Some Clarification On How Roundabouts Work

Hello there.

I'm currently learning to drive and it's going pretty well. I still make small mistakes here and there and the occasional stall, but I'm much better than I once was.

That being said, there is one thing about roundabouts that somewhat stubs me. It's partly because of nerves but I'm willing to admit it's also just me misunderstanding something too.

So, the way my instructor has gone about roundabouts, he says that when I come to one, he wants me to ask the question "Is there anyone coming on or around that affects you ?"

I can tell my left and right perfectly fine, but for some reason, applying what is the left and right lane for a roundabout fucked my brain for the longest time and it made me make silly mistakes due to it. But, on the last lesson, I've now noticed that the smaller ring closer to the center is the right and the larger one is the left. So that settles that.

But here's what I want to make sure I've understood. He explained to me that the "around" in the "on and around" question is a lot more important than the "on" and that's because that's what you will have to immediately react to. Which again, makes sense to me. So, when someone is coming around, if they are in the right lane on the roundabout and are signalling right, then they affect me, right ? And of course, if they signal left, they're leaving the roundabout so that means they're safe to go too.

So, again. Is my takeaway of "if they're coming around in the right lane, they affect me and I need to make way for them" the correct takeaway or is there something I'm still misunderstanding ?

Hopefully this all makes sense. Thank you all in advance.