Floor is inside, ground is outside, right?

Question

Why do people call the ground a floor? I wonder how they treat the floor inside their own home. The majority of the time I hear someone mix the two up, it's a minority saying it. Does it have something to do with culture or city based life?

I wasn't referring to patios and decks. I've seen people call the street or sidewalk a floor. Even the yard. Nothing that keeps me awake at night, just a bit of semantics that I've never understood. It was on my mind today due to witnessing it again, which reminded that I still don't have an answer, and so I decided to ask others, here!

Answer 1

If English isn't your first language, just go on making that distinction-- "ground" is outside and "floor" is in. But accept that some people have an odd way of saying some things. Shrug it off. (Maybe they live in a house with a dirt-floored basement?)

Answer 2

I am not sure why this matters to you, but there are a whole lot of people who are very fond of outdoor living - patios, decks, poolside and stone paths through the woods. To someone on a patio, the part they stand on would be referred to as the floor. It is the floor of the patio. Same thing with a deck or porch - the part you stand on is the floor of the deck or porch regradless of whether there is a roof over it. Pools are usually framed in concrete or decking and would also be considered the flooring - as would be the bottom of the pool.

And a common statement is "hit the deck" to indicate everyone should lay on the ground. It has no bearing on where you are at the time.

The variants are pretty much how the parents spoke to their children rather than an inner-city, urban or country background. There is a big difference in American dialect between the north and south and of course, the further west or east you go. You were raised differently, but in the scheme of things, why would this matter to you?

Answer 3

The word floor usually refers to an interior or a deck or porch. Ground is most commonly used for outdoors however, people refer to a forest as having a floor as in "the forest floor was covered in pine needles".

Answer 4

The "ground" is what a person, or a building, stands on. The floor nearest the ground is the "ground floor". It has nothing to do with exterior vs interior.

Answer 5

I'm not sure what you're hearing. We refer to the bottom level of a building as the "ground" floor; is that what you mean?

Answer 6

Ground is more about the outdoors, floor is about inside the house/premises.