Essential English phrases

Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, with Research Triangle Park in the middle. A job 'in the Triangle' can mean a 45-minute cross-metro drive, so ask which corner.

Research Triangle Park — 7,000 acres of laboratories and campuses founded in 1959, the largest research park in the United States. It is unincorporated and belongs to no city.

Raleigh's Capital Area Greenway — more than 100 miles of paved trail along creeks and the Neuse River, used for commuting as well as recreation.

The Triangle's original area code, used as a local identity marker. The overlay 984 exists but nobody claims it.

I-440, the inner ring road. 'Inside the Beltline' is Raleigh's shorthand for the older, denser, more expensive part of the city.

The rivalry between NC State, Duke, UNC and Wake Forest. Ask which team someone supports before you assume — the answer determines a surprising amount here.

The NC State Fair, eleven days in October on the Raleigh fairgrounds. Around a million people attend and the whole city plans around it.

Whole hog, chopped, dressed with vinegar and pepper and no tomato. Raleigh sits on the eastern side of North Carolina's genuine barbecue divide, and the argument with Lexington-style is not for tourists.

A cherry soft drink made in Salisbury since 1917. It contains no wine, it is a Carolina institution, and it turns up in barbecue sauce and cake.

Sympathy on the surface. Depending on tone, it ranges from genuine kindness to a complete dismissal of your intelligence, and newcomers reliably misread it.

911 for emergencies. Raleigh has no 311 line — city requests go through the Ask Raleigh portal or 919-996-3000, and the police non-emergency line is 919-829-1911.