How To Talk About Any Place In English

There are many different places

to travel to around the world.

Some of them are nature spots

and some of them are popular cities.

But, sometimes in English,

you're even asked about your hometown

or somewhere you know well.

In those moments, you need this formula,

two, three, seven.

Name and location, location in relation to other places,

and three key features or characteristics.

This is how you talk about a place in English

and today I'm gonna teach you exactly how to do it.

Welcome to Speak English with Tiffani.

I am teacher Tiffani, let's jump right in.

Name and location.

Okay, so the first thing that you want to do

when you talk about a place in English

is to state clearly which place you will be talking about.

You also need to give a short description

of where that place is located.

So, to do this, you need two sentences,

the first part of the formula.

The first sentence involves giving

the exact name of the place.

And the second sentence requires you

to tell where the place is located.

This is New York.

New York is one of the most popular states in America

and New York City is the hot spot

or the popular city for people to visit

from all around the world.

This right here, what you're looking at,

is actually the Brooklyn Bridge

and if you ever have an opportunity to visit America

and come to New York, you must visit the Brooklyn Bridge.

It's one of the oldest roadway bridges in the United States.

Now, if we're using this first section,

these first two sentences, to talk about a place,

let's say the question is where is your hometown?

Now, remember, we have two sentences for this section.

The first one is, give the exact name of the place

and the second one is, tell where the place is located.

So, let's get started.

Where is your hometown?

The first sentence is, my hometown is New York City.

And my second sentence is,

it is located in the state of New York.

So, I have answered both of these sentences.

But, I want us to look very quickly

at something in this sentence.

It is located in dot, dot, dot.

So, you could actually use this same sentence pattern

when you are talking about a place.

It is located in dot, dot, dot.

So remember that, okay?

All right, let's keep going.

Now, the next section is

location in relation to other places.

So, the second thing that you want to do

when you talk about a place in English

is to explain where it is in relation to other places.

You also need to give details about the distance

from the other places.

You see, this requires three sentences,

the second part of the formula.

Now, the first of these three sentences is,

to list two places that are close to the place

you will talk about.

The second of these three sentences is,

give the distance from the first place.

Now, don't worry, I'm gonna explain exactly how to do this.

And the last one is, give the distance

from the second place.

Okay, now, what you're looking at right here

is actually Pennsylvania,

or more specifically, Philadelphia.

And this building right here is actually

the Philadelphia City Hall.

Now, Pennsylvania is near New York.

That's why we're looking at this.

Now, just to give you a little bit of history,

Philadelphia City Hall was actually constructed

from 1871 all the way to 1901.

Yep, it took a total of 30 years to build this building.

This is in Philadelphia.

Now, if we're gonna use this and move on

to the second part of our answer,

remember the question was where is your hometown,

this is how our response would look.

Okay, remember, there are three sentences.

List two places that are close to the place

you will talk about.

So, it says right here, Pennsylvania and New Jersey

are not too far from New York City.

Now, this is the first of the three sentences

but I want you to look at this sentences pattern.

So you see here we have Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

So this is one and this is two.

Remember, we said talk about two places.

So, Pennsylvania and New Jersey

are not too far from

and then we have New York City right here.

So, what you will do, if you wanna use this pattern

when you speak or when you talk about a certain place,

you will say, place one

and place two

are not too,

are not too far from,

and then the last place is the place

you are actually talking about.

So that's the pattern you can use.

Again, for this first one right here.

So, one and two are not too far from dot, dot, dot.

All right, let's keep going.

It takes about 3 1/2 hours

to get to Pennsylvania from New York.

So again, for the second sentence

we're talking about the distance

from the first place, okay?

Now this first place is just

actually talking about New York City,

the main place that we're discussing.

So, for this pattern you can say,

it takes about, and you can choose

the time period right here,

3 1/2 hours is the time that I chose,

to get to, remember, this right here

is gonna be one, the same one right here,

from, and this right here represents

this place right here, okay?

So, it takes about dot, dot, dot,

which is the time period, to get to,

this is the first place we're talking about right here

from here, okay?

Now, let's go to the third sentence, okay?

But, so now we have a comparison,

it only takes about two hours

to get to New Jersey from New York.

So remember, the third sentence

is also talking about a distance

but we kind of wanna use a comparison

so we said but it only takes about,

so you can use the same sentence pattern.

But it only takes about, and then you give a time period,

this time needs to be less than this time, okay?

All right, but it only takes about two hours

to get to, this right here is number two,

right here, number two, from New York,

okay, again New York is the main place we're discussing.

So again, these three sentences are a part

of the second part of our formula

and this is how you can use these various patterns, okay?

All right, so, the next thing we're going to do

is look at the three key features or characteristics.

Now, the third thing that you want to do

when you talk about a place in English

is to give the key features or characteristics

of the place you will be talking about.

You should focus only on three key features

or characteristics, okay, that's very important.

Only three key features, all right?

Now, for this section, you need seven sentences, okay,

this is the last part of the formula.

You need seven sentences.

So, the first sentence will be,

state how many features you will talk about, okay?

Giving a clear, clear, I guess precursor,

precursor just means giving information in advance,

okay, to what you're gonna talk about.

Then the second sentence is, give the first feature.

Then the third sentence, give more information

about the first feature.

The next sentence, give the second feature.

Next, give more information about the second feature

and then give the third feature

and finally, give more information

about the third feature, okay?

So, this is actually, again, one of an examples

of the street markets in New York City.

You see, New York City is very famous

for its street markets.

People from all over the world come to New York to shop.

They buy food.

They buy clothes.

And there are people from all over the world there

so there are many different cultures.

Now, these New York street markets

are some of the best outdoor shopping that one can do

in America or in the United States.

So, if you come to America,

you must visit the New York outdoor street markets, okay?

So, if we're gonna apply this to the last portion

of our talk, remember, where is your hometown,

remember there are seven sentences.

So, the first one is state how many features

you will talk about.

So, I will say there are three key features

of New York City.

So, you see what I did right here?

There are three key features of,

you can use this pattern.

I was very clear and very precise

when I said three

because I said we want to state how many features,

all right, so, there are three key features

of New York City.

The next sentence, give the first feature.

So, first New York City is known

for all of the places it has to shop.

So, in my first sentence I said,

my second, excuse me, the second sentence

talking about the first feature, okay.

Clearly understand that.

First, then I say the place,

is known for dot, dot, dot.

Now, is known for, this expression

just means is popular, okay?

This place is popular because,

so is known for.

It means that many people know this specific thing

about this place, okay?

So, when people think of New York,

they think about these things.

So, again, let's keep going.

Third sentence.

Many people come from all around the world

just to shop there.

So, what I've done is I've given more information

about this feature, okay?

We talked about shopping and then we game more information.

We said many people come from all around the world

just to shop there.

Okay, now what I wanna look at real quick here is

just to dot, dot, dot.

Now, this is another way of saying because,

okay, this is short for because

but it emphasizes the reason.

Let's see if you can write this.

Emphasizes, okay, emphasizes, all right.

Emphasizes, so, for example, I went

to the store to get water.

I may have also went to get other things

but if I want to emphasize that I only went for water,

I could say, I went to the store

just to get water.

That's the only reason, okay, emphasizing it, right?

All right, let's keep going.

So, now we're gonna go to the fourth sentence

which is give the second feature.

All right, so, second, it is a melting pot of people

from many different countries.

So, again, you can just say second,

but I wanna explain this expression right here.

Melting pot.

Now, this term melting pot

actually just means,

a place where many

cultures, say many cultures

or races

are grouped together, okay?

Are grouped together.

So they can live together

or they can just be together, okay?

Be together, live together, or work together.

We call that a melting pot,

a place where many cultures or races

are grouped together, okay?

All right, let's keep going.

Now we're looking at this sentence right here,

which is the fifth sentence, okay?

All right, so we're gonna give more information.

This makes New York City a very interesting city

to live in.

So, because it's a melting pot,

we're saying it's very interesting,

giving a little bit more information.

Now let's keep going on to the next sentence.

So it says, the third key feature of New York City

is the nightlife.

All right, now, let me explain what nightlife means, okay?

So, nightlife just refers to

a place that has

a lot to do at night,

okay, a lot to do,

let's get on here, at night.

So for example, some people like to go out to eat

but usually after 9:00 pm, things are closed,

but in New York City, things stay open 'till midnight

or 1:00 am or 2:00 am so for those that want to go to a club

or they want to go to bowling or something to do at night

whereas in other places, those things are closed,

in New York City there's a lot of things to do at night.

If you wanna party or enjoy yourself at night

with your friends, late into the night,

so we say nightlife, okay?

And let's keep going, this is gonna be the final sentence.

No matter what time it is,

you will always find something to do in New York City.

So, again, giving more information

and we said no matter what time it is, okay?

So no matter what time it is, just means 24/7,

24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It's a kind of way of, kind of exaggerating

that something is always open.

Now, of course, there are times when things close

but no matter what time it is

just refers to something always being available

or always being open, okay, no matter what time it is, okay?

That's how we use that.

All right, now.

This is how you would talk about your hometown, a place.

So, again, doesn't matter if the question

is about your hometown or any other place,

you can use this formula two, three, seven,

to talk about any place in English.

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