The term ground doesn t need to be qualified there is no such thing as a second ground whereas any building can have one or more floors or storeys.
Ground floor and first floor difference.
University elevators have a first floor but the ground floor usually floor 2 is denoted with a star to indicate the ground floor.
In british english the floor of a building at street level is called the ground floor the floor above it is the first floor and the floor below is called the basement.
In other places ground floor and first floor are synonymous leading to conflicting numbering of floors depending between different national varities of english.
In america those are defined as level 2 level 3 level 4 and so on.
The naming of floors in a building.
This is important information for novice american travelers trying to find their hotel rooms.
There may be or no difference at all depending on the social convention in a country or the technicall context in which it is used.
In britain it is called ground floor and in america it is called level 1.
The american convention is that the floor inside a building which is on the ground is called the first floor and the floor above that is called the second floor and so forth.
The upper floors of the ground are defined as 1st floor 2nd floor 3rd floor and so on in britain.
I have seen this practice used at universities.
In the us the first floor of a building is also the ground floor but in europe the first floor is the floor above the ground floor and the second floor is the one above that.
Let s take a look at a small but important difference in british and american english.
The floor at ground or street level is called the ground floor i e.
This is my theory.
In the usa for example we typically call the street level by both names there is no distinction at all.
In american english however the floor at street level is usually called the first floor.
It has no number and the floor above it is called first in many places.