How do you give directions?

[CurlewKate]

Say something is 3 miles away. Do you say “It’s 3 miles/5 kilometers/an hour’s walk” or something else?

Never could measure distance. I once gave my uni lecturer directions and my landmarks were all pubs - turn left at the Dog and duck etc. he replied ‘I always give directions using churches’. He didn’t like my teaching either.

Depends how the person you’re giving directions to is travelling, surely? In some cases, I’ll tell a driver to ask someone else, if it’s a city centre address, as I don’t drive and won’t be thinking of one-way systems etc,

Sorry-I didn’t make myself clear! I suppose what I mean is do you habitually use miles or kilometres?

Neither. Because generally I would have no clue myself how many miles anywhere was.
I'd be able to give them the directions though?

Usually time it takes to get there. I’m no good at judging distances. I know how many miles I’ve walked when I go for a proper walk because my iPhone tells me but I couldn’t tell you how many miles it is to places. I don’t use km at all.

Well, I'm in the UK, not sure why I'd say anything was x kilometres away. For a car driver "about 10 miles", for someone walking "about 10 minutes".

What's behind your question, OP?

I say “miles” because I know roughly what one looks like as I lived a mile away from Brixton tube up the hill, a very straight line so you could “see” the mile and know roughly how long it took to walk, run or sit for several hours on the 133 bus in mad traffic. A kilometre could be anything! Who even knows!

I wouldn’t use either when giving directions though.

Have moved to kilometres since moving to Europe and it seems natural now.

Funnily enough you can order your beer by the 'pinte' here in France - although it is 500ml and buy a livre (pound) of something at any outdoor market - although it is 500gr.

These days I find metric just makes more sense, we have some American friends who talk about farenheit and thousands of an inch and it just seems actually mad to me.

Neither. It's much easier to use time and landmarks for directions in my experience.

I’m editing a book written by an American and she has got British people using kilometres in conversation. It sounds wrong to me-but I am doubting myself!

You wouldn’t use kilometres in the UK unless you’re running. Usually I’d go with minutes over distance because I live in London so the time it takes depends massively on the route, mode of transport, time of day etc. and the distance itself doesn’t have much meaning.

Absolutely not unless they’re going for a run, because you would say you’re doing a 10k but if you were talking about going to the pub or something it would be (for example) 1 mile or a 20 minute walk…

Very badly I have a complete brain freeze can’t remember my left from my right keep changing my mind don’t even want to think about how many people I have sent completely the wrong way
I am no good at taking photos either if someone asks me if I can take a photo of them I freeze and usually end up with a picture of my thumb or finger😳

Having read your follow-up comments and seeing what you actually mean... I think virtually all people in England would use miles. That's what road signs use. I think more people have a better rough gauge of what a mile "feels like", as opposed to a kilometre.

Miles because that's what we use for roadsigns and how most people (here in the UK) think of distances. So if something is a brisk 20 minute walk away I'd say about a mile. My nearest city, about 15 miles. I know roughly (or could guesstimate fairly accurately) the distances between all the major towns in about a 50 mile radius of home as I drive a lot.

It sounds wrong because it's not really how people talk. You wouldn't ask for directions to a shop and expect the person to reply yeah mate you go 1 kilometre down Park Lane, turn left onto Mayfair and walk for 2 kilometres and if they did you'd probably ask the next person you saw for clearer directions. 😅

It's usually a combination - go down there to the roundabout, turn left, then after about half a mile turn right by the church and its another 2 miles or so on the right.

I use miles (even when running), but for directions I'd probably mention more landmarks and amounts of time taken (esp if walking).

I think that’s only true if giving driving details. If it’s walking details I (and my peers) would say, ‘a couple of kilometres down the road’. But, we grew up using metric at school. I measure myself in metric (weight and height), and I have no concept of a foot!! Most of us work in STEM jobs though, so that might be another factor as well as age (we were all born in the 80s).

There is a handy flowchart you can use though….

I could only tell you how many miles from my house to my work and that it's just under a mile from my house to the nearest petrol station and my GPs. I'm great at directing Deliveroo, Just Eats and at the moment every other lost person to certain houses on my street.

Like a pp I’d give it in minutes. I would ask if driving / walking. I am rural though so lots of roads are windy with few junctions. My next drive is about 15 minutestake a left then another 15 minutes then it’s on the left.

But I would say “a couple of miles down the road”…..
It all sounds weird to me now! I think I’ll go for a walk…..

Yes you might use miles although landmarks and time would still probably be clearer as everyone can walk until they get to the church but not everyone would know how far half a mile was for example. My previous post about sounding wrong referred to the kilometres they had used because that's not how people talk.

I was also born in the 80s and schooled in the 90s.

We were also all taught metric with imperial along side. Me and MY peers would all use miles when driving, and also when walking. I'd honestly never say, "I went for a couple of kilometres' walk." We work a mixture of jobs across many areas. Mostly public sector though.
I measure myself in stones and pounds, feet and inches. Would have no clue what those numbers would be in metric!
Measuring a liquid... depends on the liquid.
Measuring a solid, such as a food... depends on the food!

I guess we all have different influences etc growing up that dictate how we understand quantity.

I work in STEM and definitely miles, feet and inches for height, stones and pounds for weight, but I am older. I migrated myself to metric for cooking about 15 years ago but still sometimes catch myself saying "about an oz of butter" and it feels weird asking for half a kilo of sausages at the butcher.