17 November 2006

Working from home - so I need you!




These homemade cars - could be any standard from three planks to proper replicas, but always without engine (other than the feet of the driver and / or helpers...) - have they got a name in English? Or do you buy all your cars at Toys'r'us...?

Incidentally, working on a long, alphabetical list, I reached words with "morning-" today. And as I browsed down I found myself wondering where the afternoon- and night- words were... What can I say? It's Friday...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are called different things - go-cart or a soapbox being the main ones.

Claire said...

I realize it's late, but I would've said go-cart. I've heard soapbox car too, but less frequently in the US.

Here go-carts can also have engines sometimes. The little cars at an amusement center, for instance, would still probably be called go-carts.

Anonymous said...

See now those cars at the fair are called dodgems here, or bumper cars.

And if a go-cart had an engine I'd call it a kart, for some reason.

Claire said...

We have bumper cars here too, but they're specifically the ones you smash into other people's cars with in a little enclosed arena. They have a long metal pole going up the back which contacts the ceiling for power.

The other go-carts I'm thinking of have motors and you race around a little outdoor race track in them.