The Differerence Or Versus in English

HOUSE and HOME

Something that confuses people learning English is the difference between HOUSE and HOME
A HOUSE is the BUILDING where the majority of people live. It normally has bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom and a dining room.
A HOME is a PLACE where someone lives. Normally it is a house but it can be other things too: a narrowboat (a boat on a canal which someone lives in), a caravan (a house which is similar to a van or truck, which can be driven around) or an apartment (a kitchen, living room, dining room and bedroom(s) in a building that has other apartments in it). Home is often associated with a family and/or the place you feel attached to.

Types of Houses

There are many types of houses. One of the most common is a detached house – a house which stands on its own and touches nothing else).
Another type of house is a semi-detached house (called a duplex in the US). This type of house touches another house on one side, and they share the wall between them.
A common house in London is a terrace house (called a row house in the US) which touches another house on both sides.
A fourth type of house is a bungalow (called a ranch house in the US). This type of house only has one floor and doesn’t have any stairs. They are uncommon in the UK because they take up a lot of land but they are more common in the US.

So a HOUSE is a building where many people live and a HOME is the place you live.
Animals have homes but they don’t have houses (apart from dogs – a doghouse is the small wooden house where a dog sleeps outside).
What do we call a fox’s home? A den (the hole in the ground where a fox lives).
And a rabbit? A warren (the maze of tunnels underground where a large group of rabbits live).

Phrases and Idioms associated with Houses and Homes

There are many phrases and idioms associated with houses and homes. Here are some of them:
Home Sweet Home
It means that the best and most comfortable place is your home. When arriving home from a long day at work you might think ‘Ahh… Home Sweet Home’.
Make a house a home
This means to change a house (just a building) into a home (somewhere comfortable where you can relax). People often say that it takes a woman to make a house a home!
To move house
This means to change the house that you live in. For example: ‘We used to live in New York but we moved house. Now we live in Chicago.’
To call somewhere home
A common phrase is ‘So, where do you call home?’. This means where do you come from? or where is your home? You might be living in another city or a foreign country for a while (months or years) though you may not consider it your home, just somewhere where you are living for now.