Posted by John Giddy on August 11, 2007 at 01:17:12 from 58.175.115.253 user jgiddy.
In Reply to: Re: Beckfoot-number of stairwells/ house building style posted by Ed Kiser on August 11, 2007 at 00:56:32:
The "first floor -- ground floor" difference has been around as long as I can remember. It seems to be that UK and countries which were previously colonies and still associated with them, such as Australia where I live, treat the ground floor as the one with direct access to the actual ground, with the next floor up being called "first". i.e. the first floor above the basic one.
I agree it is a bit illogical, but is a very long standing convention which won't be changed in my lifetime (not that long now !) or beyond. The American convention of calling the floor at ground level "first" is also ingrained in the population, and won't be changed any time soon. I guess we just have to be aware of the differences and make suitable translations.