Premises, rooms or building spaces? I need to find an equivalent for a term that is used to describe a part of a building that is similar to "premises", "room" or even more to just "building space" bu

Irina

Premises, rooms or building spaces? I need to find an equivalent for a term that is used to describe a part of a building that is similar to "premises", "room" or even more to just "building space" but still not quite the same. My problem is that Russian classification is different from US or EU, so I will describe below the meaning of our Russian "premises" using a university building as an example: Types of "premises" "main premises" - auditorium for studying in the university; "auxiliary premises" - canteens or cafe in the university; "communication premises" - halls, corridors, stairs. In the first two cases I could use the word "room" maybe, but I don't think it would work for the stairs...

Jul 7, 2020 8:56 AM

Answers · 5

Hello Irina! A word similar to "premises" would be "establishment" which refers to the entire university. Then you could probably speak about each part as "areas". And then I agree with Duncan that "auxiliary premises" is okay. You could possibly use the term "Public areas" when speaking about the areas where students do things that are not related to studying - like the canteens where students will be eating. Then you could refer to "study areas" as "classrooms", "study halls" and "auditoriums". I hope that helps! I also agree with Duncan that you could use the word "thoroughfares" for walkways and stairways, or you could speak about "passages"/"hallways" and "stairways"/"stairwells".

July 7, 2020

Thank you!

July 7, 2020

Main and auxiliary premises sound ok. Although I might think of auxiliary premises as being away from the main buildings. You can potentially use "thoroughfares" as a collective term for halls, stairs, etc. I think this is technically a path/road/street term - the main thoroughfare is usually a busy street with shops in the centre of a town. I think it can be used this way. I would say it and be understood, but it might not be technically correct.

July 7, 2020

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