michaleo:

I see, so talking about the 3rd floor is less concrete/definite than the aeroplane, that's the difference. Interesting!

Not exactly. I rather mean that there is no indication of coming from inside to outside. But Li elsaltis el la tria etaĝo would also be good.

Okay, I'm not sure I completely understand, but thanks for explaining anyway.

I just noticed something: In the USA, the "thir floor" is the third floor built, but in England, it's the third floor up from the ground. So . . . which is it in Esperanto?

I found a rather extended example of this from the highest source, i.e., la Ekzercaro (31):

La birdo ne forflugis: ĝi nur deflugis de la arbo, alflugis al la domo kaj surflugis sur la tegmenton.

Nile:I just noticed something: In the USA, the "thir floor" is the third floor built, but in England, it's the third floor up from the ground. So . . . which is it in Esperanto?

I doubt that it's really been standardised, but perhaps it would be more likely to use the British/European form, since the language was constructed in Europe and that's still where the largest communities of speakers are found, especially in Eastern Europe. (Maybe michaleo would be so kind as to tell us what the situation is in Polish, i.e. whether it has a separate term for a ground floor.) Because Esperanto likewise uses the British/European billion, biliono, (10^12) rather than the American (10^9), for which it uses the term miliardo like we used to in Britain and France (i.e. milliard in both languages). But everyone (except Esperantists!) uses the American billion nowadays anyway, because of economic globalisation.

jismith1989:

Nile:I just noticed something: In the USA, the "thir floor" is the third floor built, but in England, it's the third floor up from the ground. So . . . which is it in Esperanto?

I doubt that it's really been standardised, but perhaps it would be more likely to use the British/European form, since the language was constructed in Europe and that's still where speakers predominate, especially in Eastern Europe. (Maybe michaleo would be so kind as to tell us what the situation is in Polish, i.e. whether it has a separate term for a ground floor.) Because esperanto uses the British/European billion, biliono, (10^12) rather than the American (10^9), for which it uses the term miliardo like we used to in Britain and France (i.e. milliard in both languages). But everyone (except Esperantists!) uses the American billion nowadays anyway, because of economic globalisation.

In Polish a ground floor is parter and a floor is piętro. And also Esperanto miliardo is miliard and biliono is bilion so it's different than in American English but this terminology was earlier so why should it be changed? Only because Americans changed it without any rational reasons?

michaleo:In Polish a ground floor is parter and a floor is piętro. And also Esperanto miliardo is miliard and biliono is bilion so it's different than in American English but this terminology was earlier so why should it be changed? Only because Americans changed it without any rational reasons?

Thanks. No, I agree, there's no reason for it to be changed. The older system makes more sense to me intuitively. Possibly one reason why it was changed in Britain though is because we speak the same language as Americans, so there was more scope for confusion in trade and whatever, and their word won out because the dollar obviously dominates the global economy.

jismith1989:But everyone (except Esperantists!) uses the American billion nowadays anyway, because of economic globalisation.

Not "everyone except Esperatists" uses the billion as defined as ten to the power of nine. For instance Swedish uses the word biljon to denote ten to the power of twelve, and I am sure there are other languages as well using similar words för that.

Rugxdoma:

jismith1989:But everyone (except Esperantists!) uses the American billion nowadays anyway, because of economic globalisation.

Not "everyone except Esperatists" uses the billion as defined as ten to the power of nine. For instance Swedish uses the word biljon to denote ten to the power of twelve, and I am sure there are other languages as well using similar words för that.

No, I think I was wrong about that, most of continental Europe does still seem to use the equivalent of billion to mean 10^12 (i.e. the long scale). So thanks for correcting me.