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<Proofreader>
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While this is more number-related, it de;ves imto some word problems, too.
 
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Picture of Kalleh
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Very interesting. The double 2 or double 0 was new to me. And they never did come to a conclusion whether the British say triple 2 or double 2, 2 or 2, double two.

However, the twenty three hundred vs. two thousand three hundred example isn't really strange for me. I hear it both ways.

The addresses being unrelated on both sides of the street seem very odd to me, as it did to the guy in the video.

Thanks, Proof - that was fun!
 
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Re triples... the most common way I've heard it is to say "two double two" or "two two two". Anything else sounds odd to me.

We almost never use the twenty-three hundred form here.

Re house numbers. It's actually very rare to have one side of a street numbered in the opposite direction. The normal way is to zig-zag across the street so that east to west (for example) goes 1,3,5,7... on one side and 2,4,6,8... on the other which usually means houses kind of line up but when there is a street with fewer houses on one side than the other (say because it curves or because there is a gap where another road joins) the become misaligned.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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If I understand you correctly, that's they way our addresses run, too. Odds on one side and evens on the other - corresponding to each other. For example, we are on the east side of the street with 981, 937 and 921. Then on the west side is 982, 938 and 922. Is that what you mean?

I also think it odd that your elevators don't have the first floor. Isn't your first floor called the second floor, or some such?
 
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Yes. That's the normal way for numbers. I was surprised that numbers in the US seem to start at 100 and then skip numbers for a new block. because we don't have blocks as such in the UK our numbers start at 1 and run without gaps.

As for buildings we certainly do have a first floor. It's the one you think of as the second floor. So in a ten storey building your floors would, startng at street level, be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 while ours would be G,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 where G means Ground. In this case your system is eminently more sensible than ours. (Incidentally, here in China some people use the American system and some the British. It seems to be entirely on personal whim.)


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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Very occasionally some street numbers run (say) east-west for the length of the street, from 1-300 for example, with consecutive numbers next to each other, then they cross over and come back as 301-600 or whatever. The Strand in London is an example.

In effect they are using boustrophedon. I've no idea why, unless it's to be deliberately confusing.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
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But as you say it is VERY occasional.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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quote:
boustrophedon
Great word, arnie.

I have not noticed, Bob, that our numbers start with 100. The numbers on each side do, however, correspond to each other. I did not understand that England did it that same way.
 
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