Start your car and start your computer

You can start your car.

You can start your computer.

The dictionary says the French word demarrer for starting the car and allumer for the computer.

Why is this discrepancy between the two devices?

In English, one size fits all!

I mean we use start for almost all instances.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on December 21, 2015 at 8:10pm

That is the beauty of language -freedom of expression!

"start the fire" ,"light the fire" ,"get the fire going/on", "get a fire going/on" or "put a match to the fire"

I can't think of other ways to say "start the car" off the top of my head but there are sure to be other ways of saying that too.

Permalink Reply by Crack1 on December 22, 2015 at 10:27am

Thanks George

When you have a smattering of French, these things are tall orders.

English is simple and straightforward !

Permalink Reply by Robert on December 23, 2015 at 4:17am

Not so fast. As just 1 example, 'kill the light' in English has endless variations as you can see here http://www.waywordradio.org/discussion/topics/shut-the-lights-a-reg...

'Start' would not be right for many things: radio, light, fridge, cooking range, air conditioner ...