Hi there! I have a few questions about British language, customs, and geography for some fanfics I'm working on that I hope you can answer. Thank you in advance for any assistance
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This is a typical modern one. That's a nationwide chain, but there are lots of local ones (who also do nationwide moves). This is one - they have an articulated lorry, though I agree that's more unusal: http://www.wardremovals.co.uk/
Thank you so much for the images! They helped quite a bit! This is exactly what I was looking for. The removal vans are smaller (shorter) than the trucks that moving companies in the US use, probably because in general, our streets are wider, even in the residential areas.
Also you need space to park the lorry, and with houses being smaller, most people's furniture and stuff fits into one standard lorry, maybe two for a large family house.
Moving within London can involve trying to get parking permits for movers, usually failing, then parking in a space yourselves and/or using dustbins to reserve space, and persuading new neighbours at the other end to do the same for you, in order than the movers don't need to be 50 yards down the street.
1. In most school systems (independent, i.e. fee-paying, schools may have different terminology, and a few areas of the country have first, middle and high school rather than the more usual primary and secondary school, which I think affects matters), 12-13 year olds will be in Year Eight, the second year of secondary school
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I did a Google search on "row house", and yes, that turns out to be an American term. I had no idea what that type of house was called in either the US or Britain. Now I know. :)
It seems to me that the two-up-two-down terrace house is similar to what Craig had in "The Lodger"? That's kind of what I have in mind in the story I'm working on.
I'm in the process of moving out of a two up two down, a very typical one: opens directly onto the pavement and each room is roughly 13 feet by 13 feet. I lived there on my own, but in the 950s the one next door was inhabited by 4 adults and 3 children.
Similar, yes, although Craig's is a larger house - it's definitely got more than just two rooms on each floor and looks fairly spacious inside. The sort I'm referring to looks more like this. But yes, both are terraced houses.
1. Age 4to 5 is reception, age 5 to 6 is year one and so on. Key stage 1 is reception to year 2, infant school or primary school, years 3 to 6 (keystage 2) are junior school, also primary school. (some areas will have one school for reception to year 6, other more populated areas might have separate school for , keystages 1 and 2. There will almost always be a transfer to secondary school at age 11 but the numbering carries on - years 7 to 11 or 7 to 13 depending on the school. GCSEs are the major public exams at the end of y11. Until last year you could legally leave school at that point. There is a two year course leading to A levels that a lot of people take, either in y12 or 13 in the school they are in (y12+13 also called 6th form - a more traditional term) or transfer to a 6th form of another school or a sixthform college or FE college.
2. Removal van 4. First meaning. Can also mean not very wrinkled. Not a general term for where I live. 5. Terrace houses.
You know, coming from the US, that whole things sounds so complicated, but you know, I bet we Americans are much worse. We have kindergarten at age 4, and then twelve years of schooling called "grades", but different areas do those twelve years differently. The first set of grades is called "elementary school" or "primary school", but that could mean grades 1-5 or grades 1-6. Then the next set of grades are called either "intermediate school" or "middle school" or "junior high school", and could be grades 6-8, 7-8, or 7-9. Then "high school" (very rarely "secondary school") is either grades 9-12 or 10-12. We don't have major exams like the GCSEs, but we do have college entrance exams like the SATs and the ACTs.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantechnicon_van
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Moving within London can involve trying to get parking permits for movers, usually failing, then parking in a space yourselves and/or using dustbins to reserve space, and persuading new neighbours at the other end to do the same for you, in order than the movers don't need to be 50 yards down the street.
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It seems to me that the two-up-two-down terrace house is similar to what Craig had in "The Lodger"? That's kind of what I have in mind in the story I'm working on.
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2. Removal van
4. First meaning. Can also mean not very wrinkled. Not a general term for where I live.
5. Terrace houses.
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