Virtuous English AcademyMy House — A1 English Vocabulary
This A1 vocabulary list gathers 20 beginner English words about my house — rooms, furniture and the everyday things at home. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using my house words in English
Home vocabulary is usually the first set a beginner can build a real sentence from, because everything on this list is visible from where you are sitting. The words themselves are easy. What causes trouble is the small grammar that surrounds them — which preposition goes with which room, when English wants the, and the fact that two of the commonest words here, house and home, are not interchangeable.
What to watch out for
House is a building; home is where you live
You can buy a house, but you go home. And home takes no preposition and no article after a verb of movement: I go home, never I go to home. A flat is also a home, but it is not a house — which is why Welcome to my home works for everyone and Welcome to my house does not.
in the room, on the table, at home
Rooms and enclosed spaces take in (in the kitchen, in the garden). Flat surfaces take on (on the table, on the floor, on the wall). And the fixed phrase for being at your own house is at home — no the, no possessive.
Stairs is plural; furniture cannot be counted
English says the stairs are steep, not the stairs is. And although table, chair and sofa are all countable, the word that covers them together is not: a furniture is wrong, and you need some furniture or a piece of furniture.
Words learners mix up
Two short tables. The first is about the little words that go in front of furniture, because English picks them by habit and not by logic. The second is about the parts of the building that never move.
Sitting and sleeping: on or in?
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| chair | A seat for one person. You sit on a chair, because you sit on top of it. | Please sit on that chair. |
| sofa | A long soft seat for two or three people. It takes on, like a chair — never in. | The cat is asleep on the sofa. |
| bed | Here English changes. You are in bed when you are sleeping, and on the bed when you sit on top of it. | The children are already in bed. |
In bed is the phrase you need most, and it takes no the: I am in bed, She is still in bed. Say on the bed only when you mean the top of it — Put the bag on the bed. There is no rule behind this. Learn the three phrases whole.
The parts you cannot move
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| floor | The surface you walk on. It also means one level of a building: the second floor. | My key is on the floor. |
| wall | The flat side of a room, going up. Pictures and clocks go on the wall. | There is a big mirror on the wall. |
| roof | The top of the building, outside, where the rain lands. You see it from the street. | There is snow on the roof. |
In a British house the level at street height is the ground floor, and the one above it is the first floor. In America the street level is already the first floor, so the same lift button takes you to two different places. Inside a room, the flat surface over your head is the ceiling, not the roof.
Collocations that sound natural
Four everyday words and the phrases that grow around them. Say the whole phrase aloud, not the word on its own.
door
open the doorshut the doorthe front doorlock the doorknock on the door
Shut and close mean the same thing here, and shut the door is commoner in speech. You knock on a door — knock the door means you hit it hard enough to break it.
window
open the windowlook out of the windowa big windowclean the windows
British English says look out of the window. Look from the window is a word-for-word translation and English speakers do not use it.
bed
go to bedmake the bedget out of beda double bed
Make the bed means tidy the sheets, not build one. And go to bed drops the, in the same way as go to work.
key
the car keysthe front door keylose your keysa spare key
People usually say my keys in the plural even about a single key, because keys travel together on a ring.
Where each word belongs
Five words from this list that need more than a translation. Two are British, one is what polite people say instead of a word they find blunt, and one has two separate jobs.
- gardenBritishThe green space beside a house. Americans call it a yard and keep garden for the part with flowers in it. You are always in the garden, never at it.
- bathroomPolite · AmericanIn America this is the polite way to ask for the toilet: Where is the bathroom? British people say the toilet or the loo at home, and the toilets in a café.
- kettleBritish · everydayThe machine that boils water for tea. Nearly every British kitchen has one, and I’ll put the kettle on is an invitation to sit down and talk.
- sofaNeutralThe safe word to use. Couch is American and also heard in Britain; settee sounds older and belongs to certain regions. All three are the same piece of furniture.
- roomTwo jobsCountable, it is a space with walls: a room in a hotel. Uncountable, it means space, and then it takes no a at all: Is there room for me?
Sentences to try
Four sentence frames that carry most of this vocabulary. Change one word in each so that it is true about your own home, and say it aloud.
- There is a table in the kitchen.
- My bedroom has one big window.
- The key is on the floor, next to the door.
- I am at home today.
Questions about my house vocabulary
What is the difference between house and home?
A house is a type of building — one family, usually with its own front door and often a garden. A home is wherever you live, whether that is a house, a flat or a single room, and it carries the sense of belonging. That is why estate agents sell houses and why you say I want to go home rather than I want to go to my house. Note also that home takes no preposition after a verb of movement.
Do I say at home or in the house?
Almost always at home. It is the fixed phrase for being in the place you live, and it works even when you are in the garden. In the house is possible but means something narrower — physically inside the building, usually in contrast to being outside it: The children are in the house because it is raining.
Is stairs singular or plural?
Plural. English treats a staircase as a set of steps, so it takes a plural verb: The stairs are dangerous. If you need to talk about one, say a step or a stair. The same logic applies to a few other household words that come in sets — you go up the stairs, never up the stair.