine leather and clothes design of the French and Italians over the centuries )

Boot/trunk = wellunk. (Homage to the duke of Wellington who created the boot 😂)

Convertible = raggyhood ( as America and Australia get most of the sun!)

Over to you folk who also have my weird humour

Katie

[Garry]

A couple of local sayings, we call them rag tops,  they are also chromies. that is they have chrome bumper bars........
Hoods and bonnets, tires and tyres, colour and colors.
and so it goes on.

[Merc_Girl]

Who would ever know that the misspelling of ‘handbrake’ and using the wrong word for the American ‘parking brake’, would lead to such an abstract chain of posts 😂


Google let me down again then as I could only get ‘hood’ for ‘roof’. I know Americans called convertibles ‘rag tops’ which a lot of countries now adopt

Maybe ‘raggychromie’ ?

As to spelling, I refer back to my earlier post, that English (UK) should set the precedence 😁

[MikeSimon]

  When I learned English in German "Gymnasium"/English "Grammar School"/American 'High School", we students were told we could NOT use "Americanisms". We were not allowed to say truck for lorry, bucket for pail, suspenders for braces, elevator for lift, hood for bonnet - just some examples.

[Merc_Girl]

And don’t forget ‘pants’ when in fact they are trousers

And don’t even go there with what are called ‘thongs’ in Australia!”

[Peter van Es]

Ok, now we have settled all this, might I recommend that we continue this conversation in real life, at one of our illustrious events -- anywhere in the world -- where tea, or whisky, or other beverages flow in order to "grease" our interaction?

It's when members from all over the world return to their favourite forum to banter and have fun, and occasionally talk about cars, that I feel proud to be part of this community!

[Merc_Girl]

Pale is American, bucket is English (UK), but all of this is beyond the pale!!!! 🤣

Indeed a lot of English (US) are actually old English words, ie garbage, sidewalk etc!
Come on US, make America great again, keep up with our little ol’ island and upload the new software so US words are up to date 🤣

[JamesL]

Pail = bucket 

Pale is a little used word for an enclosure/ fence. So “beyond the pale” makes sense in a way that “beyond the bucket” would not

You say tomato...

[ejboyd5]

I always learned the term "parking brake" for the "Handbremse". Even some of the owners manuals and dash infos in cars I owned used that term.

However we can not discount the still popular American use of the term, "handbrake turn." And we carry water in a "pail," not a "pale." If we are going to continue this very interesting discussion on language we must be accurate with our spelling lest our offerings become confused and misleading.

[MikeSimon]

I remember owning a car where the parking brake was actuated by a foot pedal...don't know anymore which car that was. And my current everyday driver has and the one before that had a button on the center console which you actuate with a finger....And, seriously, having done my fair share of racing, I would not use any modern "parking brake' as an "emergency brake". These things are either full on or released. You cannot gradually apply them anymore. They just lock a set of wheels up.

[Melburnian]

My mother had a new 280sl auto  rhd in Melbourne, Australia in 1969. It arrived with handbrake on the left..was a pain in the proverbial and she rarely used it.   I was the passenger/ handbrake operator. That was how it arrived from the factory .