Expert: Dan Smith - 10/28/2005

Question
Hello, Mr. Smith.

Thank you for your informative reply to my question.

In the previous question, the working vehicle is supposed to have a meaning of a generic name for vehicles which do various kinds of work, such as a crane vehicle, vacuum car, and so forth.  Can I use WORK VEHICLE?

Thank you again for your help.

Mineko


Answer
I think I would call such a set of vehicles "self-propelled industrial vehicles."

Normally a crane is just a crane, not a crane vehicle. Native speakers would call cranes that move from place to place under their own power either a "motorized crane" or a self-propelled crane. I don't know what a vacuum car is.

To a native speaker, the adjective "working" before that kind of noun would usually imply that it is functional rather than nonfunctional. I am pretty sure your native language is one of the Asian languages. But if I am wrong, apologies. People with that language background tend to have trouble with how to use properly words with an "ing" ending. This is one of those instances.

Hope this helps.