Okay, this is a question directed at you Southern California drivers...

What IS it with the obsession to apply "the" as a prefix when referencing a highway??? (e.g. "the 5", "the 10", etc.)

Now, I left SoCal in the early 50's (and haven't looked back fondly at all), and do recall riding over the Tehachapi's on the "Ridge Route Alternative" when it was still recommended to spare radiator water in burlap "Desert Water Bag" hanging from the hood ornament. And I will acknowledge that most (all?) the early freeways had common names (e.g. "the Pasadena Freeway", "The San Bernardino Freeway", etc.).

But why has this (IMHO silly) "the" habit carried on when the all the name freeway designations have dropped and even the highway road signs reference all the highways with their state and federally assigned numbers: I-5 (i.e. Interstate 5), I-10, SR-1 (State Route 1), etc????

This doesn't seem to happen anywhere else in the country (and incidentally immediately identifies you as a SoCal transplant).

I just don't get it... Please 'splain, if possible. Thnx

 

I wondered the same when I moved there, but within a year was saying the same thing...

 

Perpetuated by traffic reporters?

 

I remember former President Bush (the first one) referring to "the Google". I think it's just a regional way of speaking.

 

I grew up in Southern California and didn't think about it until I moved away and had to force myself out of the habit. I guess it just evolved from saying "the 5 Freeway" etc.

It's not all that unusual though. We all drive British cars and in Britain they will say "the M1" and "the A1"

 

Great topic for Meta or twit thing...how bout x152 related queries here?

 

I have lived in California since 1965. I remember when people used the freeway names like the San Diego or Pasadena Freeway but those names dropped out of common use many decades ago with the expansion of the freeway system. Most people would have no idea now if you were giving directions using the old names rather than the numbers. I noticed some traffic reporters still use the names.

But I don't understand what is wrong with saying take the 10 west to the 15 south and then get on the 91 west to the 55 south to get to Newport Beach.

 

Nothing "wrong" with it, but the rest of the US would say " take 10 west to 15 south and then get on 91 west to 55 south to get to Newport Beach.". Saves 4 "the's"!

 

Let's not forget where Freeways started in the first place.

 

You're omitting an implied "road" when you use "the". Saying "take 10 road west" doesn't work, but adding "the" makes it "right".

 

I realize again that every day is a school day. This is the first time I hear of a language/place where you don't put a "the" before the name or number of a highway. You do in many countries all over Europe and in at least the five other European languages I speak apart from English you use a "the"... Now back to X152 stuff again.

 

Don't you mean "the" X152 stuff?!

 

Thank God for regionalism!

 

Regional language habits can be odd. I have found that many people from the midwest don't use the preposition "to be". As in they say things like "my car needs washed". Or when I first moved to California and I heard people say "put it up" when they meant put it away. I used to say put it up where ? And then usually received an obscene suggestion.

Slang is a different story, when I was a kid an old beat up car was called a jalopy, then I heard people from other regions using the term hooptie and I thought they were weird.

 

The missing "to be" seems, IME, to be a habit by our Scottish brethren, too. And calling a jalopy a hoopie is weird!

And "could of" instead of "could have" - you can just about get away with it when speaking, but not when written.

 

Nothing is being omitted. In NorCal, we say 'take 80 to I-5 (the 'I' is optional, but usually used with I-5 specifically) to 99." That translates to Take Interstate 80 to Interstate 5 to route 99.

Whenever we hear people say 'the 5', we immediately know they are from Southern California, and, therefore, steal our water.

 

In media ads for the big box improvement store Home Depot, the announcer always calls it "the Home Depot", which always grates on my nerves, as it comes across as pretentious for some reason, yet saying "the I-5" doesn't bother me.

FWIW, my wife is from another country and often leaves off the letter "S" for plurals. For example, I'd say, "there's about 100 cars there", and she'd say "there's about 100 car there." When I pointed out her mistake, she said, "Since there's 100 of them, adding an 's' is redundant." She's right and I didn't have a reason.

Then of course there's the plural of "fish", which is "fish", so I dunno, English nuance is goofy. So back to car stuff...

 

"fish" is an interesting word - Bernard Shaw claimed you can spell it "ghoti" using existing English pronunciation: "gh" as in "cough", "o" as in "women" and "ti" as in "station".

 

As a UK expat, I fell into adding the article 'the' to freeway references in California as I did in the UK when referencing a motorway. One would never say: 'take M1 north to Birmingham.'

I trust everyone of you with an X152 has changed, or is about to change, the plastic cooling system components. That should get us back to discussing the X152.

 

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...n-trademark-ri