The word home simply
means a place where you live (this could be a house, apartment, condo,
tent, etc.) and where you feel an emotional connection to
staying in that place.
The word house usually
refers specifically to the building. A house is an independent building,
different from an apartment which is one unit inside a shared building.
English
collocations with home
adjectives + home
A broken home refers
to a family in which there are serious problems that separate the family, such
as divorce, abuse, or a parent being in prison.
The opposite is a secure
/ stable / supportive home – a family in which the relationships are
healthy and it is a good environment for children to grow up in.
There are special types of
homes for older people. A retirement home is a place where
people can live after they retire (after they stop working, around age 65).
Retirement homes may be apartments, or they may be individual houses close
together. They might often include activities and social events.
People living in retirement
homes are usually still active and independent. For old people who need more
medical care, they can live in a nursing home. This is a place
where old people live and have access to nurses, doctors, and aides who can
help them with the tasks of daily life.
verbs + home
We often use the verbs come,
get, go, and leave with “home.” Note that we
NEVER say “to home” – go to home, come to home, etc. The word “home” does
not require a preposition before it:
§
When are you coming home?
§
I usually get home from work around 6.
§
We went home after the party.
§
If you leave home early, you can catch a less crowded
train.
The same applies with bring/take
somebody/something home – the preposition “to” is not needed.
§
If you don’t eat all your food, you can take the leftovers home.
§
I brought my kids home to change their clothes.
home + another
word
If you bought your own house
(you do not pay rent) then you are a homeowner. Homeowners
might want to do some home improvement – repairing and
changing things about the house to make it nicer to live in and also more
valuable.
Your hometown is
the city where you grew up, and your homeland is the country
where you grew up.
A lot of people really enjoy
eating home cooking – a meal that has been prepared at home
(instead of at a restaurant or purchased pre-prepared). You can also use the
adjective homemade to describe foods that were made at home:
§
I’m going to my grandmother’s house for some home cooking.
§
She brought some homemade brownies to the office.
English
collocations with house
As you can see, most of the
collocations with “house” refer to features of the building itself.
adjectives + house
We can describe a house
as single-storey, two-storey, etc. to say how many floors
(levels) it has. We can also say it’s a one-bedroom, two-bedroom,
three-bedroom house, etc. to describe how many bedrooms it has.
Some POSITIVE adjectives to
describe a house include: a luxurious / magnificent / splendid / lovely
/ delightful / comfortable / spacious house.
Some NEGATIVE adjectives to
describe a house include: a dilapidated / shabby /
dingy house (= the house is in bad condition and probably rather
dirty) and a cramped house (= the house doesn’t have enough
space).
A neutral way to say a house
is regular and not especially fancy/expensive is to call it a modest
house. A neutral/positive way to say a house is small is to describe
it as a cozy house.
If nobody is living in a
house, then it is an empty / unoccupied / vacant house.
verbs + house
You can buy a
house and sell a house.
If you are paying money every
month to live in a house, then you are renting the house.
If you own the house and
someone else is paying YOU money every month to live there, then you are renting
the house out.
Construction companies build
houses, and also demolish houses (destroy them /
knock them down) that are old and no longer safe.
If a homeowner borrowed money
from the bank to buy the house, but then has financial difficulty
and stops paying the bank back, then the bank might repossess the
house (take the house away from the owner so that now the bank owns
the house).
Other ways to talk about home
improvement – changing things about the house to make it better and nicer to
live in – include redecorating, refurbishing, remodeling, and renovating
the house.
house + other words
When you are looking for a
place to live, you are house hunting.
After you move into a house,
you might throw a housewarming party to celebrate the fact
that you entered your new residence.
A married woman who takes care
of the house and kids while her husband works can be called a housewife. If
the situation is reversed (the woman works and the husband stays home), then he
is a house husband. These people can also be called a stay-at-home
mom and stay-at-home dad if they have children.