Essential English phrases

Albany, Schenectady, Troy and the ring of towns around them. Nobody here says 'upstate' about their own city — upstate is somewhere further north — and the Capital Region is the identity that actually gets used.

The area code, used as shorthand for the whole region. The 838 overlay exists and nobody has adopted it as a badge.

The Empire State Plaza — Nelson Rockefeller's marble government complex above downtown, with a reflecting pool, four identical agency towers and an underground concourse you can cross the city in during February.

The bar, restaurant and independent shop spine between Center Square and Washington Park. If someone suggests meeting 'on Lark', this is where.

The stretch between the last snow and real spring, roughly March into April, when everything thaws, refreezes and turns to slush. It is a fifth season here and locals plan around it.

The performing arts centre on the Plaza, shaped exactly as advertised and cantilevered on a stem sunk six storeys into the ground. It is the region's shorthand for the Plaza's architecture generally.

The limestone escarpment rising west of the city, with Thacher Park along the top of it and a view over the whole Hudson-Mohawk valley. Twenty-five minutes from downtown and the best free thing in the county.

The four-storey fibreglass RCA dog on the roof of a warehouse on Broadway, installed in 1954 and now a protected landmark. Directions in north Albany are still given relative to it.

The Governor's office in the Capitol. In political conversation here 'the second floor wants it' means the executive chamber, and everyone in a government town knows what that means.

Residential Occupancy Permit. Every rental unit in the City of Albany must have a current one, certifying a code inspector has found it fit to live in. If you are renting here, this is the acronym to know.

The Albany NanoTech Complex on Fuller Road — 1.65 million square feet of cleanroom and lab across six buildings, with IBM, ASML, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron on site. Locals treat it as one thing, and it is why the region calls itself Tech Valley.

The regional branding for the semiconductor and materials cluster running from Albany up to GlobalFoundries at Malta. It is marketing, but unlike most such labels it is attached to actual 300mm wafer fabs.