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  • Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

  • Can you talk about your car  in English? Let's do it.  

  • Today, you are going to learn a lot of car  vocabulary. We'll talk about types of cars,  

  • and also different parts of the car on the  outside and the inside. I am not a mechanic,  

  • so these are all words that are known to normal  people in everyday conversation. These are not  

  • specialized terms. If you have a car, and if  you need to explain different parts of your car  

  • in English, this is the vocabulary lesson for you. First, let's talk about different types of cars.  

  • This is a compact car. These are usually the  smallest kinds of cars. Then we have a sedan.  

  • A sedan is a little bit bigger, and it has usually  four doors. This is a convertible or a convertible  

  • car. The roof of a convertible car can open. This  is a hatchback. A hatchback has a special back  

  • part that opens up. This allows you to carry  more stuff, and it can be convenient if you  

  • often travel or carry large things like a dog  crate, it can be helpful to have a hatchback

  • A pickup truck, or a pickup, or a truck. Inlot of places around the world, most people in  

  • daily life don't have a pickup truck because  they don't need to carry lots of things,  

  • only if it's needed maybe for your job, but in the  US it is very common for normal people who don't  

  • need this type of car for their job to just have  a pickup truck. Maybe they like to put their bike  

  • in the back, maybe they like to put some gardening  supplies or anything, but it's pretty common for  

  • normal people, everyday  people to have a pickup truck

  • This is a minivan. It's what I haveThis is usually 100% only for families.  

  • All of the marketing, all of the features are for  families who have kids, especially young kids,  

  • but it's helpful for any age of kidsThere's a lot of space, the doors slide open,  

  • as I'll show you in just a little bit, so your kid  doesn't open the door and hit someone else's car.  

  • There's just a lot of good features for families. This is an SUV. Those letters stand for  

  • sports utility vehicle. A lot of people do not use  this for sports. All of the advertisements show  

  • these big cars going off road into the mud and  doing some kind of adventure, but the majority  

  • of people don't do that with these kinds of carsThey just like having a big car. It's safer. I've  

  • been thinking about this, because in the US, a  lot of people have big cars. I have a minivan.  

  • This is a pretty big car. A lot of people  have SUV's, and I think the reason for this  

  • is they are generally safer, a bigger car is  safer, but when a lot of people have big cars,  

  • everybody else needs to have a big car too. I know in Europe, for example, small cars  

  • like compact cars are really common, but  if 50% of people have a really big SUV,  

  • well, your compact car probably would feel  really dangerous at that point. But because  

  • so many people have small cars in Europe, small  cars are probably fine. This is just my theory  

  • about why Americans have big cars. Maybe  they just like big things too, I don't know,  

  • but I think that for me, I like to have this  car because it is safe, it has a lot of space,  

  • but also there are a lot of big cars on the  roads, so I want to be able to stay safe

  • Talking about safety or lack of safety, this is  a sports car. Sports cars are known for going  

  • fast just for fun. Maybe you drive your sports  car to work, but usually this is for fun. You  

  • drive on some mountain roads, or you just drive  really fast on the highway, this is a sports car

  • All right. Now that we've talked about the  types of cars, let's get looking at my car  

  • and take a look at all the different parts on  the outside, and then we'll go onto the inside.  

  • I just want to let you know it is incredibly sunny  today. I'm going to try my best to record this  

  • for you. I've been trying to film this video for  three weeks, but it has snowed, it's been rainy.  

  • There was some kind of loud machine out hereso I couldn't record. And finally, it's sunny,  

  • but it's really sunny. I hope that you'll  be able to see this well and learn a lot

  • As I said, I have a minivan for my family. There  is a hood, the hood of the car. This is a very  

  • American term. We call this the hood. Inside the  hood is the engine and all of the other parts  

  • that a mechanic might look at. There are also the  headlights here. There is a bumper on the front  

  • and on the back. This is, if you get in tolittle accident, maybe you bump someone else's car  

  • with your bumper, then maybe your bumper will bend  a little bit. Sometimes we call this your fender,  

  • or on the back, your fender. And those types  of small accidents are called fender benders

  • So if you call your friend and say, "Oh, I  had a fender bender today," it means that it  

  • was just a small accident. You weren't hurt, but  your car probably got a little damaged, and it's  

  • going to get fixed. This is the grill, the grill  in the front of the car. This is the tire. This  

  • is the wheel or the rim of the tire, and these  little guys around here are called lug nuts.  

  • If you go to the mechanic, they will ask you  for your lug nut key, and there is a specific  

  • little piece to turn and open these lug nuts. It's  specific to your car, because if everyone's was  

  • the same, then someone could steal your tire or  steal the rim of your tire. So the mechanic might  

  • ask you for your lug nut key to get this off. On the side of the car  

  • is the gas tank. That's where I fill  up the gas. On the back of the car is,  

  • on my car, it is a hatch. Did you see how that  opened up? This is the cargo area of a car, or  

  • for my car, it is called a hatch, but for sedans  like this, this is just called a trunk. In the US,  

  • we call this a trunk, in the UK, I think they  call it the boot, which doesn't really make sense  

  • because boots should be tires, right? They're  at the bottom of the car helping it to walk,  

  • but now the boot is back here, I guess, in  the UK. In the US, we call this a trunk or  

  • a hatch. You can also see my brake lightsblinker lights. These blinkers will flash  

  • when I turn the car, if I turn them on, which  you should, and back here is my license plate

  • Before I drive, I need to use my remote, or some  people call this a fob to open my car. Some cars  

  • don't have this remote, especially if they're  older cars and you can just open the door with  

  • a key, a regular key. But my car has this  little remote, so I will push the button  

  • and all the doors are now unlocked. If you would  also like to learn more vocabulary about daily  

  • life, I recommend checking out my video, 120  kitchen items up here. You can learn about  

  • different words to describe the kitchen. All right. Let's go inside the car.  

  • I'm sitting in the driver's seat. This is my  headrest. And beside me is the passenger seat.  

  • I have a back row. In fact, I have three rowsThis is the first row. The second row is where  

  • my children sit, and the third row, because  I have a minivan is where guests can sit,  

  • or we can fold the chairs down and put things  back there. I have car seats in my back seat.  

  • I have car seats because I have young children and  they keep my children safe. We can say that their  

  • car seats are rear facing car seats. That means  that they are not looking at the front of the car,  

  • they're looking at the back of the car. That's  because my children are still really small, but  

  • when they get bigger, their seats will turn around  and we can call them front facing car seats.  

  • Even though the word car seat sounds  very vague, it is always for a child.  

  • Yes, this is a seat, but we do  not really call this a car seat  

  • because a car seat is only for a child. In some cars, you need to put the key  

  • in the ignition, but my car does not have that.  I just have a button, and when I push the button,  

  • the car turns on. This is the steering wheelthe steering wheel. Behind the steering wheel  

  • is the dashboard. Let's take a look at thatOn the dashboard, we have here the speedometer,  

  • speedometer, that tells you how fast you're  going. Right now I'm just sitting in the car in  

  • my driveway, so my speed is zero. You will notice  at the top that my car says MPH miles per hour.  

  • Underneath that, there is some little tiny  numbers. Those are kilometers. In the US, it shows  

  • miles per hour, but a lot of cars will show the  conversion. If you're used to using kilometers,  

  • usually there will be an option on the dashboard. Other important features on the dashboard are  

  • your fuel, mileage here. Well, this just shows  if you are F or E, full or empty. Right now you  

  • can see I have a little notice that says low  fuel. That means I need to get some more gas.  

  • Another feature you can see over here is C and H,  that is cold and hot. That will tell you if your  

  • engine is too hot. If it is close to H, it is  overheating, and you will have some problems.  

  • You need to stop immediately. But ideally, it  should be in the middle, not at C, not at H. 

  • Beside the dashboard, we have the center consolethe center console. The main feature of this is  

  • the shifter. My car is an automatic car. That  means that I do not need to think about gears.  

  • I don't need to think about first gear, second  gear, third gear. That is only for a manual car.  

  • In the US, automatic cars like mine are the most  common, but there are still plenty of people who  

  • have manual cars. In fact, when I was growing upmy family had only manual cars, and that's how I  

  • learned how to drive. When people realize that  you have a manual car, usually they're pretty  

  • surprised, but this is the first automatic car  that I've owned, so that's just the way it is

  • Well, if you want to use the shifterthat is how you will start driving.  

  • It is right now in park. We need to go to reverse  to get out of my driveway, and then we need to go  

  • down here to drive. All we have to do is pull  it down to reverse, and I'll go backwards,  

  • and then keep going down to go into drivewhich will take us forward. Beside the shifter  

  • is the climate control. There is heat and  air conditioning, and you can change all  

  • the different modes for that type of thing. Above  that, there is a little screen that will help with  

  • audio, music, radio. You can even  use your phone through the screen.  

  • My car is not the deluxe luxury version, so you  can't watch videos on there, but that seems like  

  • a really bad idea to me. If you're driving, you  don't want to have that kind of distraction

  • There's also vents. This is a vent that you can  use to direct the air towards you or away from  

  • you. And of course, we can't forget on the  steering wheel, the horn. If someone does  

  • something that annoys you, honk the horn. Inside  the car, there is also a rear view mirror. This  

  • will help you to see out the back when you're  going backwards and as you're turning. There are  

  • also side mirrors to help you see beside you and  behind you when you're turning and changing lanes.  

  • If the sun is really bright like today, you can  put down your visor. Don't look at yourself too  

  • long in the mirror. Don't forget to put on your  seatbelt. We can use two different verbs for this,  

  • to put on your seatbelt or to buckle your  seatbelt. A common phrase is buckle up. So  

  • when you get in the car and you want everyone else  in the car to put their seatbelt on, you can say,  

  • all right, don't forget to buckle up. All right. Let's talk about the pedals in a car.  

  • There is the gas pedal, the brake  pedal, and in my car over here,  

  • this is the emergency brake. When I want to  park, or if I'm on a hill and I need to park,  

  • especially, I can push in the emergency brakeSome people have an emergency break between  

  • the front two seats. There can be different places  that the emergency brake is, but that's where it  

  • is for my car. Because my car is an automatic,  I don't have a clutch, but here, if you have  

  • a manual car, you have a clutch and you need to  push the clutch whenever you want to shift gears

  • All right. When I am driving,  I look out the windshield,  

  • windshield. That is the big window in the front of  my car. I also have windows on the side here. It's  

  • so clean, you can't even see. It's probably the  only clean part of my car, but I have windows here  

  • that I can roll down. To roll down the window,  I need to push a button, and look at that.  

  • Great. The windows work. They roll down. It's a  little bit strange because you saw that I used  

  • a button. I'm not actually rolling down the window  physically, but it's because not too long ago,  

  • in fact, the first car that I ever drove had  a crank, and you had to physically roll down  

  • the windows. We still use that verb, to roll down  the windows, but nowadays, we just have a button

  • I can't believe that I forgot to talk about these  really important parts of a car, and that is your  

  • windshield wipers. When it's raining, you need  to turn on your windshield wipers so that you  

  • can see out the windshield. It helps the rain  to go off of your windshield. You have a front  

  • windshield wiper, probably two front windshield  wipers, and you might have a back windshield wiper  

  • on the back of your car. Also, don't forget your  turn signal. When you flip on your turn signal,  

  • it makes your blinkers blink in the back of your  car so that people know if you're turning left  

  • or turning right. Don't forget to turn on  your turn signal or turn on your blinkers

  • And finally, even though I showed  you the headlights on my car,  

  • there's also another feature called your brightsYour brights are an extra level of brightness  

  • on your headlights so that you can see at nightBut when another car is driving the opposite way,  

  • you need to make sure that you turn off  your brights. Notice that this is plural,  

  • turn off your brights because you don't want  to blind the other person. You want them to  

  • be able to see where they're going. So this