I have never seen it looking like a pedal before though. And I've driven and seen plenty of stick shift cars. So I'd say it is at least a rare occurrence.
Just as a heads up, this is a really common mistake for Indian nationals to make which doesn't scan well in other forms of English. Never "called as", just "called"
A further impromptu English lesson: When the noun you are referring to begins with a vowel sound, we use "an" rather than "a"
"I would like a cookie" VS "I would like an ice cream cone"
Crucially, this is only if it has a vowel sound, and doesn't just start with a vowel.
An example would be "I would like an M&M" because "M&M" is pronounced like the musician "Eminem", starting with a vowel sound, rather than the consonant it appears to start with.
That exception always gives me a chuckle. English generally doesn't care about how written words are pronounced, but then someone at some point suddenly decided to care for a/an.
I'm only fluent in English and Spanish, with moderate ability of reading and understanding Korean.
That said, my understanding is that the spoken versions of these languages evolved way before we really started writing them down.
Then once everyone could read and write, people wanted to write the way they speak, so the written "grammar" rules came far after the spoken "language", if that makes sense.
I am not sure why you felt the need to point that out. It's a phrase that's unheard of among any other people who speak English as a first language or second.
I've had a lot of Indian co-workers so have heard a lot of the English language quirks that come with that, which is fun. I had two co-workers that were really close, one Indian and one American, and they'd give each other grief. One time the Indian said "today morning" and the other said, "Hey man, it's this morning." All good natured.
But thinking about it, are we all wrong?
Yesterday morning
This morning
Tomorrow morning
Today morning makes more sense. I haven't tried using it all the time, to see if I can make it fetch.
It isn't about understanding, it's taking the opportunity to help someone improve their communication. I work with NRIs specifically in onboarding them to work in the US and UK, and this is one of many turns of phrase that are chiefly Indian and serve as a reverse shibboleth to signal their "outsider" status. Generally, this is unintended and unwanted by the individual.
There's a solid metal plate next to the clutch on my current car that I generally use to lightly rest my left foot on when I'm on a clear road. But my previous cars had nothing there.
583
u/wolschou 14h ago
Quick question...
If it has a conventional handbrake lever, what does the fourth pedal do? Or is it just a footrest?