a verb for when two cars contact each other

[alpacinou]

Hello,

What is a verb which means two cars touch and leave a scratch on each other? I don't mean an accident or a fender bender.

For example, you want to park your car and you touch another car with your car and leave a scratch.

Also, what if the person wants to say he has done this?

For example, is this correct?

I scratched his car with my car.

 

[Yankee]

Hello,

What is a verb which means two cars touch and leave a scratch on each other? I don't mean an accident or a fender bender.

For example, you want to park your car and you touch another car with your car and leave a scratch.

Also, what if the person wants to say he has done this?

For example, is this correct?

I scratched his car with my car. Yes, but you would typically be a bit more specific about the area of the car that was scratched, e.g. fender, door, trunk.

Y

 

[alpacinou]

Y

You mean like this?

I scratched his car's door with my car's fender.

Is this also correct?

The two cars scratched and then the drivers had an altercation.

 

[GoesStation]

You mean like this?

I scratched his car's door with my car's fender.

That's fine, but note that a "fender" is a different part of the car in British and American English.

Is this also correct?

The two cars scratched and then the drivers had an altercation.

No. "Scraped" might work there. "Scratched" needs an agent (someone or something to do the scratching).

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

You mean like this?

I scraped his car door with my fender.

Is this also correct?

The two cars scraped each other, and then the drivers had a fight.

Scratch is good, but in that context, we're more likely to use scrape. It's slightly more natural. We usually scratch with our fingers and scrape with things. Not necessarily, just usually.

It's better to use fight. By the time they finished saying "altercation," the fight would be over.

 

[Yankee]

Given a choice between "altercation" and "fight" I would prefer to use the former. "Fight" suggests to me a physical event and after a scratch/scrape I would not expect anything physical in most instances.

 

[Tarheel]

You could say you bumped into the other car.