American dialect question

[HansNZ]

Is it true that Americans call the road the "pavement" and call the pavement a sidewalk?

 

[muscle_geek]

We call the road a "road," and we call the sidewalk a "sidewalk."

 

[HansNZ]

We call the road a "road," and we call the sidewalk a "sidewalk."

Someone I was talking to reckoned that Americans use the term "pavement" when refering to the road, not the footpath, so that is why I asked.

 

[Lao Tzu]

pavement is the coating on a road.

 

[HansNZ]

pavement is the coating on a road.

We talk of paved or sealed roads a opposed to dirt roads. But pre-industrial revolution and during the early industrial era, only the footpaths in cities were paved, the road was dirt or gravel. I suppose that is why we refer to the footpath (sidewalk) as being the pavement.

 

[FreeballinDC]

Is it true that Americans call the road the "pavement" and call the pavement a sidewalk?

An even better question to ask is why we call where we PARK our cars a DRIVEWAY, and where we DRIVE our cars a PARKWAY.

 

[The Shadow]

pavement generally refers to black top at least in the South


But then "Coke" means any soft srink - lol

 

[Lumberg]

We talk of paved or sealed roads a opposed to dirt roads. But pre-industrial revolution and during the early industrial era, only the footpaths in cities were paved, the road was dirt or gravel. I suppose that is why we refer to the footpath (sidewalk) as being the pavement.

that makes sense.

to reiterate what the other yanks have said, to us pavement is what something is made of not the object itself. we don't say "the pavements are really congested today" or "the pavement to hell is paved with good intentions"

 

[HansNZ]

Re: Re: American dialect question

An even better question to ask is why we call where we PARK our cars a DRIVEWAY, and where we DRIVE our cars a PARKWAY.

interesting...i've never heard the term "parkway" before.

 

[Y_lifter]

Re: Re: Re: American dialect question

Originally posted by HansNZ
interesting...i've never heard the term "parkway" before.

Only in Jersey....

Pavement to me can be either a Paved Road/Street or Concrete Sidewalk.

As in :

That big Hoochie Mama in the video slammed the bro to the pavement.

She did both on the sidewalk and the street.

 

[b fold the truth]

What is pavement?

What is a sidewalk?

They just recovered the dirt with gravel here...awesome. It makes drag racing so much funner...

B True