House or Home?

 

House or Home

House

A house is a building or structure in which people live.
  • The house has a beautifully landscaped garden.
  • They’ve just bought a two-bedroom house.
  • We're hoping to enlarge the house.
We can use the house to talk about the people who live in the house.
  • Be careful not to wake the whole house!

A house can refer to a building or part of a building that is used for a special purpose.
  • The Sydney Opera House

We can use house to talk about a company involved in a particular kind of business.
  • a fashion house
  • a banking house
  • a publishing house

Home

Home is the place where we live: our house, our flat, our tent. It's also the place you feel comfortable or you feel you belong to. If you live in a flat, that's home, but it's not a house.
  • They had to sell the family home.
  • I miss the comforts of home when I’m away.
  • home sweet home (People never say house sweet house.)
  • There's no place like home.

We often use home with the preposition at.
  • He isn’t at home today.
  • Sit down and make yourself at home.

Home can be used to refer to a family living together.
  • These children need a stable home life.
  • I left home and began an independent life when I was sixteen.
  • We had a happy home.
  • She came from a good home.

The town, district, or country you come from is your home.
  • My home is New Jersey.
  • We decided to make Greece our home.

We can use a home to refer to a place where people who need special care live and are cared for.
  • an old people’s home
  • a retirement home
  • a home for orphans

In this sense, home is used as a countable noun and with the preposition in.
  • She spent her early years in a home.

We use the home of to refer to the place where something was first started or originated.
  • Scotland is known as the home of golf.
  • New Orleans is the home of jazz.

We can use home as an adverb to mean to or at the place where we live.
  • It's time to go home.
  • What time did you get home?
  • Don't worry, we'll be home soon.

Summary

We use the word house to refer to a physical building or structure. But we use home to refer to a place where we and our family live happily. Home is where the heart is.


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