Speaking: Talking about where you live

In English, we sometimes have to talk about where we live. In this lesson, we help you learn how to talk about where you live and the vocabulary words you will use to describe your house or flat. Where do you live? Do you live in a city or in the countryside? Do you live in a house or a flat? Let’s start the lesson now.

Talking about the area where you live

Let’s read the text below and learn the ways we can talk about where we live in a simple way.

1. I live in a village, but there are good facilities we need for daily life. There’s a good market near my home. It’s an outdoor market, but we can buy almost everything there. There are some small cafes serving coffee and simple drinks to people in the village.
2. My name’s Anna. I live in BT. It’s a good town to live in. I live here with my brother, Lu, and my sister, Sal. I’m a high school student, and they both work. We live in a house with 2 bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. My sister and I share a bedroom and my brother is in another. The house is not very big, but it’s really bright. We have a good kitchen. We have all cooking utensils. We have a TV in the living, a sofa set. I usually lie on the sofa and watch TV in the evening.
   We usually stay in town during the week, and sometimes we go back to our family home in a small village 100 km away. It’s a beautiful place, but there’s not much to do there.
3. We live in a small house in the mountains. I drive to work in the nearest town every day and also take my kids to school there. It takes an hour to get there. We prefer to live in the countryside. It’s quiet and we have no neighbours to annoy us. There’s no nightlife here, but we watch DVDs, or play games, or sing songs together. We have a lot of fun. It’s also fantastic to get up in the morning when the sky is clear because we have a great view – you can see the sea from here. Friends often come to visit us because they think it’s so nice here. 

Words to learn: local facilities

a bank
a supermarket
a post office
a café
a computer shop
a chemist’s
a bookshop/book store
a phone shop
an internet café
a shoe shop
a clothes shop
a restaurant
a church
a hospital
an outdoor market
a bus stop
a train station
a subway station

Conversation:
A: I need to buy some aspirin. Is there a chemist’s near here?
B: Yes, there is one on Church Street. 

Describe your house or flat.

Do you live in a house or in a flat (apartment)? What’s your house like? In this section, we learn vocabulary words to describe your house or flat.

Describe your house/flat or apartment:
I live in a two-bedroom flat on the outskirt. It’s quite big for me because I’m on my own. I have a big living room where I receive friends or visitors. There’s a TV, a cupboard, a sofa, and two armchairs. My kitchen has everything I need for cooking meals, but I don’t like cooking. I eat out most of the time. 

In the house or a flat (apartment):

What do you have in your house?
a living room
a bedroom
a kitchen
a dining room
a bathroom
a bed
a chair
a sofa
an armchair
a table
a stool
a mirror
a fridge (refrigerator)
a TV
a cupboard
a plate
a fork
a knife
a spoon
a pan
a frying pan
soap
shampoo
toothpaste
a toothbrush
a hairbrush
a dishwasher
a vacuum cleaner
a washing machine

Where do you do these things?
do the washing up
watch DVD
brush your teeth
check your emails
cut vegetables
put on make-up
wash your clothes
get dressed
have breakfast / lunch / dinner
cook meals

Now, it’s your turn! Talk about where you live. Use the comment box below.