Rare Usa-China w.
I know I have programmer brain, but I like Eastern Europe and Argentina's more.
this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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0-indexed floors kinda slap ngl
Definitely a soviet decision. Idk why Argentina followed it though.
Not even they can deny the immortal science
Rest of the world is, look at the dang map!
I will never accept the second floor as being the first floor
The first floor is the first floor. When you enter a building, there's a floor you encounter first. That's the first floor, obviously. You can't enter a building and then leave the floor you're on to reach the first floor unless the place you entered isn't considered a floor at all.
Most of the time I don't care what conventions people use. No system of measurements is right or wrong, it's all a matter of what you're raised with. But this is one of those cases where the convention used by a lot of people is simply wrong and I won't accept it.
this is why the legend in this map is misleading.
eg, in hungary's case, you'd never have this kind of confusion about the first floor, because of the words used.
- ground floor = földszint (literally, ground level)
- first floor = első emelet (literally, first thing that is raised, emel is the verb for lifting, raising)
so you start building a house by building walls around the ground floor, then you raise a story on top, which is the first lifted thing (that is, it's not on the ground).
so there's no programmer's logic involved, it flows quite naturally from the words we use.
That's not a floor. That's just the ground you walk in on. The floors are the things that are built above it
You don't have a floor on the main level of your house? You're just rawdogging the earth, watching TV with the worms?
Welcome to the UK
That's the ground floor buddy
The ground what? The ground what? 
Is this maybe part of the reason? European buildings are so old, the literal ground is the floor. We dig into the ground to make a basement. We pour concrete into/onto the earth to lay bricks on top.
US homes I see are mostly raised wooden floors off the ground. You literally make a first floor, even if it's very close to the ground level.
Wouldn't be too surprised.
I will never accept the first floor as being the second floor.
The ground floor is the ground floor. It is the same level as where you enter and every other floor is relatively up or down from it.
Most of the time I don't care what conventions people use. No system of measurements is right or wrong, it's all a matter of what you're raised with. But this is one of those cases where the convention used by a lot of people is simply wrong and I won't accept it.
The right three systems make sense, the first two are so un-logical they should be banned.
"I won first place!" "congrats to your silver medal. I won 'ground place' and got the gold medal."
"have you ever done this before?" "this is the first time, so I've only done it once before (which is called the ground time)."
January 2 is the first day of the year. January 1? Ground day.
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So which one is the first floor you encounter when you enter the building? Do you normally climb a ladder to get in your house, or do you enter your house on the ground floor? Is the ground floor the first floor you encounter when you enter or is it not?
If you take the stair down from the ground floor, the second floor you see is the basement top level. Do you call that the second floor then? Is the order of floors decided by the first guy that walked into the building with floor numbers (after they forgot the 0 sign ofc). Does the floor numbering for each building depend on whether they wanted to start upwards or downwards that day?
Your 'first floor you see' way of thinking only holds up for the ground floor. Meanwhile just pure rational (mathematical even) +/- X from ground floor is logic all the way around
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No that's the ground. You come in, you are at the grounds, on the ground.
You can call that the ground floor if you like, but when you add a second story to your building, that’s the second floor. It’s fairly common for elevators in the us to be labeled G, 2, 3, 4, …
This whole thing is just because english, the silly language, uses the same word for floor as it does for level of house. It's the second floor but it's the first level, plateau, niveau, whatever
Whatever you call it, I don’t see why the ground level should be a separate concept from all the other levels, and ignored in the numbering system. The difference may be relevant for construction and engineering purposes, but for actually using a building, they’re the same idea.
:ok: Most monolingual shit I ever read. You didn't really understand what I wrote.
I don't see how it makes sense to name something that is a ceiling a "floor", but that's because thats not how its thought about in english 
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The only "second floor is floor 1" system that's correct is the Russian one, because that's rational mathematical notation.
As someone coming from a ground floor country, I agree, the US system is more intuitive, and should be standard
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When I was a kid I thought the 'customs' at the airport was for stuff like this- you have to go to customs first so you know whether it's the ground floor or floor zero, whether you take your shoes off in people's homes, why kind of cutlery you'll be using during your visit
Also this thread has made the word 'floor' no longer look like a real word
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eastern europe/russia/argentina/hungary is not how i was raised, but i can get down with it.
brazil has chosen madness and must be stopped.
Ah yes the floor: famous for being a ceiling. Makes so much sense the floor could be above the ground.
This is in part a result of translation. Other languages have a different word for ground floor than the word they have for floor 1.
For some reason English uses floor instead of "level" or "plateau". It's confusing. First you're at ground level, then you're at first and so on.
I cannot defend danish though, which uses the word "stueetage" for ground floor. "Stue" means living room. Etage means level. It's the living room level.
Ah yes the floor: famous for being a ceiling. Makes so much sense the floor could be above the ground.
Well kind of does, the ceiling of the current level is the floor of the level above it.
This is in part a result of translation. Other languages have a different word for ground floor than the word they have for floor 1.
Can confirm, in German we say "erstes Obergeschoss" (first upper floor) or "erste Etage" for the second/first floor, and "Erdgeschoss" (earth floor) for first/ground floor.
If you leave out the words entirely there is one group that counts (3,2,1,-1,-2), another that counts (2,1,-1,-2,-3), and the other three that count (2,1,0,-1,-2). Last one wins obviously, just by virtue of using numbers correctly.
Brazil you better cut that shit out
I think most continental european countries call the first floor the first floor, right? i've mostly seen the completely ridiculous UK system in former british colonies in asia (same contries that also drive on the wrong side of the road usually, and use creepy big electrical plugs) and the normal system in continental europe and china (where people also drive normally)
every time you cross the border from mainland china to hong kong it's like entering a freaky mirror universe. the first floor is upstairs! look to the right before crossing the road! maybe "west" means "south" and "good weather" means pouring rain, why not?
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Türkiye is orange. I've seen some buildings use F0 instead, but they're exceptions.
I don't have a problem with any of the conventions, but I like each one more the further right you go.
Russia's is the best here.
I've always been a blue enthusiast, but honestly the Russian system is even more correct.
This is another one of those cases where I love the Soviets' ruthless functionalism
Chicago: First floor, ground floor, lobby. Random chance which one it is you're entering at, one or two of them will be below you, possible the lobby floor is above you, get fucked
Second floor basement? Psycho Mantis?
As someone from Brazil I say I've mostly seen blue, sometimes yellow buildings, and never seen purple.
Spain would be blue too
Hungary and Brazil doing their own thing
I feel like Australia's are usually the blue one but some places randomly decide to use the other ones
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Eastern Europe and Russia zero-indexed.
Former Soviet Union actually mostly uses the same numbering as USA and China. The numbering presented here I've only seen in industrial buildings and hospitals. Probably used also in other non-residential buildings.
And also seen a variant, where the ground floor is 1, the first underground floor is 0.
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