Why does the English language name floors differently?

[AviatorTom]

OK, we know that US and British English have different names for the same things...

Hood/Trunk vs Bonnet/Boot ; Apartment vs Flat ; Cookie vs Biscuit ; Suspenders vs Braces

But why do the two flavors of English language label floors in a building differently?

Look at the picture. In British English, a person enters a building on the Ground Floor and goes up to the First Floor, while in US English the same person is already on the First Floor when they enter the building.

When a Londoner visits New York City and is told his hotel room is on the 5th Floor, he goes to the wrong floor. Similarly, a New Yorker in London, when told his room is on the 5th Floor, also goes to the wrong floor. OK, the buttons on the elevator might save both of them. 😏

What happened? Why is there such a big difference?

Maybe we should ask YouTuber Laurence Brown of "Lost in the Pond" ... 🤔

Updates

8 mo

In the UK, if the entrance to the building is elevated above ground, say on top of a car park, is the entrance floor still called the ground floor?

[Citizenkirk]

Don't forget that they call parking lots car parks, and I won't get into the slang that refers to coitus that starts with an S over in Britain, an F in the States. But I think one thing that most true sports men of both American and British and Irish catch and release fishing streams would agree on is that it's like self-induced sexual release without the happy ending. That my opinion is true sportsmen that you shouldn't be catching an animal, driving a hook through its mouth unless you intend to eat it.
And nothing tomorrow cultural detour from topic the English language has always been a mongrel language, even before us Yanks started having our way with it. What culture can be considered to be more mongrel than America which we take immense pride in. Before all is said and done, we will have taken every language in the world culture flavor of those languages bilingual by whatever speak to create a hodgepodge and maybe one or two possibly three different hybrid languages to become the ultimate mongrel language all the different languages come together melting pot of slurs words references addictions that become this one type of street language that eventually become a role model for Ronald languages to call themselves after. We are already starting to call a lot of things the way the English call them over there and they're beginning to embrace a lot of the terms in references we use over here so we're becoming one big mongrel bilingual multilingual community of doc pot hybrid cultural linguistics. French teachers will scorn us until French language becomes extinct because it rejects any language that is not purely French and therefore it will be ostracized and become as useful as the Latin language which is an extinct language. English and French have similar origins but English will survive in whatever form it involves into in French will die because it refuses to evolve and change. The British are way too multicultural to go this route and they won't even try they're more like us that way.

[AviatorTom]

I'm glad you got all that off your chest. Have a nice day.

[Citizenkirk]

👍U2

[TheSpaceGnome]

5
4
3
2
1
0 (ground level)
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5

I'm American and this still makes more sense to me.

[strateguy632]

same as coordinates, logic.

[TheSpaceGnome]

@strateguy632 Yep.

[LostandFound__x]

Tbh I live in the UK and I’ve always thought our system was very confusing lol. Especially if I’ve parked in a car park, used the elevator and found myself on the first floor. Then I realise I’m in fact not on the first floor because there’s a ground floor!!!

to answer your update — I don’t think so.

[purplepoppy]

I do know that the word apartment comes Italy while the word flat is from scotland. I wonder if this is the source of the difference in floor naming.

[OlderAndWiser]

When it’s Americans vs. English, they get many things right. . . but this isn’t one of those things.

[abc3643]

In France, it's like in England as well, so my hypothesis is this is likely a European thing.
However, in the US which is much young, multistory buildings were not common so people raised here started to say things rationally as buildings began to get taller.

But that is just a hypothesis.
I do believe it would have been better had we adopted "storey" instead of "story" for floors of a building.

[AviatorTom]

@abc3643 You know, Americans shortened most British English words back in colonial times. Printers had to pay a tax on the amount of paper they used. Shorter words meant less paper... and less tax to pay. It had the extra advantage of using fewer movable type letters. That's why storey became story, programme became program, colour became color, etc.

[Grovermint]

All derivatives differ from the mother language, some more than others.

The differences in floor usage is sometimes dependent on buildings as well.

I've noticed in hospitals that I see "G, 2, 3, ..." in elevators quite often. I've also noticed that in the Dumbwaiter at where I work, it's G, 1, and 2, where it originated before additions were made. The conveyor system within the building also starts with 2 as does the naming convention of the floors themselves, the first floor is considered the basement.

The British one is more logical to me as an American, every floor's number tells you how many stories you are away from ground level, and in what direction. Basement means under it and sometimes has more than one level.

But, the American convention is that the floor is within the building which is on the ground. Ground need not be said because it's on the ground.

[rigmarole]

Americans invented sky scrapers. We have big ones... All the other countries were insecure about the length of their erect shaft so they added an extra floor to sound bigger for the ladies.

[rigmarole]

Woman: In America buildings are 100 stories high, why are your buildings so much smaller? Your is only like 4 stories tall...

British Guy: Ah mmm madam, we have a ground floor, so we're really much larger than you think.

Woman: But 100 is much larger than 4...

British guy: Ah mmm madam, remember the ground floor. Can't forget about that. It's really just a different system we are just as big here as any other country.

[strateguy632]

but then the top floor is a smaller number less. 3 is called 2.

[rigmarole]

@strateguy632 I understand that. The point is that their buildings were smaller regardless, so they need something to act as a distraction. People often change the subject when they are in a losing position...

[Astarlessnightsky]

All i know is British English is the same as both german and french, you need to walk up a flight of stairs to enter the first floor, or erster Stock/erste Etage or premier étage

[Losalt]

Well, American English is the same as Norwegian and a number of other languages...

[Astarlessnightsky]

But British, french, german, and spainish were the biggest european groups settling on NA soil. So it surprised me, none of these matches the way US English works in this particular case. I don't understand Spanish enough but as far as i see its the same as german/french and UK English.

[butterly248]

No clue but our one makes more sense than the US version

[strateguy632]

but when entering the "first one you enter" is first. like the first day of a week or month.

[butterly248]

It always be the first day of the week

[butterly248]

Sorry wrong reply

[Cubus]

In my country it's like in British. We have a separate word for "ground floor"

[Kabluie]

I actually got caught up in this recently. This mall in Spain was like the map says first floor (un/uno/one). I didn't notice the -1 floor, and ground level is 0, oh that means up one level.

[DryGermanGuy]

It's a European thing. In the DACH region we have Erdgeschoss/Parterre.

[exitseven]

It must be a metric system thing.

[Sparkie460]

That's what I was thinking

[exitseven]

@Sparkie460 I dont know when the rest of the world will get with the program.

[Sparkie460]

You mean going back to the standard regular system

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

British sucks.