Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How To Describe A Home
How To Describe A Home
When you write about your home you can write about:
where it is
the different rooms in your home
what is in each room
Vocabulary
Parts of the house
Prepositions
Use these prepositions and phrases to describe where you live. You should review prepositions of
place before writing this essay.
I live in a small house/big apartment.
The house is in/on a quiet street.
It’s near/not far from the train station.
There’s a garden behind the house.
It’s a ten-minute walk to/from the town centre.
Note that when we say a ten-minute walk, a twenty-minute walk, etc. we use a number + a hyphen
(–) + the word minute in the singular.
There is/are
Use there is/are to write about the things in or near your home.
Use there is with singular nouns. Use a before the singular noun. The negative form is there isn’t.
There is a bus stop near the apartment.
There isn’t a bath in the bathroom.
You can shorten there is to there’s.
There’s a single bed in the guest bedroom.
Use there are with plural nouns. We often use some or a number before the noun.
There are two bedrooms in the flat.
There are some books on the shelf.
In negative sentences, we use any, NOT some.
There aren’t any towels in the guest bedroom.
Has/Has got
You can also use has or has got to write about what is in the house. The negative form is doesn’t
have or hasn’t got.
The flat has WIFI. The flat doesn’t have WIFI.
The house has got a garden. The house hasn’t got a garden.
Just/Only
You can use just or only when there are a small number of things. Look where just and only go in a
sentence.
There’s just one bedroom. / There’s only one bedroom.
The flat only has one bedroom. / The flat just has one bedroom
The house has only got a shower, not a bath. / The house has just got a shower, not a
bath.
With
Use with to add extra information about a home, room, or piece of furniture.
I live in a small house with a big garden.
There’s a kitchen with three chairs.
There’s a cupboard with five shelves.
Some useful adverbs
Start your sentence with one of these adverbs to talk about different parts of your home.
Upstairs, there are three bedrooms.
Downstairs, there is a kitchen and a living room.
Inside, there are five rooms.
Outside, there is a garden.
Lists
When we write about our homes we often include lists. Look at the list below.
In the living room, there is a sofa, two armchairs and a television.
Look how
we use there is because the first item on the list (a sofa) is singular.
we use a comma (,) between the first items on the list. Before the last item, we write and.
To contrast between positive and negative things in a list, use but.
The bathroom has a bath, a toilet and a washbasin, but it doesn’t have a shower.
There’s a microwave, a washing machine and a fridge-freezer, but there isn’t a dishwasher.