Names for different kinds of residences in your part of the world

In My Humble Opinion
41

[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Oh, in the UK:

  • Mobile home = (usually) a motorised vehicle with living space - like a Winnebago, although nearly always smaller
  • Caravan = a towable living space, usually capable of being moved by a car.
  • Static Caravan - a fairly large accomodation unit that can be moved (albeit with some fuss and bother, and requiring a heavy vehicle such as a lowloader and possibly a crane).
    [/QUOTE]

I dispute this. I’ve never heard ‘static caravan’ before - I’d just expect to hear ‘caravan’ in this situation.

42

Another type of British house (which haven’t been built for a hundred years now) is the back to back where the back wall of your house was shared with another dwelling.

43

[QUOTE=Rayne Man]
Another type of British house (which haven’t been built for a hundred years now) is the back to back where the back wall of your house was shared with another dwelling.
[/QUOTE]

This type of dwelling was usually built in the cotton and mill and engineering towns of the UK to house workers. I think they would be in the terraced category.

Outside toilets with newspaper hanging on a nail and a pigeon coop. Plus if you were really well off, a ferret and a whippet.

Bread and dripping for tea…every day…on Hovis

Oh the good old days, my arse

44

[QUOTE=chowder]
This type of dwelling was usually built in the cotton and mill and engineering towns of the UK to house workers. I think they would be in the terraced category.
[/QUOTE]

True, although there was the now-extinct courtyard layout, too. (Extinct for a preserved one in Birmingham, I think.)

45

I’ve always liked the British term “caravan.” It sounds romantic, conjuring up images of Gypsies. (Although my British friends here assure me there is nothing romantic about Gypsies.)

46

[QUOTE=Noone Special]
Urk… reminds me of one I forgot:

Penthouse (pronounced as is, no Hebrew term) – both are used to mean “Penthouse” – top-floor apartment with a second level, an open-air balcony, occupying the whole floor, or any combination of the above.

Duplex - A multi-level apartment that is not top-floor will sometime be called a “duplex” (but never a penthouse). A multi-level penthouse may possibly be called a “duplex.”
[/QUOTE]

AFAIK, duplex is used for two-stories apartments. If they have 3 stories, they’re called “triplex”.

There’s also a “Garden-apartment” (Dirat-Gan) that is a ground-level apartment with access to a (usually small) piece of land.

One other thing: Cottage may be used for semi-detached and terraced houses. Semi-detached are sometimes called bi-family cottage (Cottage Du-Mishpah’yi). A block of 3 connected houses will be refered to as “tri-family cottege” (Cottage Tlat-Mishpah’ti). More than that may be called (but not always) a “train building”.
ETA: Oh, and there is an Hebrew name for Penthouse: Dirat Gag (roof apartment). Although there are some distintions between the two: a penthouse is supposed to be a single-level aparments, while the “roof apartment” may be two or more levels.

47

[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
I dispute this. I’ve never heard ‘static caravan’ before - I’d just expect to hear ‘caravan’ in this situation.
[/QUOTE]

It’s a term in wide use.

48

[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Nava, what do you mean by ‘sky station’ in post #5?
[/QUOTE]

I mean I had a linguistic brainfart and forgot that the translation for estación de esquí is sky resort.

Sorry.

49

I still think you mean ‘ski’.

Although a Sky Resort does sound enticing.

50

Another name I have heard just lately is** Park Home**. These seem to be a cross between a wooden chalet and a traditional static caravan and are usually grouped together in estates similar to residential caravan sites.

51

[QUOTE=Mangetout]
I still think you mean ‘ski’.

Although a Sky Resort does sound enticing.
[/QUOTE]

Oops. You know, one of my college professors impressed upon us the importance of copy editors by telling us of an article (5 years of work, it was a guy’s PhD thesis) which got rejected by the biggest chemistry journal in the world because a reviewer found “piridine” in three different spots and said “I can’t take seriously someone with this lack of attention to detail” :smack:

Let’s just drop that letter from the alphabet or something :stuck_out_tongue:

52

Dammit! For ‘sky station’ I was picturing a great big train station floating in the sky, with magical sky trains departing and arriving. I was a bit disappointed when you corrected it to ‘sky resort’, but I figured that floating accommodation is still pretty cool. Then I find out that you were talking about boring old ski resorts all along. :smack:

If you don’t mind I think I’ll stay in my little fantasy world where Spaniards live in great big flying houses. It’s a lot more fun than having to face goddamn reality. :smiley:

53

The only reason we don’t is because Antoni Gaudí never got to met that von Braun feller. A pity, that!

54

Flat - one of a group of dwellings built on top of each other
Unit - one of a group of dwellings built side-by-side on the same block of land (almost certainly detached form each other)
Terrace House - house built side-by-side in a row of similar houses with no space between
House - everything else. (I have seen the term California Bungalow used also for a particular style of single-story house, but never outside a real-estate agent’s listing.) Further categorisation, if necessary, is generally done by building material (weatherboard, brick, brick veneer…) or usage (beach house / holiday house)

That looks too simple, doesn’t it? There must be more…

55

What about “Mews” in England? According to Wikipedia:

In Israel IIRC - “terraces” mean houses built on a hillside, where one house’s terrace is the house below’s roof - as opposed to a row of joined houses as in the UK.

Interesting how in Spanish an apartment/flat can be a “piso” (Spain), “apartamento” (most of Latin America) or a “departamento” (Mexico and Argentina).

House and home - referring to a house as a “home” is definitely considered tacky or “non-U” in the UK. In Spanish the distinction also exists - casa - house; hogar - home.

56

[QUOTE=Martha]
In Spanish the distinction also exists - casa - house; hogar - home.
[/QUOTE]

Ah, but hogar also means fire-used-for-cooking and you only get “hogar” used to mean “home” instead of “casa” when people are trying to get poetic. A lot of classic Christmas ads changed last season, including one that’s been around for so long it’s both become a popular sentence and disassociated from the brand:

Vuelve, a casa vuelve,
vuelve a tu hogar, (1)
que hoy es Nochebuena
y mañana Navidad,
vuelve, a casa vuelve,
por Navidad.

Come back, come back home,
come to your home,
today is Christmas Eve,
tomorrow Christmas,
come back, come back home,
in time for Christmas.

The ads showed people who are often away from home for Christmas (fisher boats, ERs, trains) and someone arriving home unexpectedly just in time for the Christmas Eve dinner.
(1) I’ve seen people who understand this as “vuelve al hogar” and “vuelve al lugar”, this last one would be “go back to the place (from whence you came)”. There’s a lot of XIXth century books where people refer to their hometown or farm as “el lugar”. The official version is the one above.

57

In Germany:

Einfamilienhaus: freestanding single-familiy residence. Like House (Detached) in the OP.

Bungalow: a single-level, usually flat-roofed, Einfamilienhaus.

Doppelhaushälfte (DHH): half of a double house (Doppelhaus), the halves sharing a party wall. Like House (Semi-Detached) in the OP.

Reihenhaus: one house in a terrace - like House (Terraced) in the OP.

Reihenendhaus: like Reihenhaus, only it’s the first or last house in the terrace.

Villa: an Einfamilienhaus, but more spacious/luxurious/well-appointed.

Wohnung any apartment/flat, usually in a multi-apartment building. Mietwohnung if rented, Eigentumswohnung if owned.

Apartment: a Wohnung; a marketing term connoting a higer level of comfort.

Maisonettewohnung: a two-level Wohnung.

Studiowohnung/Studioapartment: Wohnung with a large window front.

Dachgeschoßwohnung: Wohnung under the roof.

1-Zimmer-Wohnung, 2-Zimmer-Wohnung, 3-Zimmer-Wohnung etc.: a flat/apartment with the stated number of rooms not counting kitchen, corridor, bathroom, toilet etc.: e.g. a 3-Zimmer-Wohnung could consist of living room, parents’ bedroom, childrens’ room (the three counted rooms), plus kitchen, bathroom, toilet and corridor.

Zimmer: a single room, furnished (möbliert) or unfurnished (unmöbliert), usually with use of shared bathroom/toilet.

Wohngemeinschaftszimmer: room in a (usually largish) apartment rented together with flatmates.

58

Legal family designations in the state of New Jersey:

One-family house: Single family occupancy. OK to rent out up to two rooms.
Rooming house: Legal to rent rooms. Must have city and state licensing.
Two-family house: Only can hold two families. No room renting.
Three-family and Four-Family Houses–Only can hold three or four familes. No room renting.
Five+ houses: Considered commercial property. Have to have state and city licensing. No room rentals.
Commercial property–Anything that has commercial space. Commercial space can be rented out. Apartments above commercial space can also be rented out. No rooms.
Co-op: Apartment where the resident owns shares in the building’s corporation. You can do anything the corporation says you can do, but that is usually not much and within legal guidelines.
Condo/Townhouse–Resident owns the apartment or free standing structure in a development. Renting the unit is fine, renting rooms is out.

The largest problem we have is with people and illegal room rentals. Basment renting is totally illegal in the state, but people do it.