la piso

Question

I just went through my newest lesson, "The house and directions," and the word for floor is la piso. I went to "view related" and they gave the word suelo for floor. But I checked and suelo means soles. So which is the right way. I am betting Paralee is correct. This list was made up by someone named Diane and the topic is Family. Are both words correct but for different reasons, uses? I want to learn Spanish more than anything, but I am losing hope that I will get there even though Paralee is an awesome teacher.

Answer 1

I think "el piso" is like "indoor floor" and "el suelo" is like the ground outside.

Answer 2

soles means suns
floor in Spanish es piso also suelo the plural for these two words is pisos and suelos respectively.
piso's gender is masculine so the the article should also be masculine

By the way in Central American countries la piso is an expresion not used in front of children. Is an expresion that men might say about a lady that has lost her or is about to loose her virtue. in this case the femenine article is use because the subject, implied subjet is femenine

Answer 3

el suelo is ground (or it is sometimes used for floor)
el piso is also the floor
la planta is the floor (story) of a building. For example, planta baja = "ground floor"

Keep in mind that their are many synonyms in Spanish, just as in English.

Answer 4

P.S. For the sole of a shoe, the word is suela, not suelo.

Answer 5

Natasha said:

P.S. For the sole of a shoe, the word is suela, not suelo.

Thank you Natasha. I think when I looked the word up, I put an "A" on the end instead of an "O"...I can use all the help anyone is willing to give me.

Answer 6

"La piso" means "I trample it/her". This is surely a mistake.
"El piso" means "the foor" (level of building) or "the apartment". The plural is "Los pisos".

"El suelo" means "the floor" (solid surface). "Los suelos" is the plural.
"Suelo" also means "I use to", but that's another story.

"Soles" means "suns".

Answer 7

Natasha wrote:
la planta is the floor (story) of a building. For example, planta baja

Both planta and piso are used for floor/story. In the UK, the floor at ground level is called the ground floor, while in the US it is called the first floor. The next floor up is the first floor in the UK, and the second floor in the US. If I'm not mistaken, the usage varies among Hispanic countries.

¿En que países se dice la planta baja para el piso más bajo, el primer piso para el próximo, etc.? ¿Y en qué países se empieza contar desde el primer piso (como es el costumbre en EEUU)?

Interesting trivia: The word story (storey in the UK) has an interesting story. It comes from the Latin historia. The fronts of buildings in the Middle Ages often were decorated with rows of painted or stained glass windows, which usually told some kind of tale, often religious in nature. These decorations came to be connected to the floors of a building, and eventually "story" was used to refer to a level or floor of a building. This, er, history explains why in modern English we only use the word story to denote the height of a building (that is, in reference to the exterior of the building, such as "a 30-story building"), but use "floor" to denote interior levels. Therefore, we don't say "My bedroom is on the second story" or "Go up to his office on the 40th story," and instead use floor in these contexts.

Lazarus wrote:
"Suelo" also means "I use to", but that's another story.

Two things here. First, we can't say "I use to," but rather say "I used to." However, many native English speakers make the same mistake, and you may have seen and copied the error. The error is common because the two versions are pronounced the same in actual speech: yoostoo.

Second, "I used to" is past tense and would therefore be "solía" in Spanish, while "suelo" is "I usually." "I used to" can also be translated just by using the imperfect tense:
"I used to collect coins when I was a kid"
"Coleccionaba monedas cuando era niño."

Answer 8

James said:

:

Both planta and piso are used for floor/story. In the UK, the floor at ground level is called the ground floor, while in the US it is called the first floor. The next floor up is the first floor in the UK, and the second floor in the US. If I'm not mistaken, the usage varies among Hispanic countries.

It is not consistent in the U.S. I've been in buildings where it's both ways. In fact, in hospitals etc. where there are a lot of stories, I would say that it's more common to have a ground floor and then a first floor (I live in the midwest). I got planta baja from the BBC Spanish lessons (Mi Vida Loca), so in that case the usage was Peninsular Spanish / British English.

When I was working at Bell Atlantic in Virginia, the building had 11 stories above ground, and 5 stories below ground for the parking garage (I think they were labeled P5, P4, etc. on the elevator.) So what would you say for an underground floor in Spanish'

Answer 9

In fact, in hospitals etc. where there are a lot of stories, I would say that it's more common to have a ground floor and then a first floor

Really? Can you show me a website that illustrates this? I have traveled around the US a bit, and I have never seen this, nor have I ever met anyone who talks this way. I live in the San Francisco area, and we have people here from all over the US, but no one ever calls the floor above the street level the "first floor."

BTW, in most buildings here that have multiple underground stories, the elevator buttons are marked G1, G2, G3, etc., for "garage." I don't think I've seen the P marking (although I'm not doubting what you say, and my memory may be faulty here).

Answer 10

James said:

:

Really? Can you show me a website that illustrates this?

I actually tried to find such a website, but it doesn't appear to be very common to post building maps on the Internet. I declare there are two common practices here:

ground floor - first floor - second, etc. and you'll see in the elevator "G", "1", etc.
or just first-second-etc. with no "ground" floor

In fact, I was once in a building that violated the norm (a nursing home, perhaps'); it really confused us because it had a ground floor & then a second floor (i.e. no "first" floor).

Answer 11

ola Francis, como esta usted? thanks for adding me,teach me anything you know bout spanish ok?

hasta luego

Answer 12

From the Net:

However, in the U.S. the first floor is at ground level, so the eleventh floor is ten floors up. In other
countries, like France, the first floor is the floor above ground level, so a stunt person would have to be careful on an international shoot.

{Under a photo of a sign in a British building, reading "First floor. In case of emergency, do not use elevator, use stairs for exit}
This probably won't be funny across the pond, but here in the US the 'first floor? is the same as the ground floor. If you leave the first floor using the stairs, you're not getting out of the building!

{From a language forum discussing differences in AmEn and BrEn}
In the US, the first floor is the ground floor. In the UK, the first floor is the one ABOVE the ground floor (i.e. the "second floor")

In Europe, the ground floor in a building is counted as 0, so that the floor above it is the "first floor," while in the US, the "first floor" is on the street level.

{From WR.com]
(storey) piso m;
we live on the first/second ~ (AmE) vivimos en la planta baja/el primer piso;
(BrE) vivimos en el primer/segundo piso

This gloss is obviously backwards.

Answer 13

Here is one.

[url=http://www.massgeneral.org/yawkey/Campus%20Ground%20Floor%20Map.pdf]http://www.massgeneral.org/yawkey/Campus%20Ground%20Floor%20Map.pdf[/url]

James, every time I go in an elevator now I'm going to be thinking about this . . . UGH!

Answer 14

Please see this (I live in Jeff. City, MO). You can see it makes a distinction between the first floor and the ground floor. (Search for "first floor").

http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/history/capitol.asp

Aren't there any other mid-Westerners on this forum!? This really is not so unusual!

Answer 15

Here's another one, from St. Louis where I grew up. I declare that "ground floor" and "first floor" are not interchangeable.

<http://www.christianhospital.org/ch_content.aspx'id=1633>

OK, I'm going to go do something productive and non-fun now, like clean the bathrooms . . .