Why is it that most German streets end in 'straße'?

" are there no German equivalents to the English 'Road', 'Place', 'Way', 'Avenue', etc?"

Of course there are.

Some examples from downtown Cologne:

Heumarkt (Markt = market)

Bolzengasse (Gasse = alley)

Auenweg (Weg = way)

Ottoplatz (Platz = square)

etc.

https://maps.google.de/maps?q=cologne+germany&ie=U...

Of course there are ways, avenues, lanes, places, roads, tracks and pathways. The streets are usually the larger roads.

A road can be a "Landstrasse" or "Weg"

A place is "Platz"

Way can be "Weg" or "Strasse"

Lane can be "Weg" Gasse" "Pfad" or "Strasse"

Avenue can be "Allee" or "Strasse"

And an embankment is "Damm" like "Kurfürstendamm in Berlin.

Just think of Berlin, Alexanderplatz, Prenzlauerallee.

And then one also gets a "Winkel" a corner, and a "Ring" a circle

Look at the equivalents:

Road means the same as street = Straße, Gasse.

When I think of London, I rember many streets, like Downing Street, Bond Street, Carneby Street ...

"Friedrichstraße - Wikipedia":

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrichstra%C3%9Fe

"Oxford Street - Wikipedia"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Street

"Tempelhofer Ufer - Wikipedia":

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempelhofer_Ufer_23%E...

"Albert Embankment - Wikipedia":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Embankment

"Schloßplatz - Wikipedia":

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlo%C3%9Fplatz_(Ber...

"Trafalgar Square - Wikipedia":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafalgar_Square

"Tegeler Weg":

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlacht_am_Tegeler_W...

"Kingsway - Wikipedia";

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsway,_London

"Kurfürstendamm - Wikipedia":

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurf%FCrstendamm

Cheers ebs

Yeah, well 'strasse' - which is how you pronounce that, by the way - is German for 'street' or 'road'.

Straße is short for Strasse

The "ß" character is short for "ss"

Strasse or Straße means street - simply

Viel spass ! (Have fun)

Einbahnstrasße = one way street

becoz it is the german word for streets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!