He lost control of the car and crashed/bumped/drove into a wall.

[GeneD]

He lost control of the car and crashed into a wall.

Is it possible to say "drove" or "bumped" into the wall? What about "run"? It seems inappropriate to speak this way about cars, but I'm not sure.

 

[bhaisahab]

Yes, drove, bumped, ran into the wall are possible.

 

[jutfrank]

bumped doesn't have the force of crashed.

 

[Tarheel]

Always look at the entire sentence. Also, ask yourself what makes sense.

He lost control of the car and crashed into a wall.

What happens when you lose control of something? Something bad, like crashing into a wall.

He lost control control of the car and bumped into a wall.

He wasn't going very fast, was he? And bumped doesn't really fit with losing control, does it?

So, yes, you can use those other verbs (other than crashed). But what real life scenarios would they fit in?

 

[GeneD]

bumped doesn't really fit with losing control, does it?

Maybe I'm not thinking in English properly, but I see no difference. "He lost control and bumped into a wall" sounds suitable to me. Am I missing something?

 

[jutfrank]

Maybe I'm not thinking in English properly, but I see no difference. "He lost control and bumped into a wall" sound suitable to me. Am I missing something?

You're missing the subtle shades of meaning between similar words. That's completely normal, of course. And that's what you're learning by continuing to ask questions to this forum.

 

[Skrej]

The minor differences suggested by the words are related to the force of the impact, the speed of the impact, and likely damage to the car.

crashed = very hard impact at relatively high speeds. The car is severely damaged, and possibly completely totaled.

drove = uncertain level of impact, but still suggesting higher speed than 'bump'. The level of damage is uncertain, (since speed is uncertain), but it's distinctly possible the car isn't damaged beyond repair.

bumped = relatively soft impact, due to moving at relatively low speed. The car probably sustained only superficial or cosmetic damages, or perhaps even no visible damage at all.

 

[GoesStation]

Maybe I'm not thinking in English properly, but I see no difference. "He lost control and bumped into a wall" sounds suitable to me. Am I missing something?

I think that one's fine. Yes, the car was out of control, but luckily he escaped with only a little bump into a wall.

Drove doesn't work for me. When you're driving, you're in control of the car. Once you lose control, you're just a passenger.

 

[GeneD]

He lost control control of the car and bumped into a wall.

He wasn't going very fast, was he? And bumped doesn't really fit with losing control, does it?

So, yes, you can use those other verbs (other than crashed). But what real life scenarios would they fit in?

After Skrej's explanation I think I've got yours too.

Here's one more scenario (in addition to GS's) which (I believe) allows the driver to be bumped at low speed: "The car wasn't moving too fast (like here), but having skidded across the icy road, the driver lost control and bumped into something solid". Have I got it right?

 

[GeneD]

What about run into something? Is it the same as drive?

 

[GoesStation]

"The car wasn't moving too fast (like here), but having skidded across the icy road, the driver lost control and bumped into something solid". Have I got it right?

Yes. That's quite common in snowy places. I remember being a passenger one icy night when my father was driving slowly on a four-lane highway. The car suddenly decided to slide sideways, then delicately bumped the guardrail and bounced back. In those days, car bumpers ("fenders" in BrE) were entirely made of metal, so nothing was damaged.

 

[GoesStation]

What about run into something? Is it the same as drive?

No. It's a possible synonym for any of the verbs we're discussing in this thread. Less than an hour ago, I was driving home on a two-lane road when a squirrel trying to cross got into a terrible predicament: should it continue into the other lane where another car was approaching, or should it turn around and scuttle back to safety? It took a moment too long to make up its mind but finally turned around. I couldn't help running into it. (It would be more natural in this dialog to say "running over" something so small, but I wanted to illustrate the other usage.)

That squirrel's fatal tendency towards indecisiveness will not continue in the local gene pool.

 

[Tarheel]

After Skrej's explanation I think I've got yours too.

Here's one more scenario (in addition to GS's) which (I believe) allows the driver to be bumped at low speed: "The car wasn't moving too fast (like here), but having skidded across the icy road, the driver lost control and bumped into something solid". Have I got it right?

I watched the video you provided a link to. That was not a bump. That was a crash. An accident report willl need to be filled. If there hadn't been another car involved and there hadn't been any damage (as in GS's story) then you might want to use bump. As for drive, that suggests purposefulness.

 

[GeneD]

Run looks similar to drive in some way. It seems to have some neutrality regarding the force of impact. However, run is different from drive in terms of purposefulness. (It means a car must move in an uncontrollable way, as I understand it correctly.) Would in the following GS's example the word run fit better?

Drove doesn't work for me. When you're driving, you're in control of the car. Once you lose control, you're just a passenger.

BTW, did I use regard and in terms of correctly? Do the sentences with them make sense to you, or am I saying some abracadabra?

 

[GeneD]

An example with run: The driver lost control of the car and ran into a tree. Is it OK?

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes – that's OK.

 

[Skrej]

Personally, I'm fine with the earlier example of losing control and 'driving' into something. While I agree that there's often control implied with 'drive', I've also heard 'drive' used to simply mean something like 'operating a vehicle'.

For example, I've heard things like 'The drunk lost control and drove into a tree.' Sure, he (probably) didn't intentionally steer the car into the tree, but he was still attempting to operate the vehicle so he was 'driving' in some sense.