🛗 UK vs US: Which Floor?
Mia and Ollie both ask Wob's lift for the "first floor", and they end up on different floors. Who's right? Both of them!
The rule
ground floorUK
= the floor at street level
- ✅ Reception is on the ground floor.
first floorUK
= one floor above street level
- ✅ My flat is on the first floor, up one flight of stairs.
first floorUS
= the floor at street level
- ✅ The lobby is on the first floor.
lift / elevatorUK / US
= the machine that carries people between floors
- ✅ 🇬🇧 Let's take the lift.
- ✅ 🇺🇸 Let's take the elevator.
Good to know
- UK: ground → first → second. US: first → second → third. Same building, different numbers!
- Americans know the phrase "ground floor" too, but they usually number the street level as the first floor.
- British people understand "elevator", but "lift" is the everyday word in the UK.
Quick quiz
1You're in London, at street level. Which floor are you on?
Answer: the ground floor. In the UK, street level is the ground floor.
2An American's "second floor" is a British person's...
Answer: first floor. The US starts counting at street level, so everything is one number higher.
3Ollie is British. What does he call the elevator?
Answer: the lift. Lift (UK) = elevator (US).
Checked in
- Cambridge Dictionary: first floor (separate UK and US meanings), ground floor, lift
- Merriam-Webster: first floor
- Oxford Learner's Dictionaries: lift, elevator