Essential English phrases

Las Vegas Boulevard South — and legally not in Las Vegas at all. It runs through the unincorporated Clark County townships of Paradise and Winchester, so the casinos are county, not city.

The Las Vegas Valley: the whole bowl of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County. Locals say 'the valley', rarely 'the city'.

An off-Strip casino — Station, Boyd, the Durango — where residents actually go. Free parking, cheap food, video poker in the bar rail, and no resort fee.

Complimentary rooms, meals and show tickets earned on a players' card. Locals treat the loyalty programmes as a genuine part of the household budget, not a tourist gimmick.

Decorative grass nobody walks on. Nevada law requires it removed from the Las Vegas Valley, so the phrase turns up in HOA letters and water-authority rebate offers.

The Clark County work card issued by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police. Many hospitality, alcohol-service, security and gaming-adjacent jobs cannot legally start without one.

The overnight shift, roughly 11pm to 7am, after 'swing'. In a 24-hour economy these are ordinary working hours and the whole city's services are built around them.

The I-15 / US-95 / I-515 interchange just north of downtown, and the metro's single worst bottleneck. Traffic reports assume you know it by name.

The Bruce Woodbury Beltway, the ring road round the valley. Locals navigate by the 215, the 15 and the 95, not by street names.

July to September, when the desert gets most of its rain in a handful of violent afternoons. Dry washes and underpasses flood in minutes; people drown in cars here every year.

911 for emergencies; 311 for city and county services — potholes, code enforcement, abandoned vehicles.

The pale mineral band on Lake Mead's canyon walls marking where the water used to be. Local shorthand for the Colorado River shortage, visible from the Hoover Dam road.