5 ms·
The + freeway name is a southern California thing. https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-5-the-101-the-405-why-southern-californians-love-saying-the-before-fr
by davidw 3y ago
The + freeway name is a southern California thing.
https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-5-the-101-the-405-why-southern-californians-love-saying-the-before-freeway-numbers https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-5-the-101-the-405-why...
IIRC, in the Bay Area, they don't put 'the' before freeway names or numbers. We certainly do not here in Oregon. It's a dead giveaway that someone is from CA.
- amanaplanacanal 3y agoI have heard traffic reporting in Portland call 26 “the sunset” and 84 “The Banfield” though. So it’s not completely unheard of.
- bobthepanda 3y agoI know in New York this is also common simply because it’s always the Bruckner Expressway and not I-278, or the Long Island Expressway and not I-495.
- davidw 3y agoAh, yeah I should have written my comment better. It's numbered freeways. No one says "the 5".
- gnicholas 3y ago> No one says "the 5" They definitely do. Sometimes I do (30 years in norcal and 3 years in socal).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- bobthecowboy 3y agoI've lived in San Diego most of my life, with a few years in Berkeley. Literally everyone says "the 5" in SD, and I was consistently ribbed for saying it in the Bay Area. Edit: oh and "The City" === san Francisco drove me nuts, too.
- irrational 3y agoI hear people say “the 26” and “the 217”. But, not “the I-5”.
- davidw 3y ago'The 26' is not something people from Oregon say.
- irrational 3y agoI’ve lived here for 23+ years and have heard people say it all of that time.
- davidw 3y agoLots of transplants from points south say it, or people who have spent time with them.
- irrational 3y agoSo, basically everyone in the metro area? Because in the past two decades, I’ve never heard someone say 26, it is always the 26.
- gnicholas 3y agoNo one says "the I-5" — it's just "the 5".
- ghaff 3y agoNot just SoCal. I have a Canadian friend who does the same. I assume it’s a regional thing. In MA it’s The Pike but otherwise the route number with no “the.”
- HDMI_Cable 3y agoCan confirm. In Canada, at least for big highways, there's always a definite article ("take the 401 until Yonge") meanwhile for side roads you never use the definite article. In the states, I've noticed that named roads get the article, but not interstates ("take I-81 north until Syracuse").