# Why "hand" for direction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2022, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400 "2022-05-31T02:42:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/61 "2022-05-31T14:03:01Z")
I have a hard time with my right and left. That’s due to the stroke I had three year ago. Seems to take a second or two longer to think which is which. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/62 "2022-05-31T15:22:17Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’d say something like, “the house is on the right hand side.” Why? I dunno I do - it’s to differentiate between “right” as a direction, and “right” as the antonym of “wrong”. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/63 "2022-05-31T15:40:17Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > Now that this is still on my mind I’m wondering if this is peculiar to English. Do other languages use “hand” the same way? Norwegian does, though much less frequently. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say “Take a right hand turn” in Norwegian, you’d just say “take a right” or similar, but it’s common to say “And then it’s the first house on the right hand.” and “the first house on the right” doesn’t scan, you’d have to use “the first house on the right side”. “First turn to the right” on the other hand would be just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/64 "2022-05-31T15:40:35Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > My OP was asking about why normal people use the word “hand” when giving directions. I think this is a reasonable question, and I’ve been a little disappointed at how few of the responses have been proper FQ-style answers. But I think that posters who have speculated that it’s to clarify that one is talking about right or left _directions_, as opposed to other senses of these words, are correct. However, I’ve wondered if there’s another reason: if people sometimes use “the left-hand side” to distinguish between what’s on the observer’s left vs. what’s on the object’s left. If you’re looking at the _Mona Lisa_ and talking about what’s on the left-hand side of the painting, it’s going to be to Mona Lisa’s own right. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/65 "2022-05-31T15:42:35Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > True, but see my previous post. Because talking and hearing are noisy and imperfect, redundancy in language is a feature, not a bug. Agreed. I’m not sure all of these things come into being because of any intentional clarity, but they don’t even need to - they can just evolve. Language that works is more likely to persist than language that works less well. I encounter quite a lot of exasperated complaint about verbosity and redundancy on my videos, from people who apparently think some example of speech should be expressed in simpler or more terse form. In most cases, they haven’t really thought it through and a lot of the time, they are simply unaware of the prevalence of these patterns, including in their own speech, indeed, often even in the very complaint they write about my redundancy. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/66 "2022-05-31T15:45:01Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I do - it’s to differentiate between “right” as a direction, and “right” as the antonym of “wrong” To me, that doesn’t really work, because context makes clear that you are using “right” in the sense of direction, not “correct.” You would almost never say something is on the “correct” side of the street. The only situation I could think of is, perhaps, “if you see the house with the red awning, you’re on the right side of the street.” But in a simple: “the house is on the right side of the street,” it can only refer to direction. And why can’t “right hand” equally mean “correct hand” if we’re saying this is to avoid ambiguity? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/67 "2022-05-31T15:48:00Z")
Driving is only a subset of the contexts where ‘right hand’ and ‘left hand’ are used. > [@pulykamell](#): > > But in a simple: “the house is on the right side of the street,” Also, why is ‘side’ even in the above sentence? If it’s on the right, it’s on the side. I mention this only to underline my point above; redundancy is everywhere; it’s built in. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/68 "2022-05-31T15:50:58Z")
Obviously. I was responding to the post that I made and the context I was speaking in. With walking, running, jogging, biking, my usage of the words remains the same. “Side” does not have to be there. I’m – once again – speaking on how I would say it and that I don’t say it to avoid confusion but because that’s how I must’ve heard it said. Of course redundancy is important in communication and not a bete noire as some people seem to think. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/69 "2022-05-31T15:54:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > You would almost never say something is on the “correct” side of the street. “We have alternate day parking for street sweeping, so make sure that you are parking on the right side of the street.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/70 "2022-05-31T15:55:20Z")
To me, without further qualifier, would mean directional right. If somebody is using that structure to mean “correct,” they’ve done a poor job of communicating. Now, like I said above in how I would talk, I would say “right-hand side of the street” out of habit. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/71 "2022-05-31T15:56:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > And why can’t “right hand” equally mean “correct hand” if we’re saying this is to avoid ambiguity? It can mean ‘correct’ when referring to things that also have chirality, and that might be confusing - ‘put your boots on the right feet’ for example, might imply that you have more than one right foot. None of it is a perfect system. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/72 "2022-05-31T15:58:44Z")
In that situation you might want to use east/west, north/south to avoid a parking ticket. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/73 "2022-05-31T16:00:10Z")
And obviously you are already _on_ a street, so that’s unnecessary. And you know that you are looking for a house, so so is that. Anything more than, “On right.” is unnecessarily verbose. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/74 "2022-05-31T16:00:46Z")
Some days it’s the west side, some days it’s the east side, but everyday, it’s the \*right \* side. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/75 "2022-05-31T16:02:05Z")
But never the right “hand” side. 😜 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/76 "2022-05-31T16:04:54Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > And obviously you are already _on_ a street, so that’s unnecessary. > > And you know that you are looking for a house, so so is that. > > Anything more than, “On right.” is unnecessarily verbose. I know you’re kidding, but this is actually a really lovely illustration of why redundancy is so useful. If everyone has the same mind, redundancy is a waste, but for communication between two people whose thoughts are not exactly aligned already, it’s the thing that makes communication actually work. I’ve worked with people who seemed oblivious to the idea that not everyone else in the vicinity was aware of the context that was in their heads; they would say things like “When I press M, Martin appears, can you sort it out?” Press M on what? Where? What do you even mean by ‘Martin appears’? Why is this even a problem? What do you want me to do? What’s wrong with Martin? (What they meant was “When I press M on my computer, while typing an email address in Outlook, the email addresses offered in the autocomplete list include Martin, who has left the company. Can you remove him from the list?”, but that’s a lot of words.) ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/77 "2022-05-31T16:06:09Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > If somebody is using that structure to mean “correct,” they’ve done a poor job of communicating. Now, like I said above in how I would talk, I would say “right-hand side of the street” out of habit. Which is why we have various error correction built into the language, making us more verbose than what is necessary to get information across. If you say, “right hand side of the street”, then I know that I should park on that side. If you say, “right side of the street”, then I would ask which is the correct side. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/78 "2022-05-31T16:11:59Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > If you say, “right hand side of the street”, then I know that I should park on that side. If you say, “right side of the street”, then I would ask which is the correct side. I would say “right hand side of the street” most likely, but I may give you a raised eyebrow if you ask me which is the correct side if I used the construction “right side of the street” and say, “well, I said right, didn’t I?” It just wouldn’t occur to me that anyone would use the word “right” to mean “correct” there, but I guess it’s a good thing I probably default to “right hand” in that case. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/79 "2022-05-31T16:13:12Z")
In the UK, we drive on the left. Left is the right side. The right side is wrong. The front passenger door is on the left. If you get in the left side, that’s the right side for a passenger to be so if you sit in the left seat, that’s the right seat. If you are a passenger and you sit in the right seat, you’re in the wrong seat. If you are the driver and the passenger gets in first, you sit in the one seat that is left, which is on the right. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/80 "2022-05-31T16:27:12Z")
It’s been left-hand and right-hand for hundreds of years, so blame your ancestors for acting childish, I guess. > **[The Grammarphobia Blog: Hand signals](https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/01/hand.html)** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400.md?page=5)