This is another British versus US English question I guess. I had an epipahny when reading this thread. An American ‘roommate’ isn’t a ‘roommate’ in the British sense. And there was me imagining you all scrunched up together like the Waltons
Here’s how it works in the UK, a roommate is someone you share a room with, a flatmate is someone you share a flat with and a housemate is someone you share a house with. I had a roommate in my first year of uni. then I moved out of university provided accom. and for the rest of my time there I had housemates; then I had various flatmates or lived on my own and now I have my husband (swoooon !).
So, if I’m talking to (or reading a post by) an American how do I know if they are talking about someone they share a bedroom with or someone they share general living quarters with ? Do you just have to go by context ? To take a random example - how would an American read ‘roommate’ in this post?
Americans would understand terms like “suite-mate,” “apartment mate,” and “house mate.” But all those words are commonly replaced by “room mate.” Even if you aren’t literally sharing a bedroom with someone, if you are sharing residential quarters and you have no family relationship, then “roommate” is the usual word.
You can sometimes tell from context and sometimes you can’t, depending on how much context is given. But most of the time, it doesn’t matter, because in a casual conversation, people usually aren’t interested in that level of detail regarding your living arrangements. If more specification is necessary, then they can be given.
From the link given, I would understand that the two people in question are what you would call house mates. They don’t share a bedroom; otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for the writer to specify that she keeps a robe hanging on her bedroom door to wear when she leaves the room.
As an american, I actually like the term flat-mate. Dunno if people think I’m putting on airs (by trying to sound worldly), but it deos get a clear message across. I agree with Cat that it can be confusing.
I’m not sure that there is a general rule. Reading the linked post, I’d tend to assume separate bedrooms- but it’s hard to say.
Perhaps the difference is that the British word “flat” is used for the American word “apartment”. Flatmate is a nice, two syllable word. Roommate is a nice, two syllable word. Apartmentmate is a nasty, awkward 4 syllable word. Housemate is a nice, two syllable word that I’ve not heard much . . . perhaps most people don’t share houses.
Roommate seems to get used more frequently than not (in my experience).
If I knew the person talking was a college student, I would assume that roommate meant sharing a bedroom- an attached bathroom is not impossible, but unlikely, a kitchen area exceedingly improbable. For college students who did have semi-private baths with two or more attached bedrooms, housing three or more people, we did also use the word “suitemate” but that was less common. (And then there’s the housing arrangement I had my senior year which I called an apartment (sometimes) when speaking to people who didn’t know my college well and a “Court” when speaking to students on campus who would understand that it had 3 bedrooms, 4 people, 1 bathroom, and a kitchen/lounge known as the common room.)
If the person was a graduate student, I would be more likely to assume that the arrangement being discussed was an apartment with two or more bedrooms, each having one person sleeping in it.
A roommate is, as you ascertain, almost always a “flatmate” or a “housemate”. We really don’t share bedrooms much - most apartments come with two or more, or a living room is used as a bedroom if the number of bedrooms exceeds the number of residents. We’re not keen on sharing bedrooms with folks we’re not having sex with. The exception to this is in college, mostly in dormatory settings, where we do share an actual bedroom.
So, if context makes it clear that we’re talking about a dorm, I’d assume the roommates were sharing an actual bedroom within a larger building. If not, I’d assume they were sharing an apartment (flat) or house, but had their own bedrooms within it.
In your example, I’d assume “housemate” (but I’d still call it a roommate) since the writer mentions suburbs and other houses around.
This isn’t foolproof, of course, and I’ve been wrong in my assumptions, but they seem pretty sound most of the time.
Would you use the term roommate, flatmate, or housemate for someone with whom you have a romantic or sexual relationship? Or are they ambigous as it is here in the US when someone introduces someone as their roommate?
The term roommate et al usually implies that the relationship is simply the sharing of living quarters even if the two are opposite sex but is sometimes used to be ambiguous as well. It is not safe to assume either if the “roommates” have complimentary sexual orientations and seem like they might make a good couple.
OK - thanks all, I’m clear so far but now I have another question - it’s all Eureka’s fault, but seeing as how you’re being so helpful … ‘college student’ ‘graduate student’ ?? For me a college student is someone attending a college of some sort; a university student ditto university altho’ I’d probably just say ‘student’ in both cases. A graduate is someone who has completed a first qualification at university (we don’t graduate from school only from university), if they continue onto further study they become a post-grad which is short for post-graduate (which may in turn be short for postgraduate student). So what do you mean when you say a graduate student ?
Safe or not I’d assume that a room/flat/housemate was not part of a romantic/sexual relationship ( at least not initially ) However if I wanted to make it clear to a third party that my flatmate was not my romantic partner I’d make sure I said something like “I share a flat with” rather than “We live together”.
PS JustAnotherGeek Why did the hedgehog cross the road ?
To see his flat mate ! :eek:
In the United States, universities are usually referred to as “college” in casual conversation. There is no functional difference between a college and university. Some institutions choose to use one term, some the other.
A graduate student is someone who has already earned a bachelor’s degree (that is, is a graduate) and is working on a higher degree. It seems to be the same thing as your “post-graduate student.”
So would I.
To add another level of detail, we would usually use “girlfriend” and “boyfriend” instead of “partner,” no matter your age or the length of your relationship, if you aren’t married, you’re girlfriend and boyfriend.
College student=person attending college or university. (We’re back to the two syllable word rule- a university and a college are not interchangable, exactly but in this context they probably are).
Graduate student=person attending graduate school- person with a Bachelor’s degree getting further education, probably a Master’s or PhD.
In the US “College” and “University” are basically synonymous – both are institutions offering 4-year degrees (the 13th-16th years of education) plus graduate work depending on the instution. Our High School ends in the 12th grade, and we do say that we “graduate” (verb form) from high school – but we don’t use “graduate” (noun form) for high school students without a qualifier – high school graduate. Everything after that is known as “post-secondary education” not that anyone uses that term in conversation, but you see it on job forms and such.
Although College and University are nearly synonymous terms, we don’t generally use the phrase “university” student. “College student” is the standard phrase for University-level study. People say they “go to college” even if they attend the University of Whatever. They consider themselves “College students” until they complete a Bachelor’s. “Graduate” work includes Masters and PhD’s – anything after a Bachelor’s degree. A "Grad student " is someone pursuing a graduate degree.
> “Graduate” work includes Masters and PhD’s – anything after a Bachelor’s
> degree.
There are probably different opinions on this, but I wouldn’t say that a student at a law school or a medical school or a seminary is a grad student. I would call them someone in law school or a medical student or a student at a seminary. So, it seems to me, not all students beyond a bachelor’s degree would be called grad students.
Well yes, and no. Certainly in general conversation there is little distinction. To the institutions, there seems to be significant distinctions. I think a University needs to encompass a number of disiplines.
A University will often contain several “colleges” or “Schools” specializing different fields. I attended the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado, for example. Often the colleges will carry the name of a benifactor, and can even be off site from the main university campus, teaching hospitals associated with a university are common examples, The Eastman School of Music of the University of Rockchester would be another.
That’s a different usage of the word “college.” Yes, a university will often be made up of colleges organised by subject, but we’re talking about the word for an institution of higher education as a whole. I think you’ll find that Boston College, for example, encompasses multiple disciplines, no less so than Boston University.
The situation is different yet again here. A college is a non-degree-granting institution oriented towards 1-2 year courses in technical subjects (plumbing, hotel administration, etc.), while a university is a degree-granting institution which provides the normal batchelor and post-graduate degrees.
We also don’t do the freshman/junior/senior/sophomore bit. An American might describe himself as a college freshman, but I would say I was a first year university student (well I would if I was).
Similarly with the College of Letters and Science at UCLA, which comprises probably the majority of undergraduate degree programs, including even some of the natural sciences.
Getting back to the topic of sleeping arrangements,books that, in a school or university context, the word “dormitory” is used differently on either side of the Atlantic. In America a dormitory is a whole building where students live, usually two to a room. In England a dormitory is one room of such a house, in which several people may sleep. I’m getting this, though, from a P.G. Wodehouse story that 's nearly 100 years old, so maybe this is out of date.
) However if I wanted to make it clear to a third party that my flatmate was not my romantic partner I’d make sure I said something like “I share a flat with” rather than “We live together”.