Timeline for Would Americans say: "He sat down 9 feet from me." or "He sat down 3 yards from me."?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 11, 2021 at 5:45 | comment | added | jamesqf | @killermist: And for measuring fabric, a yard is about the length you get if you hold the bolt of fabric close to your body, and unroll it to an arm's length. | |
| Jul 30, 2021 at 20:32 | comment | added | Peter Hansen | @killermist For estimates, a yard is about a stride. You can even practice making your stride about a yard for better estimates. | |
| Jul 30, 2021 at 7:39 | comment | added | killermist | When I first read the question, I could only think of two things that are commonly addressed in yards. Those are football and fabric. I didn't know that yards are also used in golf, which I know very little about, so that makes three, I guess. There's also that a human foot is roughly a foot long, which makes it useful for estimates while a yard doesn't have anything really useful to compare it against except feet, which just introduces unnecessary mental math. Tiles used in flooring are commonly in foot-square sizes, which makes measurements easy also. Yards are awkward. | |
| Jul 29, 2021 at 23:05 | comment | added | dan04 | @Yorik: Hence the saying that “Americans will measure with anything except the metric system.” Other popular “units” are blue whales and Rhode Islands. | |
| Jul 29, 2021 at 20:26 | comment | added | Yorik | These people get it: ( toureiffel.paris/en/the-monument/key-figures ) yards as a unit would be absurd and not a "meter" in sight. Properly idiomatic translation. Funny story: the other day, in coverage of the Olympics, a newscaster said "just to put it in perspective for you, 36 feet is the height of two adult giraffes." I was glad he could describe it in terms that we could properly relate to our daily lives. | |
| Jul 29, 2021 at 10:13 | comment | added | Muzer | FWIW British English uses yards a lot more than American English, I've noticed; but nowadays it's just as likely if not more likely to use metres... we have a very strange relationship with the metric system over here :D | |
| Jul 28, 2021 at 19:38 | comment | added | Lambie | I agree that feet is more common than yards for describing where someone is sitting. I am hard pressed to use yards in a context like this. | |
| Jul 28, 2021 at 19:08 | comment | added | Herohtar | @OwenReynolds I would say it's more about having something that is familiar to many Americans to use as a reference rather than just "being fond" of it. "582 feet" is kind of hard to imagine on its own, but if you say "almost two football fields", then people would most likely be able to quickly visualize the distance you are talking about. | |
| Jul 28, 2021 at 18:22 | comment | added | chepner | And even when yards do get used, I don't think anyone pictures them as being three feet long. In football, 10 yards is the distance you have to go for a first down, from one "big" yard marker to the next, not 30 feet. In golf, 295 yards isn't 885 feet, it's about how far you can hit the ball with, say, a driver then a 3 iron. In track and field, 440 yards isn't 1360 feet, it's one lap. | |
| Jul 28, 2021 at 15:09 | comment | added | Owen Reynolds | @EllieK Americans are so fond of measuring things in football fields that, say, 582 feet might become "almost two football fields". 300 feet could sound better as 100 yards since they're imagining a football field. But that's situational and tricky for a learner to know when, and is still "use feet, unless you have some other reason, such as it reminds you of football". | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 22:39 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | I have to agree with this one - I'd never use yards unless it was specifically in a context where yards were common. | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 21:08 | comment | added | Juhasz | @ColleenV, "If you think you can answer that without asking 'Are they standing on a football field,' you're wrong" - isn't that the same thing EllieK said? "A football field is measured in yards" | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 20:04 | comment | added | EllieK | Appropriate being the operative word. A leaner should say 300 feet as a general rule. I have applied no silly rules, I merely state that feet is the appropriate measurement if unsure. If I said, "My dad sat 260 inches to my left. How far was your dad from you?," would you realize how inappropriate it is to say he sat a yard and half away? | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 19:59 | comment | added | ColleenV | I am an American and I use yards when appropriate. Part of being fluent in a language is understanding what is appropriate for the context and not relying on silly rules that overly simplify things. Should a learner say 300 feet or 100 yards? If you think you can answer that without asking “Are they standing on a football field, you’re wrong. | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 19:46 | comment | added | EllieK | @ColleenV - Quite simply, if you were an American YOU WOULD NOT SAY, "My dad sat a yard and a half away from me." I appreciate your deference to the unknown but I've been speaking all over the U.S. for fifty years, a learner should not start giving distances in YARDS. EOM. | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 17:34 | comment | added | ColleenV | There is not nearly enough context to know what someone would be more likely to say. What if I had just said “My dad sat about a yard and a half from me, how far was your dad from you?” I doubt someone would choose feet over yards. | |
| Jul 27, 2021 at 15:34 | history | answered | EllieK | CC BY-SA 4.0 |