Why do cars horn

[gbb]

Do I live in an alternate universe ?
I've rarely ever, ever had cars honk at me...

 

[mjr]

Do I live in an alternate universe ?
I've rarely ever, ever had cars honk at me...

Much as I wish Peterborough was in an alternate universe, no, it's just somewhere cyclists aren't rare enough to be honked at much.

 

[winjim]

Paragraph 2. Important advice on when and how to tootel your horn trumpet.

 

[gbb]

Go to Cairo...then you'll complain about honking cars

Picked up from the airport in a taxi, spent about an hour getting out of the hell hole . I never ever heard so many honking horns (my taxi contributed generously), such a maelstrom of noise it gave me a headache, then as we cruised out of the city the roads got quieter, then quiet and darkness fell. Despite the peace we found ourselves in, the taxi driver (Mr Noor...who had a tenner off me the sly old fox ) frequently, randomly and unexplainedly...honked his horn ...despite there being not another human in sight.

 

[Drago]

Honk is an army term for "moan".

 

[jefmcg]

Why are you talking about me in the third person? And rather than take the point that correcting me could be done without personal comment, you add another couple here for good measure.

I was wrong, and you were perfectly right to point out I was wrong. However, there was simply no need to get personal about it in the way you did. My original comment contained no such snide-ness. So, as you choose to defend ill manners rather than just move on, and as I have a low tolerance of boorish and ill mannered interlocutors, I'll simply adjust my forum settings and continue to enjoy the company of those capable of civil discourse. Cheerio.

I referred to you in the third person because I didn't remember who made the original comment, and I assumed because you had neither conceded the point nor continued the argument that you were a disinterested 3rd party. It didn't even occur to me you were the person I had originally addressed.

It's rude to call out someone as wrong, especially when they shown their working and you haven't even bothered to read what was written. It's worse when you finally realise that you are in the wrong to not apologise or even retract, but to attack me again from a different angle. But go on, enjoy your flounce.

Is it common to complete British schooling without knowing horned and horning are different forms of the same verb?

 

[mjr]

Honk is an army term for "moan".

Or it's cycling uphill standing, mashing and pulling hard on the bars, isn't it? I guess you need a sunroof to do that in a car?

Is it common to complete British schooling without knowing horned and horning are different forms of the same verb?

Maybe not common, but possible. It depends when. I think it was possible to complete school in England in the 1990s without knowing what a verb was, with grammar not being a required part of English lessons when you would have been going through primary school and only having to study the absolute basics of one foreign language at a tourist hello/goodbye/where's-the-toilet level in secondary school.

I suspect all the political messing-about with language teaching means it's been possible to get through school with almost no grammar knowledge at other times, too, but it's not the level or subject I used to teach, so it was only a fringe interest to me. I also don't know how many did indeed not study much about languages. Others may know better...