It's expensive to ___ a car these days
(Collocations with car)
- Answers and comments

    1. It's very expensive to run a car these days.
    2. It's too far too walk. I'll take the car.
    3. He got into the car and drove off.
    4. The kids all piled into the car and we drove off to the seaside.
    5. This car is very economical. It does 55 miles to the gallon.
    6. The police pulled him over for speeding. Apparently, he was doing over 100 kph.
    7. I've got to take the car in for an oil change next week.
    8. Did you see that? That driver pulled out right in front of me without looking.
    9. What does tailgating mean? - It's when the car behind you is driving too close. It can be very dangerous.
COMMENTS
    I think that most of the words you filled in were familiar. The verbs included: do, take, run, get, pull. Of course, you have all seen these words many times, because they are among the most common verbs in the language. HOWEVER, because they are the most common verbs in the language, they are sometimes the trickiest. They have a basic (core) meaning, but they also have many idiomatic uses and occur in a lot of fixed expressions. You may know the basic meaning of the words, but I wonder how many times you have been unsure whether to use do or make, or whether to use have or take.

    RUN A CAR
    Run a car means to own and operate a car. A similar use of run can be seen in run a business, run a school, run a company.

    I'LL TAKE THE CAR / LET'S TAKE THE CAR
    My reason for including this phrase is that many of my students would probably want to say, "I'll drive the car." This sounds a little unnatural. I have noticed that many students tend to use the phrase "drive the car" in ways which are not always appropriate. Here's another example:
        A: How do you usually go to work?
        B: I drive my car.
    This English is not grammatically wrong, but it sounds a little unnatural. Better choices would be I drive, or I go in the car.

    GET INTO THE CAR
    We get in(to)/get out of a car or a taxi. We get on/get off a bus or a train.

    PILE INTO THE CAR
    This is probably the only word in today's exercise that may have been new to you. Pile into suggests a group of people entering somewhere very quickly and without any control. You can maybe imagine 4 or 5 excited children rushing into a car.
      Another example might be when a department store has a special sale:
    • By 9 o'clock, there were about 200 people lined up outside. We opened the doors  and they just piled in.

    DO 55 MILES A GALLON
    We can use this when we talk about the ratio between amount of gas and distance covered:
    • This car does 55 miles to the gallon.
    • That car only does 20 miles to the gallon.
    We can also use do with speed:
    • He must have been doing something like 120 kph (kilometres per hour).
    • The police stopped you? What speed were you doing?

    TAKE THE CAR IN
    This usually means taking the car in to a service station for checking or repairs. We don't have to say: I'm taking the car to the service station next week. Usually, it's enough to say, I'm taking the car in:
    • There's something wrong with the engine. I'll have to take it in for checking.

    PULL OVER
    Pull over means to move to the side of the road and stop:
    • There's an ambulance behind us. We'd better pull over and let them pass.
    The police can also pull you over - force you to stop at the side of the road and answer questions:
    • I got pulled over for speeding last weekend.

    PULL OUT
    This is when a parked car moves away from the side of the road:
    • Be careful as you're pulling out - there's a lot of traffic on this road.
    • He pulled out without looking in his mirror - nearly caused an accident.
    We hope you've enjoyed this week's one-point lesson and found it useful. There are more than 120 one-point lessons on this site. Please click below if you want to try some of them. Oh and, by the way - safe driving!
    Bob's One-Point Weekly Lesson Archive

    © Robert E. Jones, 2006