In English, the name of document that entitles someone to drive a vehicle differs, with around generally 6 permutations. Driving/Driver/Driverās and licence/license.
As a noun, ālicenceā is generally how you would spell the verb using British English, whereas in American English the noun is spelled the same as the verb; ālicenseā.
Driving vs. āDriverāsā is more subjective in my opinion. It is an authorisation for the act of driving, so it being a āDrivingā licence/license is logical. As the same time, the document is in the possession of the driver, so āDriverāsā is also equally as valid. A handful of countries use āDriversā, which is just sloppy, as it doesnāt make any grammatical sense.
I tried my best to compile data on all countries which mention the document in English. In Australia, Canada and the US, licences are issued by state/territory, so Iāve included their differences.
I only included countries for which an English version of the name is on the actual licence. On many EU licences, the English is written very faintly on backgrounds. For many smaller countries I couldnāt find examples of the document. In South America, āLicencia de conducirā was most common, but a few permutations in Spanish. On the African continent, the French āPermis de conduireā was also fairly common. Multi-language licences with English, French and other languages was also common. I only picked out the English translation for this map.
In my subjective opinion, āDriving licenceā feels most right; but as this map illustrates, itās a diverse interpretation. For licence/license, the difference between C/S is almost indistinguishable in a small font and in spoken word. Some evident US/UK influence on the map.
https://old.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1fvftxw/drivingdrivers_licencelicense_oc/
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Iāve lived in 7 US States, every single one is marked as ādriver licenseā on this map, but I have literally always said ādriverās licenseā š¤·āāļø interesting that the regional vernacular doesnāt match the words on the cards
In North Carolina in the US, we might have official documents calling it a Driver License, but having lived here almost my entire life, I would use ādriverās licenseā in casual conversation.
Red gang represent. Who else is in the club, is that newfound? And somewhere on the Gold Coast of Africa.
The meeting is next Wednesday, bring your driver licence for verification.
The Canadian provinces are Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island (the little island nestled in the middle), and New Brunswick.
The odd cases are QuĆ©bec (only puts āPermis de Conduireā) and Yukon Territory (written as āOperatorās Licenceā)
Note for non-Canadians that āNewfoundland and Labradorā is a single province.
In Brazil we officially call it something like āNational Enabling Cardā (here Iām translating āCarteira Nacional de HabilitaĆ§Ć£oā, CNH, in a literal way). By joining the meanings from words āCarteiraā and āHabilitaĆ§Ć£oā, it takes the meaning of ālicenseā. But hereās the catch: while the English part of CNH is āDriver Licenseā, the original Portuguese name doesnāt mention the āmotoristaā (i.e. the driver). Itād be something like āNational Licenseā, focusing more on the collective (nation) instead of who is actually being licensed (the driver, the individual, the citizen).
Edit: I noticed that your map is wrong for Brazil. The Brazilian CNH (the newer models) has āDriver Licenseā, not āDriving Licenseā, among the international languages below the original Portuguese title for the document: English, Spanish and French.
good stuff!
