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Please take a look at the following two images:

Image # 1

Image # 2

In India, it's customary to refer to the thing in the first image as a "gas stove" and the second as a"cooking range" or "hob." Is it the same in American homes?

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  • Most American homes wouldn't have a stand-alone stovetop like that. We mostly have stove/oven combinations. If you said "gas stove" to an American he'd probably picture the stovetop if a gas-fired oven. If I had to give a name to the top picture, I'd call it a "camping stove", maybe? Cooking range is perfectly fine here (though used more by advertisers than homeowners), but hob is generally unknown.
    – Dan Bron
    Nov 26, 2014 at 20:00
  • So "stovetop" is the word preferred in American kitchens and they are not standalone but rather come "pre-installed" with the kitchen. Am I right in assuming this? Also, which of the two would be more common out there? Gas powered stovetops or non-gas stovetops (electric maybe?)?
    – TheLearner
    Nov 26, 2014 at 20:04
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    Nope, then you'd just say plain old stove. I'm just trying to give you a word for the broken-out unit deputed in the first image, which is correctly and technically called a stove. The problem is saying "stove" to an American would not conjure up a picture like your first, because we generally don't have those things. Except in transitory situations like camping or places which don't have a full kitchen.
    – Dan Bron
    Nov 26, 2014 at 20:16
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    "gas stove" is correct in AmE. If it's electric, it's an "electric stove". If you don't have to distinguish (you're pointing at one in a kitchen) you'd just call it "the stove". People selling these things will more likely call it a "range", but people actually using them will more likely call it a "stove".
    – Mitch
    Nov 26, 2014 at 21:51
  • 1
    the first pic is a double bunson burner!
    – Gitty
    Nov 26, 2014 at 22:19

2 Answers 2

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According to OxfordLearnersDictionary; stove:

  • (especially North American English) (British English also cooker) (North American English also range) a large piece of equipment for cooking food, containing an oven and gas or electric rings on top. - She put a pan of water on the stove.

  • (North American English, British English) Most people don't want to spend hours slaving over a hot stove(= cooking).

Range:

  • (North American English) : stove.

  • stove with spaces for cooking a number of things at the same time.

    • Cook the meat on a low heat on top of the range.
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    This does not seem to answer the question at all. It gives definitions of stove and range, but that was not what was asked.
    – Drew
    Nov 27, 2014 at 6:20
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    I don't think that's what the question is. He is asking what words (plural) Americans use to distinguish the two kinds of gas stove shown in the picture. At least that's my interpretation. Admittedly, the question could be clearer.
    – Drew
    Nov 27, 2014 at 6:28
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Here's my take on first photo. I think it could be considered a gas hot plate.

http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/equipment/commercial-hot-plates/c3544.aspx

The second photo is, as previous posters stated, a gas stove or range.

And now I correct myself with the link below

http://www.ehow.com/about_5374912_oven-vs-range.html

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