Essential English phrases

The city centre. Not downtown — Charlotte is the only large American city that calls its central business district Uptown, partly because it sits on a ridge and partly because of a deliberate 1970s rebrand. Saying 'downtown' marks you out in about four words.

Uptown is divided into First, Second, Third and Fourth Ward, quartered by the intersection of Trade and Tryon. Addresses, developments and neighbourhood associations are all given in wards, and the numbering is not intuitive.

The walking and cycling path running alongside the Blue Line through South End. It functions as the neighbourhood's high street, and 'meet you on the Rail Trail' is a complete set of directions to anyone who lives here.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools — one school district covering the entire county, city and towns alike. After Columbus or Kansas City this is startlingly simple: there is exactly one district, and the question is which school inside it.

Someone who moved here, as opposed to a 'been-here'. Charlotte is overwhelmingly a city of come-heres — most adults living here were born somewhere else — so it is said with more amusement than edge, and it makes the city unusually easy to break into socially.

Charlotte, named for Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, George III's consort. Hence 'QC', the crown motif on everything, and the county name. The city was named for a German-born British queen and then spent 1775 declaring independence from her husband.

The U.S. National Whitewater Center west of the city — the world's largest man-made whitewater river, an Olympic training site, and where half of Charlotte spends a Saturday. Nowhere else in this app has anything like it.

The inner loop around Uptown and the outer belt around the county. Everything is located by which one you are inside of, and 'outside 485' means a different life entirely.

The LYNX light rail running from UNC Charlotte through Uptown to Pineville. It is the reason South End exists in its current form, and the corridor along it is the only genuinely transit-oriented part of the metro.

The fried chicken and biscuit chain founded in Charlotte in 1977. A Bo-Berry Biscuit is a local institution and the correct answer to a hangover. Ordering with any irony will be noticed.

A dark cherry soft drink made in Salisbury, North Carolina since 1917. Contains no wine. Available everywhere here and almost nowhere outside the Carolinas, which locals regard as the rest of the country's problem.

The Piedmont barbecue tradition Charlotte sits in — pork shoulder with a thin vinegar, pepper and tomato dip, served with red slaw. Eastern North Carolina uses whole hog and no tomato, and the difference is a genuine regional argument.

North Carolina's combined vehicle registration renewal and property tax payment. One transaction, one bill, both due at the same time. Newcomers expect two and get one, which is a rare piece of American administrative kindness.

The second person plural. Standard, unremarkable and genuinely useful. 'All y'all' exists and is the emphatic form.