Describing your 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
Check some vocabulary related to rooms and furniture or appliances before writing the essay. Here you can see some useful words:
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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.
