English Vocabulary & Expressions with HOUSE and HOME

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.

Okay, the next expression is a more positive expression.

The expression is: "Home sweet home!"

Okay? "Home sweet home!"

So, my sentence here is:

"Ahh, home sweet home!"

Do you think this is a happy expression or a sad expression?

Well, if you guessed happy because there's a big smiley face beside it, you're correct.

When we say: "Home sweet home", we usually

say it when we've been away from our home, either travelling or maybe we went to work,

so we're not home, when we come home, we're very happy:

"Oh, I'm at home. Finally. I can put on my pajamas, I can, you know, have dinner. I'm so happy to be home."

So when people arrive at their home, they say sometimes:

"Ahh, home sweet home!" It means: "Ahh, I'm happy to be home." Okay?

So let's look at some other common expressions with the word "house" and "home".

Okay, so our next two words are very important because students often mix them up; they often

confuse them. The words are "housework" and "homework". A lot of students make mistakes

with these, because they both have the word "work" in them, but one is "house" and the

other one is "home". Okay? So, what is the difference? Well, let's look at "housework" first.

"Housework" has to do with cleaning, cleaning your house.

Okay? It can be doing the laundry, it can be washing dishes, it can be cooking.

All of the work that you do

to keep your house clean is housework. So, for example: "She does all the housework."

It means she does all the cleaning, all the cooking, all the laundry. Okay? My dad used

to do a lot of housework. It means he does a lot of cleaning, a lot of cooking. Okay?

So we use this a lot. This weekend, I have to do housework.

It means this weekend I have to clean my house and, you know, do these types of chores.

Now, this is very different than "homework", which if you are a student, you may know this

word, "homework". "Homework" is the work you get at school to do at your house, and then

the next day you bring this to school, and your teacher marks it. Okay? So, for example:

"Our teacher gave us too much homework."

A lot of students say this. Homework is very good, though, right?

It's good to get as much practice as possible. So, you want homework,

it's a good idea.

Okay, the next expression: "Make yourself at home."

This is a very, very important expression

for when you have people who come to your house to visit. Okay? So, imagine you came

to my house, what would I say when you come in?

"Oh, make yourself at home. Can I get you something to drink?"

It means I want you to be comfortable at my home, so please feel comfortable here. Okay?

"Make yourself at home. Please, have a seat. Make yourself at home."

It's an expression we use all the time, very, very often whenever we want to tell

someone: "Welcome to our home. Please feel comfortable." Okay?

Okay, the next expression, a lot of students don't know, but this is a very important expression

for when you go to a restaurant.

Okay? So this is a very important restaurant expression:

"on the house". "It's on the house."

Okay? This is a very good meaning. It's very positive.

It means something at a restaurant is free. Okay? So you don't have to pay for it. So,

for example, maybe drinks are on the house. That means drinks are free at this restaurant.

Some restaurants have, you know, maybe salad on the house. A lot of Japanese restaurants

have soup on the house. Okay? Meaning: You don't have to pay for that; it comes for free

with your meal. Or sometimes maybe the bartender or the server or the cook, they really like

you, so maybe they want to, you know, be nice to you, so they might give you free food.

In that case, it's also "on the house".

Okay, our next word is also about restaurants: "house specialty".

When we talk about a house specialty, it means the meal or the type of food a restaurant is famous for.

It's the dish the restaurant makes the best. Okay? So, for example:

"Pizza is their house specialty."

This means that pizza is the meal that they make the best. If you come to this restaurant,

you should have the pizza because it's their house speciality, it means it's the best thing

they make. Okay? So, again, all of these are very common expressions we use in our everyday lives.

Now, let's look at a couple more expressions.

Okay, so I'm going to teach you four more expressions. The first one is: "house wine".

So, this is a good word if you like going to restaurants or bars, and you like to drink

wine. The house wine is usually the cheaper wine at a restaurant. Okay? So, if you don't

want to spend a lot of money at a restaurant and you want something that is kind of recommended

by the restaurant, you can ask for the house wine. Now, wine usually comes in red or white,

so they might ask you a question like this:

"Would you like the house red?"

meaning the house's red wine, so the... The red wine that isn't that expensive.

"Or would you like the house white?"

Okay? And so, they're talking about wine.

Another expression that you might hear is "house music".

All right? For those of you who love to go party, who love to go clubbing,

who like going out on Friday nights, you might

hear house music. So, "house music" is a type of dance music that is very, very popular

at clubs. Okay? So, for example:

"The club plays house and hip hop music." Okay? So these

are the types of music they play. So, "house" is a genre of music that's good for dancing.

Okay, our next word: "fullhouse". Here's an example, and then I'll tell you what it means.

"It's a fullhouse. There are no more tickets for the play." Okay? So, "fullhouse" has to

do with the word "full", meaning there's many people in a place. We use this mainly when

we talk about theatre and plays. Okay? So, if you ever go to New York and you want to

watch a play, maybe there's no tickets because it's a fullhouse, meaning it's full. There's

so many people watching this play. Okay? So, a fullhouse means a place has many people,

so there's... Every ticket has been bought for a play.

Finally, the last word, very common, we like to talk about "house parties".

A "house party" is a party that somebody has at their house. Okay?

We can also use it for when

we talk about parties at people's apartments, or condos, or anywhere somebody lives. So,

a house party is when you go to a party at a person's home. Okay? So, for example:

-"What are you doing tonight?" -"I'm going to a house party tonight."

It means you're not going to a party at a club, you're not going to a party at Chuck E. Cheese; you're going to

a house party. Okay? So you're going to someone's home, and there's probably going to be music,

and drinking. Okay? So that's usually what we mean by a "house party".

All right, so I hope you have learned a lot today about the differences between "house" and "home",

and all of the great expressions that we have in English that use these two words.

I invite you to come check out our website at www.engvid.com.

There, you can actually do a quiz to make sure you actually understand these words,

and you can practice using them there. Okay?

So, until next time, I hope you've enjoyed everything,

and I will see you later.