Describing my home

Describing my home
How would you describe your home? What is the difference between 'home' and 'house'? We asked members from our Learn English community to describe their homes and we've featured a selection of contributions.

The word ‘home’ is not used to talk about a building. It’s used in a more emotional way, to talk about the place where you live.

"I can't wait to get home and relax."

We use the noun ‘house’ to talk about a building where people live.

"That’s my house, on the left."
So what's the difference between 'home' and 'house'?

The difference is that a house is a physical structure but a home is about where you live, it has a more emotional connection.

You can use 'home' and 'house' in the same sentence. For example:

"Even though I live in a small house, I look forward to going home at the end of a long day."

A good way to describe your home is to use adjectives. Adjectives are used to describe or modify other words. Using adjectives provides the listener with more information about what you're saying.

You can use the following adjectives to describe your home:

Big
Beautiful
Comfortable
Cosy
Huge
Small
Homely
There are other ways to talk about your home. For example, you can use metaphors or proverbs to describe what your home means to you.

Here are some contributions from the Learn English community:

East or west, home is the best."

-Sa Gu from Myanmar

Sa Gu uses a proverb to talk about what the word ‘home’ means. It means wherever you go, ‘home’ is the best place to be.

"My home is my world."

-Nancynderela Cipriana Mbongo from Angola

Nancynderela is using a metaphor to talk about her home. A metaphor is a word or phrase where it is not used in its literal meaning but are used to describe something else. Here she says that her home means everything to her.