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Pedants' corner

Why do people call the ground the floor?

(34 Posts)
KateS Sat 13-Mar-21 23:12:52

Getting annoyed that this very common mis-use of language is creeping into TV programmes. Police shows especially tell people to "get on the floor" when they are outside. Surely a floor is an indoor feature? If it's outside it's the ground, or the road, or the grass. Anything but the floor really.

maddyone Sun 14-Mar-21 00:51:17

That’s certainly what I understood, the ground is outside, the floor is inside.

crazyH Sun 14-Mar-21 00:55:01

I fully agree - floor is inside, ground is outside

Ro60 Sun 14-Mar-21 02:49:02

Agree, but if a police officer shouted that at me I'd certainly hit the deck ?

nanna8 Sun 14-Mar-21 03:25:54

Maybe they are a bunch of drunks who don’t knows their @rses from their elbows?

suziewoozie Sun 14-Mar-21 07:23:43

Ro60

Agree, but if a police officer shouted that at me I'd certainly hit the deck ?

???
As you’re a women ( I assume) you are certainly more likely to be shouted at by a police officer to hit the deck and especially if not wearing a football scarf. Oh damn- this is Pedants Corner <slinks off promising not to mention MM and PH>

Riverwalk Sun 14-Mar-21 07:49:45

Not always indoors, for example forest floor, ocean floor, canyon floor.

M0nica Sun 14-Mar-21 08:39:48

I think they grew up watching too many American cop series.

Baggs Sun 14-Mar-21 08:49:09

Why do people get het up about other people using what they regard as the 'wrong' word, even when the meaning of what they are saying is perfectly clear?

I speak as someone who has used the word floor when I meant ground, when I would normally have used the word ground but floor is the word that came out.

Septimia Sun 14-Mar-21 09:14:53

'Floor' instead of 'ground' irritates me, too.

Using the wrong word by accident is a different matter, but on a lot of the police programmes it's deliberate.

Ellianne Sun 14-Mar-21 09:18:25

The voice in the lift of my John Lewis says both, "Ground Floor".

Mollygo Sun 14-Mar-21 09:24:19

Oh dear, I’m one of those bad people.?
If my DGS’s drops a sweet outside, I say, “Don’t eat that, it’s been in the floor!”Riverwalk I use ocean floor and forest floor, or even bed instead of ground and have heard ? people say, “Hit the deck!” when there’s no decking there and the weren’t intending violence to the deck anyway.

EllanVannin Sun 14-Mar-21 09:32:47

My flat is on the "ground floor" but advertised as first floor ? A first floor is above the ground ?-----but it isn't !
So which is it, ground floor or first floor ?
Ground floor in buildings gives me a picture of the cellar grin. Obviously it's on a level with the ground and not beneath.

KateS Sun 14-Mar-21 09:45:48

And I heard a politician saying it this morning on TV. My feeling is that it's fine to say first floor or third floor, when you are describing the level of a building, as it's inside. I've got my full pedant hat on about using the word floor for something outside, it just grates with me so much that I'm looking for it now.

Lovetopaint037 Sun 14-Mar-21 09:55:15

I often correct myself as I find myself doing that.

Mollygo Sun 14-Mar-21 10:00:40

EllenVannin our French apartment was on the first floor, the floor beneath was called Rez-de-chaussée-at street level.
It’s as confusing as school years in the UK. In your second year in school, you go into Year 1.

Oldbat1 Sun 14-Mar-21 11:34:18

I find it really annoying. Floor is inside. Ground is outside. Why not just use the correct word?

Mollygo Sun 14-Mar-21 15:53:46

It annoys Mumsnetters too. Their thread has more posts than ours. Come on GN.

Jaxjacky Sun 14-Mar-21 16:59:01

I’m more ranty about a pack of cheese that just hit the floor (kitchen, hope that’s allowed) after I’d tried to ‘tear here’.
I don’t care if people say floor or ground and use deck too.

Blossoming Sun 14-Mar-21 17:04:02

I want to know where ground almonds come from. Have they been on the floor?

Ro60 Sun 14-Mar-21 17:21:06

They grow in the ground ???

varian Sun 14-Mar-21 17:34:21

On architectural drawings you may see floor plans - labelled ground floor, first floor, second floor etc and you may also see a ground plan, which will include the outside space beyond the ground floor. It is helpful to be precise.

janeainsworth Sun 14-Mar-21 18:16:09

It’s a Cheshire thing.
Our English mistress at school, who was in fact Scottish, would occasionally have a little rant about it, wondering why Cheshire people referred to the ground as the ‘floor’, as she’d never come across that usage anywhere else.
But why would it annoy anyone?

MissAdventure Sun 14-Mar-21 18:21:21

I think I use either.
I've not really ever thought about what's correct.
It's not as if I'm a surveyor.

Blossoming Sun 14-Mar-21 19:17:39

Ro60 grin