English Vocabulary & Expressions with HOUSE and HOME

What's the difference between "housework" and "homework"? What does it mean if a person is "homeless"? Do "house" and "home" mean the same thing? In this lesson, I will answer all these questions and more. I will also teach you common expressions that use the words "house" and "home". You will learn the meaning of "hometown", "homesick", "home sweet home", "on the house", "make yourself at home", and many more. After watching, you can do your homework by taking the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/english-vocabulary-expressions-house-home/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you many, many new expressions. Okay? These words and expressions all have to do with "house" and "home", so they're all expressions that have the word "house" or "home" in them. Okay?

So, to get started, I wanted to explain the difference between "house" and "home" before we even look at the other expressions. So, let's get started with that. So, there is a little bit of a difference. A "home" means a house, an apartment, it can mean a condo, it can be any place a person lives. Okay? So, if you ever watched the TV show Sesame Street, there was a character, Oscar the Grouch, his home was in a garbage can. Okay? It's not a house, but it's his home because he lives there. Where a mouse, for example, his home might be in a wall. Okay? Or some people, again, maybe their home is in a tent. So, a home is a place where you live. This is different from a "house". A house is one type of building. Okay? So, a house is not an apartment, it's not a condo. This is a house. This is a house. Okay? So, a house is a very specific type of building. So that's the difference. "Home" is... Refers to anywhere a person lives, but a "house" is a type of building. There might be nobody who lives in the house. Okay? I might have four houses, but I... The one I live in is my home. So that's what the difference is.

Okay, so let's look at some of these very common expressions. The first one is the word "hometown". I'm going to give you an example of this sentence: "My hometown is Toronto." Okay? What do you think "hometown" means? I'll give you a hint. I'm from Toronto and I was born in Toronto. So, "hometown" is the place you're from. Okay? So, I have a friend who was born in Paris. My friend's hometown is Paris. Some people come from big hometowns, other people come from small hometowns. Okay? So the hometown is where you were born or where you spent your childhood. Where you were living when you were a child, that's your hometown.

The next word: "homesick". And I want you to notice my pronunciation of these words. You'll notice that for "hometown" and "homesick", "home" is the loud part. Okay? I say "home" louder than "town", and "home" louder than "sick", so: "homesick". Here's my example sentence of this word: "I'm homesick. I miss my family." Okay? "I'm homesick. I miss my family." Do you think "homesick" means you're happy or you're sad? If you're homesick, it means you're sad. Why are you sad? Because you're not at home; you're not in your country or your city. You're travelling, you're far from where you live. So, many students from all over the world come to Canada to study English. A lot of students miss their families, they miss their friends, they're a little bit sad because they miss everybody, so we say they are homesick. They miss their country, they are homesick.

Okay, again, we have two more words with home: "homeless" and "homelessness". Okay? These words have the same meaning, it's just this is an adjective, and this is a noun. So, I'll give some examples of this. For "homeless": "I sleep on the streets. I'm homeless." Okay? This means I don't have a home. I don't have a place to live. I live on the streets. Okay? So, you know, sometimes when you go to different cities, there are a lot of people on the street, they're asking for money, and they don't have a place to live, we say those people are homeless. When we talk about this problem, we say: "The problem is homelessness." Okay? So that's the noun form. So, there is a lot of homelessness in Toronto. There is a lot of homelessness in many parts of the world. There are many homeless people in Toronto. Okay? So both of these mean you don't have a home, or someone who doesn't have a home.