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Floors and Stories

English translation: Floors and Stories

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:Floors and Stories
Selected answer:Floors and Stories
Entered by: Ligia Dias Costa

14:22 Aug 4, 2008
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Construction / Civil Engineering
English term or phrase: Floors and Stories
I am doing a translation with these two terms: floors and stories. Can you explain the difference between those tow terms? Thanks
Ligia Dias Costa
Portugal
Local time: 21:36
Floors are the bottom sides of the stories
Explanation:
A 3 stories building has 3 floors even if the first floor is plain earth. If the building has a basement, the building still has 3 stories but has 4 floors.
Selected response from:

Arnold T.
Canada
Local time: 16:36
Grading comment
Thanks. This is very confusing for me because in Portuguese we do not make that distinction!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +5Floor = ground we are stepping, level of the building; storey = level of the building as a whole
Vincentius Mariatmo
4 +1interior versus exterior and also synonyms
Patricia Rosas
4 +1either is fine
Liam Hamilton
3Floors and Stories
Bashiqa
3 -2Floors are the bottom sides of the stories
Arnold T.


Discussion entries: 7





  

Answers


3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
floors and stories
interior versus exterior and also synonyms


Explanation:
Perhaps this definition will clear it up:
1 : the level base of a room
2 a : the lower inside surface of a hollow structure (as a cave or bodily part) b : a ground surface <the ocean floor>
3 a : a structure dividing a building into stories; also : STORY b : the occupants of such a floor

Patricia Rosas
United States
Local time: 13:36
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  warren: The cat prowled the ledge on the second story of the house/when the light turned green, the old lady floored it and sped off i.e. she put the gas pedal of her vehicle as far down as it would go, to the floor
4 hrs
  -> very creative examples :-) Thanks for the agree!!
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
floors and stories
Floors and Stories


Language variant: UK

Explanation:
Floor is any open flat space in the building. It may be in parts of the building "2 stories high" depending how the building is constructed and its use. In an industrial building the work area may be several stories high while only containing one floor.

Bashiqa
France
Local time: 22:36
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8
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22 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
floors and stories
Floor = ground we are stepping, level of the building; storey = level of the building as a whole


Explanation:
It actually depends from the context of the sentence.

"floor"
Used to denote the ground we are stepping at, such as "wooden floor", "raised floor", etc.
Also used to explain the level of the building, such as "1st floor", "2nd floor", etc. Ex : My office is at the third floor of this building.

"storey" (British English) / "story" (US English)
Used to denote the level of the building AS A WHOLE, such as "multi-storey apartment", "3-storey building". Ex : His office is located in a 4-storey building.


Hope this explanation helps you ^^
CMIIW


    Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floor
    Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storey
Vincentius Mariatmo
Local time: 03:36
Native speaker of: Indonesian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Demi Ebrite:
2 hrs
  -> Thank you Demi ^^
agree  David Moore (X)
3 hrs
  -> Thank you David ^^
agree  conejo: Yep
5 hrs
  -> Thank you conejo :D
agree  Phong Le
10 hrs
  -> Thank you phongicehcmc -> this is really hard to type :D
agree  Deborah Workman
12 hrs
  -> Thank you Deborah :D
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4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): -2
floors and stories
Floors are the bottom sides of the stories


Explanation:
A 3 stories building has 3 floors even if the first floor is plain earth. If the building has a basement, the building still has 3 stories but has 4 floors.

Arnold T.
Canada
Local time: 16:36
Works in field
Native speaker of: French
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thanks. This is very confusing for me because in Portuguese we do not make that distinction!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  writeaway: I don't understand this at all./ bottom sides
4 hrs
  -> A building is like a pile of blocks. The bottom faces of the blocks are the "floors".
disagree  Deborah Workman: It is the top side that is the floor./Storeys are on or above ground (the basement isn't a storey), but if your ground floor is just a slab or literally just soil, the slab surface/soil is your "flooring". The floor is unfinished but still a floor.
7 hrs
  -> What about the floor of the very first story ?
neutral  d_vachliot (X): I'm sorry, but what you're saying doesn't make sense.
14 hrs
disagree  David Moore (X): Looks as if someone else has run away with a wrong answer - and worse still, the nonsense has gone into the glossary..
16 hrs
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14 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
floors and stories
either is fine


Explanation:
I think it may depend on where you live, but the two words are often synonyms. In the UK it is common to refer to the number of floors in a building, but "stories" is also used. I am not sure what is the more common usage in other countries.

Liam Hamilton
Bulgaria
Local time: 23:36
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  d_vachliot (X): I don't really think there's that big a difference between the two.
4 hrs
neutral  David Moore (X): UK: "Storeys"
6 hrs
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