freeway = Schnellstraße i.S.v. Autobahn
highway = Schnellstraße i.S.v. Landstraße, Kraftfahrstraße = Bundesstraße

I don't think there are exact translations for those expressions.

All freeways are also highways, but not vice versa.

Also, freeway is not used everywhere in the US. Try it on somebody on the East Coast and they will look puzzled ("This ain't California, honey" was one of the responses I got.) The more general expression would probably be interstate (or interstate highway) which can definitely be translated as Autobahn.

I guess the reason my friends in NJ did not know/use freeway was that many of the interstates there are toll roads. Whereas the interstated on the West Coast are all free = freeways. (don't know what most people in the middle do...)

Hope this helps a bit.

I'm not an AE native, but isn't 'highway' the generic term for all Autobahn-like streets, and 'freeway' the term used to differentiate between a highway for the use of which a toll is due, and a highway for the use of which no toll is due, 'freeway' being the latter?

Oops, forgot the highways:
Those could be Autobahn, Bundestrasse, Schnellstrasse and there are some highways I would even refer to as Landstrasse.

what about roads in ireland ..
how is the traffic net there?

i only know the tourist leavlets ..
with charming narrow roads ..

When entering Austria using an Autobahn, you will read the following traffic sign:

"Autobahnvignette erforderlich für Autobahnen und Schnellstraßen
Toll sticker mandatory for motorways and highways"

(or similar). I think "motorway" is BE and not AE.

I would say that "highway" is the overarching term, though I'm not sure what "freeway" actually denotes. Freeway seems to be used most frequently in California, the western U.S., and Australia. On the East Coast, roads are used referred to by their proper names, e.g. the Mass Pike, the New Jersey Turnpike, the Cross-Bronx Expressway (though, once again, I'm exactly sure what "expressway" denotes).

Then there are Parkways, like the George Washington Memorial Pkwy. in Northern Virginia, which is a very pretty highway, I must saw.

@ la.ktho

What is the relevance of your comment to this thread? I would rather be spared romantic, half-baked comments about foreign countries.
And, again, maybe contributors should think about writing in their native language unless we want going to start hearing about "traffic nets" here more often.

Speedy: Could you explain the difference you see between them? IMHO they are two words for essentially the same thing used in different regions.

In Australia at least, the distinction is exactly as Michael has described it in the first post. A highway has intersections, whereas a freeway has exits in order to join or leave the road (thus allowing the traffic to flow *freely*, at least in theory.) I had always understood the British term 'motorway' to be a freeway, but I could be wrong ;-)

I agree with Sue (and Michael). Freeway, interstate, tollway, turnpike all limit access, thus traffic is SUPPOSED to flow more freely. You pay to drive on a tollway or a turnpike (the term is used more commonly in the east). There are some interstate highways with tolls (e.g. in Chicago). Highways have intersections. In someplaces in the US these are major roads (4 lane highways with infrequent intersections), but when I moved to Michigan I found highways in the country that are not different from other minor roads. I suspect that in the past the "highways" were paved and other roads were not. Now almost all the roads in the area are paved and the distinction is lost.