I'm from the US and I've never heard anyone call terra firma "the floor." The floor is inside; the ground is outside.
I've been watching some British YouTube channels and I've heard them call the ground the floor many times. In one instance, a 20-something British woman called it the ground but then throughout the rest of the video she called it the floor.
I didn't know that was a British thing...I have heard it here in America, but pretty rarely. I agree it is incorrect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lw_fbyE1Vo&t=162s
No. At least not in standard use. There are many differences between US and British English. This isn't one of them. A floor is the flat surface inside a room that you walk on, and by extension also the storey (Oh, there's a difference!) of a building. The ground is outside, as are the grounds of a building.
I've literally never heard 'floor' for 'ground' in the UK (or anywhere else for that matter), but perhaps it's a younger person thing. Let's hope it doesn't catch on, because it's obviously stupid.
Here's the video I mentioned in my post:
https://youtu.be/UOg1hHmGIQQ
At 2:45 she calls it "the ground," but calls it "the floor" throughout the rest of the video. For example, at 2:56 she calls it "the floor," and does so several more times in the video. She's not the only one; I've heard all of those GCN presenters call the ground "the floor." Sam Pilgrim and his brother do it too, even in the woods with not a hint of anything man-made on the ground.
Hmm. Well, I suppose a forest has a floor, so perhaps a wooded area sometimes does too. I can assure you however that this use of floor for ground is not correct British English and, as far as I'm aware, not widespread either. Clearly, it's in use though -- and must be stamped out immediately. I shall begin a campaign. Get some boots on the, um, floor.
shareTerra ferma is the floor. The ground can be where ever we say bruv. I'm actually aussie. So I don't care, we actually don't exist
shareThey call level 1 "ground floor" which muddles it and makes the terms almost interchangeable.
Americans say "floor is man made, ground is natural". Yet Americans call the bottom of the ocean "the ocean floor".
So the terms seem to be somewhat interchangeable in America as well.
"So the terms seem to be somewhat interchangeable in America as well."
Not interchangeable at all, at least not in my nearly 50 years. "Ground floor" just means the floor that's at ground level. If you're standing on the ground floor in a building and you dropped your keys, you wouldn't say you dropped your keys on the ground, you would say you dropped them on the floor.
As for the "ocean floor," well, that's not terra firma. It's a peculiarity but it doesn't affect how "floor" and "ground" are normally used otherwise.
Ground just means dirt, not necessarily firm.
Coffee grounds aren't firm.
"Ground just means dirt, not necessarily firm."
Terra firma means dry land, as opposed to the sea or air, the same as ground means.
"Coffee grounds aren't firm."
That's a completely different sense of the word. Coffee grounds aren't called that because of any relationship to the ground, they are called that because they have been ground in a grinder, as opposed to being whole beans.
They call level 1 "ground floor" which muddles it and makes the terms almost interchangeable
So the terms seem to be somewhat interchangeable in America as well.
I'm a Brit and I've NEVER referred to the ground outside as 'the floor'. Floors are inside buildings, the ground is outside.
shareI'm a 40 something Brit. I say the same as you, floor = indoors, ground = outside.
Same as steps and stairs. Stairs = indoors, steps = outside.
I have heard some some the opposite, but mostly everyone says it correctly. Maybe it's an education or generational thing 🤔
Stairs/steps is a good example. As you say, stairs are always indoors. Otherwise it's steps.
share