First Floor/Second Floor US vs British Engish

[Odinsdottir]

In US English, the ground floor of a building is called the first floor.  In UK English the ground floor is the ground floor and the one above is the first floor.  This is causing my head to fall off and roll away when watching building tutorials on youtube. 

What about Western Europe and Australia/New Zealand?  South Africa?

[ladybug53]

Here in Canada we use the same term as the US. The only time we refer to the first floor as being the ground floor is in large building that have many floors. It could be called the ground or main floor. In a house we call them the first and second floor. 

[donatello]

In South Africa we follow British trends in this regard, as well as in spelling. So we write color (American) as colour, and we are travelling, not traveling.  It's pointless to trust the normal default US spell check that comes standard with PCs when you are here.

[Andy_555224]

It's the same here in Ireland. We honour people, not honor them. We have dilligence, not diligence.

[saltpastillen]

In Sweden the ground floor would be called the "bottom floor" and if the house only has two levels, the 1st/2nd would be called the "upper floor". Generally, if asked to use numbers, the ground floor would be the 1st floor and so on...

[norenegonc]

In Britain the lowest floor is indeed called the ground floor and the floor above is the first. This likely comes from the French as does most of English vocabulary. When I was in France the ground floor is always called le rez-de-chaussée whereas the first floor is called le premier étage which means literally the first stage. And the numbers go on from there

[Ausette]

Australia typically follows British conventions including the spelling, but I've heard both styles being used here. For some reason about 80% of my human biology lectures use the American spellings (esophagus instead of oesophagus etc.). Drives me crazy .  For floors it's something like this:

In Sweden the ground floor would be called the "bottom floor" and if the house only has two levels, the 1st/2nd would be called the "upper floor". Generally, if asked to use numbers, the ground floor would be the 1st floor and so on...

[donatello]

As a matter of interest, Afrikaans takes a very um... interesting? approach to this matter. Leto might find this familiar too. Ground floor is Grondvloer. Straightforward, even if you don't know Afrikaans. But then comes First floor. Eerste verdieping? What the heck? VerDIEPing. Diep = deep. As in DOWN. But we're moving UP?! Yeah... Only in South Africa, lol.