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Joe's Cafe, 24/7 pit stop for ESL learners and teachers | August 2008
Egg's off, bacon's off, bread's off, tea's off. English is on though.

House or home?

These two words may seem alike but actually they have rather different meanings.

A house is a building that people live in. It stands on its own land (unlike, say, an apartment or flat) and often has a garden. It may be detached (not joined to another house), semi-detached (joined to one other house), or terraced (in a row, like townhouses all joined together).

  • We are selling our house and want to buy a bigger one.
  • That house used to be brown, but last week the owners painted it white.

A home is the place where you live, especially as part of a family. It could be a house, or it could be a condominium or apartment or flat, or anywhere else.

  • I have to go home. I’ve just remembered that I left my apartment door open.
  • After the hurricane they had to move into a temporary caravan. But already they’ve made it into a real home for the children.

Just think of house as a physical thing, and home is more like an idea.

NB: there is a tendency by real estate agents in the USA to use “home” instead of “house”. So they advertise “Home for Sale” instead of “House for Sale” etc. This is perhaps due to the emotive nature of the word “home”, which may better serve the purposes of commercialism. But we have seen what happens when words lose their meanings.

Admin | Monday, August 25th, 2008 | Filed under Vocabulary

16 Responses to “House or home?”

  1. Donna says:
    25th August 2008 at 3:33 pm

    a very good explanation , very clear! thank you

  2. Naresh says:
    1st September 2008 at 9:48 am

    I really find an appropriate explanation here.Thank you so much.

  3. shireen says:
    4th September 2008 at 12:36 am

    avery good explanation ihope there will be more questions like that

  4. haidar saad says:
    7th September 2008 at 9:27 pm

    thank you so much. i thought about thise subject before but i never found the answer.

  5. hanane says:
    8th September 2008 at 4:15 pm

    Hullo Dear Sir,
    Thank you for deleting those two dirty blogs. It is no their home here.
    Best Regards

  6. Cris says:
    9th September 2008 at 3:53 am

    It’s very clear explanation, that’s why I understand very well.

    kept up the good work! It is very help to all the readers to understand the meaning because very well said.

    good luck!! I hope that you post more blog here.

    God bless

  7. navneet pabla says:
    23rd September 2008 at 9:00 pm

    Hi sir
    thanx very much for giving us a very clear and clever
    explanation!

  8. salvatore macchione says:
    25th September 2008 at 8:00 am

    very best explanation

  9. bashir says:
    9th October 2008 at 3:38 pm

    Every house is not a home, a home is where takes you in when you go in!

  10. basma says:
    11th October 2008 at 11:56 am

    It is the first time to know the difference so cleary

  11. Gilberto Herrera says:
    13th October 2008 at 10:44 am

    House is a building. Home is a family.

    I left my house in Cuba, but I have my home in Miami.

    Sorry I am learning English language.

    Thank you.

  12. Deddy D'Mahdi says:
    15th October 2008 at 2:15 am

    very clear to understand, thanks.

  13. Oleg Sorokin says:
    27th October 2008 at 10:24 am

    Good day Sir!
    The difference between House and Home is clearly.
    Anyway I find this explanation very good for
    advanced understanding the English language.
    I think we all wish more such blurb.
    Thank you very much.

  14. Oleg Sorokin says:
    27th October 2008 at 10:45 am

    Thank you!
    I hope further on to enjoy
    the English Club.

  15. erengul says:
    10th December 2008 at 2:45 pm

    a very clear explanation, thank you. Would you give aknowledge using ”I think”

  16. morvarid says:
    11th August 2009 at 9:42 pm

    ineedhelp englishthank you

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