47Fotos: kenneth-cheung, Lalocracio/iStock.com; privat
ENGLISH EXPLAINED 11/2019 SpotlightMany people in Germany speak English well, so I can
chat with most of my German friends in my mother
tongue. However, occasionally, they do make mis-
takes, and sometimes I like to tease them about it.
For example, after taking 25 minutes the other day
to painstakingly explain a minor point of the Eng-
lish language to one of my friends, I sent her a link to
the 1984 hit song “Drive” by The Cars. My message
accompanying the link read, “Here’s a song to cele-
brate our victory.” But what was that victory? And
what was it that I had I spent 25 minutes trying to
get across to her?
Well, it all started when I was on the phone with
this friend of mine and she said, “I think, later today,
I will drive to the city by car.” Native speakers simply
wouldn’t say that. Instead, they’d say, “I think, later
today, I will drive to the city.”
In my experience, German speakers often use the
word “drive” improperly because it serves as their
standard translation for the German verb fahren.
However, this isn’t always correct.
In English, we use “drive” only if we’re in the
driver’s seat or, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts
it, “operate and control the direction and speed of a
motor vehicle.” So, you can “drive” a bus or a taxi if
you’re sitting behind the steering wheel. How ever,
if you choose a bus or a taxi merely as a means of
transportation and have no direct control over where
exactly that vehicle goes, you would not use the verb
“to drive. “Instead, you “take the bus,” “go on the bus,”
or “go by taxi.”ENGLISH EXPLAINED
Who’s gonna
drive you home?
Unser Kolumnist ist beeindruckt von den Englisch
kenntnissen seiner deutschen Freunde – doch manches,
das er so hört, ist schlichtweg zum aus der Haut fahren.MEDIUM UScorroborate
[kE(rA:bEreIt]
, bekräftigen, bestätigen
get across [get E(krO:s]
, rüberbringen, deutlich
machen
implied: be ~ [Im(plaId]
, unausgesprochen
enthalten sein
improperly
[Im(prA:p&rli]
, unzulässig; hier:
inkorrekt
lyrics [(lIrIks]
, Songtext(e)
means [mi:nz]
, Mittel
merely [(mI&rli]
, lediglich, bloß
painstakingly
[(peInz)teIkINli]
, peinlich genau,
sorgfältig
roller-coaster
[(roUl&r )koUst&r]
, Achterbahn
steering wheel
[(stIrIN wi:&l]
, Lenkrad, Steuer
tease [ti:z]
, hänseln, neckenAlso, most of the time, the motor vehicle we’re
talking about is a car or a truck, so you could say,
“I drove my car to the mechanic’s shop” or “John
drove his new truck on Highway 1.” On rare occa-
sions, we might be talking about a tractor: “Dan drove
his tractor on his farm.”
However, some vehicles don’t collocate with
“drive.” For example, in English, you “ride” a bike,
a scooter, or a motorbike. You also “ride” a roller-
coaster and “ride” in an elevator.
What’s important to remember is that when using
the word “drive,” we usually don’t explicitly mention
the type of vehicle being used. It’s implied and under-
stood that the speaker will be behind the wheel of
his or her automobile. Which, of course, is why my
friend’s sentence had sounded wrong to me. And
this point is corroborated in the lyrics (written by Ric
Ocasek of The Cars) that I sent to her. In the song, the
singer (in this case, Benjamin Orr, the band’s bassist)
asks the person he’s addressing: “Who’s gonna drive
you home tonight?”THE LANGUAGE PAGES
Welcome to the language pages
Over the next dozen or more pages, we give you the opportunity to practise
grammar and vocabulary in an uptodate context. We start off here with
a column that takes a lighthearted look at English in popular culture.CHAD SMITH
Originally from New York City, Chad Smith is a
freelance journalist and English teacher who now
lives in Hamburg.