modern english living room design
hello, i'm oli. welcome to oxford online english!in this lesson, you can learn about how to talk about your home in english. where doyou live? what's your home like? what about your neighbourhood? talking about where youlive is a common conversation topic in english. so it's good to have some things to say. partone: introducing where you live and talking about types of home. let's start with a simplesentence. "i live in a..." what could you put there? you could say, "i live in a house,""i live in an apartment." in britain, people sometimes say, "flat." 'flat' and 'apartment'have the same meaning. next, let's add a bit more detail. what kindof house or apartment is it? for example, "i live in a small, two-stoery house in thesuburbs." when we say how many floors a building
has, we usually use the word storey, so youcan say a two-storey house, a four-storey apartment building and so on. "i live in anapartment on the third floor of a four-storey building." there are many different kindsof house and apartment. for example, do you live in a terraced house, a semi-detachedhouse, or a detached house? terraced houses have other houses on both sides, a semi-detachedhouse has another house just on one side, and a detached house stands by itself. detachedhouses are usually larger and more expensive. terraced houses are usually smaller and cheaper. what kinds of houses are more common in yourcountry? what about apartments? many apartments are in apartment buildings. easy enough, right?if you live in a very tall apartment building
with many floors, you can say you live ina high-rise in american english or a tower block in british english. sometimes a houseis divided into apartments, these are called converted apartments. apartments come in manydifferent sizes, if an apartment just has one room which is a bedroom and living roomtogether, it's called a studio. of course, you can also have bigger apartments, a two-bedroomapartment, a three-bedroom apartment and so on. large apartments might be duplex apartments,this means the apartment has more than one floor. what about you? where do you live? do youlive in a house or an apartment? could you make a sentence using the vocabulary fromthis section? for example, "i live in a two-story
terraced house." "i live in an apartment onthe 28th floor of a high-rise building." "i live in a converted studio apartment." next,let's see how you can describe the inside of your home in more detail. if you want todescribe your home, what can you talk about? well, you could start by saying what roomsit has. for example, "my house has two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a garden." it'salways better to add adjectives or details to make your speaking more interesting. let'stry: "my house has two small bedrooms, a kitchen with a dining table, a living room with bigwindows, and a small garden." what other rooms might you have in your home?you could have a dining room for people to eat together. maybe you have an office ora study where you can work, if you live in
a warmer country, you might have a balconyor a terrace where you can sit outside in warmer weather. what about your home? whatdoes it have? does your home have a garden, a balcony, or another outdoor area? try tomake a sentence describing your home. for example, "i live in a two-bedroom apartment.the bedrooms are quite small, but there's a big living room with a dining area, a modernkitchen, and also a small balcony where we can sit outside in the summer." what can yousay about your home? okay, next, saying what you like or dislike.so now you can hopefully describe your home a little bit, but what about your opinion?what do you like about your home, and what would you change if you could? positive wordsyou could use to describe your home include
'spacious', meaning large with lots of room;'cosy' which means comfortable in a warm welcoming way; 'light' describes a home which gets lotof natural light. you can say your home is 'warm' or 'cool', meaning that it's comfortablein winter or in summer. finally, you can describe your home as 'convenient', meaning it's closeto your job, it's close to the shops, it's close to your children's school and so on.you can use 'convenient' plus 'for.' for example, "it's convenient for the subway," or "it'sconvenient for my office." could you use any of these words to describe your home? okay, but what if you don't like your home?well, here are some words you could use: 'cramped' means your home is too small, so you don'thave enough space. 'dark' means your home
doesn't get enough light, so that even whenit's sunny outside, it's still dark inside. 'drafty' means cold air comes inside throughthe windows or through the doors in the winter. 'stuffy' means there's not enough air so it'svery uncomfortable in hot weather. you could say your home is 'noisy', for example if youlive near a main road, your home might be noisy even at night. can you make a sentence about your home usingsome of these words? for example, "my home is light and spacious, but it can get verydrafty in the winter." "i like my apartment because it's cosy, although it can be noisybecause there's a restaurant just downstairs." okay, so now you can talk about your homeand what you think of it. what else can you
say on this topic? let's look, part four:saying who you live with. who do you live with? do live with your parents, your husbandor wife, with your family? do you live by yourself or do you live with flatmates (peoplewho you share a rented flat with)? maybe you live with friends. let's look at examples of what you could sayhere. "i live with my parents." "i live in a shared house; i have four flatmates." "ilive by myself." what about you? okay, that was easy. let's look at one more topic youcan talk about. part five: talking about your neighbourhood. first, be careful with theword 'neighbourhood'. a neighbourhood is not a person; it's the area near your home. sowhere is your home? is it in the city centre,
the suburbs, or outside the city? if you liveoutside the city, do you live on the outskirts of the city, in a village, or in the middleof nowhere? how could you describe your neighbourhood?is it quiet or lively? trendy or boring? are there many shops, cafes, bars, restaurants?are there parks or sports facilities? for example, you could say, "i live in a verylively area just south of the city center. there are many cafes, shops, and places togo." or, "i live in a quiet area in the suburbs, in the north of the city. it's a nice areaand it's quiet, but it's a bit boring. there isn't really anything to do." what about you?can you say something about your neighborhood? okay, finally let's put everything together.if you can use everything we've looked at
in this lesson, you should be able to speakvery clearly and with lots of details about your home and where you live. for example, "i live in a two-story terracedhouse. it has two bedrooms, a living room, a small kitchen, and a garden. it's cosy andconvenient for getting to work, but it's a bit cramped, especially when we have guests.i live with my wife and daughter. our house is near the city centre in a quiet neighborhood.there isn't much to do, but there are some small shops and a park where we go if theweather's nice." here's one more sample answer: "i live bymyself in a studio apartment. it just has one main room with a tiny kitchen. it's verywarm in winter, but it can get a bit stuffy
in summer. i live in the city center, veryclose to everything. it's very lively, with lots of bars and restaurants. it's a goodplace for young people to live, but not many families choose to live here." what about you? can you make an answer likethis talking about where you live? try to use as much language from the lesson as youcan. okay, that's the end of the lesson. thanks very much for watching. you can see more ofour free english lessons on our website, oxfordonlineenglish.com, but that's all. thanks again. i'll see younext time. bye-bye!