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According to the Britannica Dictionary:

British people say: “I got/had a puncture”
Americans say: “I got/had a flat or a flat tire”

But what about "a slow puncture"?

According to the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, British people say "The tyre had a slow puncture", but it doesn't show the American equivalence as always.

Do Americans say: "My car's tire has a slow puncture" in everyday English?

For example, do Americans say: "My car has a slow flat tire" in everyday English?

Mari-Lou A
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Tom
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    The expression flat tyre is used in the UK too. – Kate Bunting Aug 11 '22 at 08:34
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    Americans say "slow tire puncture" and just "slow puncture" in everyday English. – Michael Harvey Aug 11 '22 at 09:04
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    @MichaelHarvey Disagreed - I've never heard "slow (tire) puncture" in the US, and Ngrams suggests that it's much more a British thing. – stangdon Aug 11 '22 at 11:35
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    @stangdon - " losing in the race in Sweden when a slow tire puncture permitted Denis Hulme to pass the swede for the win" Tucson Daily Citizen "Had a slow tire puncture and also due for service. The service team scheduled an immediate appointment. " Review of Fitzgerald Buick GMC Rockville, MD (Maryland) "From all the scientific data that I personally read in the book about his life, it was a slow tire puncture." New York Times – Michael Harvey Aug 11 '22 at 12:27
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    "My car's tire" sounds off to me here. Either "My car" or "My tire". It's almost like "I burnt my hand's finger", which you would never hear. (Even if you had to disambiguate between your car and your bicycle, you would say "My car tire", not "My car's tire".) – TonyK Aug 11 '22 at 17:04
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    @TonyK Yeah, I think what gets me about "My car's tire" is - which one? There's 4 of them. If you said "My car's right front tire" it might sound okay. Or "One of my car's tires" if you don't want to be specific. You could say "My unicycle's tire", because that's unambiguous. – Darrel Hoffman Aug 11 '22 at 17:18
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    @TonyK I disagree. Your car's tyres are parts of your car, and so belong to the car more than directly to you. "Car tyre" and "car's tyre" mean different things; "my car tyre" implies that, although intended for a car, it is separate and not yet put onto a vehicle. Likewise "my dog's bowl"; you'd say "my dog bowl" only if you had the thing but didn't use it as a bowl for a dog. – Rosie F Aug 11 '22 at 18:51
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    The most common way to say this in American English, based on a web search, seems to be “slow leak in my tire” or “my tire has a slow leak.” – Davislor Aug 11 '22 at 20:29
  • @MichaelHarvey if you're not familiar with everyday American English your claims about it may mislead people – Andrew Aug 12 '22 at 17:36
  • @Andrew - I just asked my neighbour, who is a cyclist aged 50, and comes from Denver, Colorado, and he says it is something his father used to say. So maybe unusual and/or old fashioned, but not completely unknown in the USA. – Michael Harvey Aug 12 '22 at 17:54
  • @MichaelHarvey Fair enough. So it's somewhere between ubiquitous and unheard of. – Andrew Aug 12 '22 at 18:07
  • @Andrew - You get people saying 'I know XXX nationality people don't say something, because I am XXX and I have never heard it'. – Michael Harvey Aug 12 '22 at 18:25
  • @TonyK seconded. British, in a tyre shop: "My Front Left's got a slow puncture". Both car and tyre are implicit from the location. They need to know which tyre and why (unlike a flat, it's not obvious). "Front Nearside" might also be used (British: we drive on the left). – nigel222 Aug 12 '22 at 18:33
  • I def can use word puncture, but slow puncture sounds illogical as well as intuitively weird for some reason. And then it does sound exactly the thing a British person would say. Def slow leak. I would consider puncture to be a violent break in the integrity of the air tight tire and this not likely to be coupled with slow. It seems ironic to say that. It seems like it should have been a slow breach. – marshal craft Aug 13 '22 at 10:25
  • It seems like it comes originally from a slow leak in a boat. So to say the original slow leak phrase or just say minor leak. – marshal craft Aug 13 '22 at 10:28
  • A “Slow Puncture” sounds like a goofy Benny Hill character that attempts to (incompetently_ murder people by slowly puncturing them. – Giacomo1968 Aug 13 '22 at 17:21

5 Answers5

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I live in the U.S., and I would say "My tire has a slow leak."

It is the leakage of air that is slow. The leakage might be caused by a puncture or by something else. If people in the UK say "slow puncture", that sounds illogical to me at first hearing.

I definitely wouldn't say "a slow flat tire", since flat tire is a state, not the time process that caused it.

Jack O'Flaherty
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    Yes, we illogical Brits might say we have a slow puncture, even though, strictly speaking, the cause of the deflation might be a faulty valve. – Michael Harvey Aug 11 '22 at 10:28
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    This Canadian agrees with Jack. To me, "a slow puncture" sounds like a puncture moving slowly – gotube Aug 11 '22 at 10:40
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    Illogical or not, slow puncture is definitely idiomatic in the UK. From one of the UK's bigest tyre fitters - https://www.kwik-fit.com/blog/spotting-the-signs-of-a-slow-puncture – DoneWithThis. Aug 11 '22 at 17:09
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    Confirming: in "my" American English, it is absolutely "my tire has a slow leak", or even "I've got a slow leak". :) – paul garrett Aug 11 '22 at 18:00
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    I agree with this answer as an American English speaker, except for the use of “illogical”: in natural languages (and especially with idioms), “(il)logical” is largely meaningless. I agree that “a slow puncture” doesn’t make much sense when taken literally, but phrases are more than the sum of their parts and can acquire meanings of their own. – Joshua Grosso Aug 11 '22 at 20:13
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    (^^ The typical example is the “I could/couldn’t care less” argument”… the true answer is “they’re both fine, and no one’s ‘wrong’ for choosing one or the other.) – Joshua Grosso Aug 11 '22 at 20:14
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    Also, I’m not trying to call you out @JackOFlaherty or tell you how you meant your answer—I’m just saying all this for the benefit of future readers who might be curious :-) – Joshua Grosso Aug 11 '22 at 20:16
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    @JoshuaGrossoReinstateCMs Yes, Joshua, I should have said it seems illogical to me at first hearing. The fact that it's established usage means that it's correct and as logical as it needs to be. – Jack O'Flaherty Aug 11 '22 at 22:33
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    Besides "slow puncture" not making any sense, I never heard anyone say that in the 70 years that I worked on cars. – John Pankowicz Aug 12 '22 at 01:08
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    @JohnPankowicz - that would probably be because you never worked in the UK. You probably never met anyone who spelled it "tyre" for the same reasons. – DoneWithThis. Aug 12 '22 at 06:56
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    @JohnPankowicz (and others) "Puncture" in British usage is essentially the same as "leak" in US usage, (in this context) so the addition of "slow" is perfectly logical. – MikeB Aug 12 '22 at 10:05
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    Of course I never worked in the UK. The question is "Do Americans say .....". The answer is: no, never. – John Pankowicz Aug 12 '22 at 12:50
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    @JohnPankowicz - so this was just a "me too" rather than adding anything to the discussion. – DoneWithThis. Aug 12 '22 at 14:22
  • I think it's weird to expect logic in common sayings ha – aaaaaa Aug 12 '22 at 16:45
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    @aaaaaa - "Well, I'll go to't foot of our stairs" ;)) – DoneWithThis. Aug 12 '22 at 17:43
  • As a non-native speaker, don’t get me started about the illogicalness of the English language. Of course, this also applies to every other language, even designed ones like Esperanto. – Sebastiaan van den Broek Aug 13 '22 at 02:42
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    "Slow leak" is bar far the most common American would express this. But if the adjective pertained to the size of the puncture rather than the rate of decreasing pressure, then leak or puncture might be used interchangeably: for example, "a small leak/puncture" or "a pinhole leak/puncture." – Adrian McCarthy Aug 13 '22 at 06:47
  • I'm Canadian, but familiar enough (from movies, TV, and/or books I guess) with British usage of "puncture" where we'd say "leak" that I didn't find it illogical at all, my brain just immediately interpreted it as British. It's only after this answer and some comments made a big deal about it that it seems at all odd to say "slow puncture" for "slowly leaking puncture". – Peter Cordes Aug 13 '22 at 22:43
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I live in North America and we will say:

My tire's leaking.

or

My tire's got a leak.

or

My tire's leaking air.

This is different from I got/had a flat or a flat tire because having a flat assumes the air has mostly depleted or did so rapidly.

CausingUnderflowsEverywhere
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The answer provided by Davislor and CausingUnderflowsEverywhere is correct. We would typically and most precisely say, "My car tire has/had a slow leak" or more simply "My tire's leaking" and leave it at that. To us, a "slow puncture" would imply something puncturing the tire slowly over time, which wouldn't make immediate sense.

rrrobots
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    Thos doesn't really add anything new to the existing answers. Please take our [Tour] to familiarize yourself with the way this website works. Welcome to ELL! – Joachim Aug 13 '22 at 17:58
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As an AmE, I find "My car's tire has a slow puncture" quite uncommon, I would most likely use the following in everyday conversation:

My car's tire is flat

I got/had a flat tire

"My car has a slow flat tire" is also weird, and doesn't make sense since a flat tire comprises of a tire that is already flat, it does not describe the process of the tire losing air.

I would probably say "my tire is losing air" or "my tire is punctured" too.

DialFrost
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    But those phrases ("My car's tire is flat", "I got/had a flat tire") don't mean the same thing. If your tire/tyre has (in Brit-speak) a slow puncture, it may not be flat: it can be perfectly usable, for days at a time even - it's just that, over a period of weeks (say), it will lose pressure and need to be reinflated. The question is, how would you describe that? – psmears Aug 12 '22 at 10:59
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    @psmears I would probably say "my tire is losing air" or "my tire is punctured" – DialFrost Aug 12 '22 at 10:59
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    That needs to be in your answer then :) (Presumably "punctured" is not enough on its own, because that would also apply to a bigger puncture where the tire goes flat almost immediately? A "slow puncture" is specifically one where it takes a very long time for the pressure to go down...) – psmears Aug 12 '22 at 13:06
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As someone working in a field very closely related to medicine (but not a native English speaker), the term "slow puncture" makes sense, as it could be thought of as a "chronic puncture". A related term would then be acute puncture. Perhaps American clinicians are more inclined to use the term "slow puncture"?

Erik Rasmussen
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