Luna’s Adventures in English

Luna said:
What I mean is this expression like, when you go to the doctor and he comes with a syringe and you might be afraid and you close your eyes and make some wrinkles bracing yourself for "Oh, just let this pass soon". Or you're running your lungs burn and you're rallying your last energy reserves for an "Just a little little bit more".
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Closing your eyes like that in pain, or in anticipation of pain, possibly along with clenching your teeth, would be called a grimace... "He was grimacing in pain."

Edit: A less intense reaction would be called a "wince" as in "she winced when the needle pricked her."
 
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Neil.T said:
The triangular part of the wall is called a "gable". The window in it is a "gable window". That side of the building is the "gable end" of the house.
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I. Am. Facedesking.
That certain classic book is called "Anne of Green GABLES". Haaaaa, I was even talking about Akage no Anne in the AL thread a while ago.
But for some who knows why reason I thought gables were the tiles on the gable. Like gable tiles look diffrent than bricks. I always though tiles and brick mean the same, but they don't. It's that the tiles on the gable and the tiles in the bathroom are both tiles. (German has three diffrent words for it. Though the gable tiles and the brick share the same word stem. I always thought the bathroom one and the brick are the same word in English.)

Girls wIth Guns said:
For your first question, closing your eyes like that in pain, or in anticipation of pain, would be a grimace...
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Ah.....! Now that you say it, it becomes so obvious. OTL
 
Adam-M said:
Edit - I thought you was a mod then for some reason.
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Heh. Back in the mists of time a few people did want to draft me as a mod. Probably luckily for everyone (including me) Paul made a far saner choice and as a result we now enjoy the Pax Rui rather than living under what would surely have been my banhammer happy iron fist.

And just so you don’t get me wrong, my post above wasn’t a call to stop posting these questions @Luna - They’re provoking a lot of fun discussion, I think discussion of regional accents and gable ends has just outgrown the scope of this thread a little! :D
 
Oh, the thread really got called that, lol

Well then the first highly officially in random:

KFlTWeV.png

It's ... stripes in the lane? Trail in the lane? Trail markers?
And there are two types, do they have their own name each?
 
In the US, the line in the middle of the road is simply called the center line, and can be either solid or broken, so in the photo that would be a broken center line, which of course allows passing. The white lines marking the edges of the roadway are actually called fog lines, but very few people are even aware of that name.
 
Road Markings


Lane line

LANE LINE
Lane line found on single or dual carriageway roads separating traffic travelling in the same direction. As can be seen in the image.


Single white line roadside

SINGLE WHITE LINE ROADSIDE
Single white line at the edge of the carriageway, other than at junctions, a single white line exits on private drives and lay-bys. Used on the left-hand side of the road and alongside the central reservation of dual carriageway roads.
 
Girls wIth Guns said:
In the US, the line in the middle of the road is simply called the center line, and can be either solid or broken, so in the photo that would be a broken center line, which of course allows passing.
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Ahem, let's remember where we are ladies and gentlemen, that's the centre line. :p

Interesting technical terms aside, no-one except perhaps the police and the people charged with actually painting them on the road would normally call them anything other than "road markings" in everyday use.
 
It's funny, while a lot of people think of "highway" as being primarily an American term, the government agency that manages the roads here in the UK is called the "Highways Agency", highway in fact being an old legal term for any public right of way that was around before there even were carriages to travel on them. Carriageway is only commonly used in the term "dual carriageway", which wikipedia informs me is synonymous to the US term "divided highway". We tend to just call most roads, well... roads. What you'd call a highway (or Luna would call an autobahn) we'd call a motorway (since it was intended for motorised vehicles and definitely not carriages).

And both the UK and Japan drive on the right correct side of the road so on a UK anime forum you're kind of outnumbered there. :p
 
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Well, it seems like driving on the right is mainly done in the Western Hemisphere, and diving on the left in the Eastern Hemisphere, so it must have something to do with the Coriolis Effect... ;)
 
Wait, highway is an AE exclusive word for Autobahn?
I never heard of carriageway before either. Or motorway. Or divided highway, though I might have had a guess that it would have been a road with multiple lanes.

Ok, now I think I'm rather confused. What was in my head so far:
There is road. Over here "Straße", which is a well, road, that's got concrete on it and you don't drive all that very quick on it. (I think max 60km/h? Not sure) At any rate, these are lanes where slower agriculture trucks and bicycles may also drive on it.
Then there is highway. Over here "Autobahn", which really only features cars, buses and trucks and you have to drive fast, usually around 80-110km/h, with occasional 60km/h when there is some construction site, which notoriously and royally seems to unnerve anybody driving. So basically the fast track where you better not show by on foot or bycyle or you're dead.
(And then there are parish roads or farm tracks, which have no concrete, just two lines of earth and dirts pressed down for some markings.)

So where does what fit into which now? @_@
 
At it's simplest, in British English the distinction is drawn by the number of lanes and if the directions of traffic are separated. If it has two lanes, one in each direction (or even a single lane, in the country) then it's a road - Or a street if it's in an urban area, which shares a common origin with "straße" in the Latin "strata" - The Romans built the first real roads in England, Germany and pretty much everywhere else in Europe. If it has four lanes, two in each direction but there's no barrier, it's still a road. If it has two lanes in each direction but they're divided by a central reservation that can't be crossed because there's a barrier or a strip of grass to stop people, it's a dual carriageway. If it has three or more lanes in each direction (in which case traffic will definitely be separated) it's a motorway.

Typical speed limits would be 30 in urban areas, 55 on the dual carriageway (and roads outside of town - though they can also be 40 or 50) and 70 on the motorway. Miles per hour that is, the UK still uses miles like the Americans. But we're particularly awkward and confusing (as usual) since everything else officially went metric decades ago except road signs and speed limits. We like to be different.

Like I mentioned above, while "highway" is in fact a very old term that was once used in British English (think "highwayman") it isn't used in the UK to refer to modern roads, at least not in everyday speech. It probably hasn't been used since there were actual highwaymen. Which is around the same time the Americans got that whole "independence" idea into their heads, so that's probably why it diverged. :D
 
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I do a lot of driving for my job and there are dual carriageways in my area that range from 30 all the way to the national speed limit of 70.

There are also classes of road: M for Motorway, A(M) roads are wider sections of A roads either along the existing road or by-passing it, A for major roads between towns/cities (and even through them) generally dual carriageways or wide single carriageways (with 2 or 4 lanes), B roads are generally minor single carriageways in rural areas, one lane each way, streets in urban areas (although most are named ***** Road), unclassified roads are rural roads large enough to squeeze two cars passed each other, single track roads (with or without passing places) are even smaller rural roads, and cycle lanes.
 
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