Where Do You Live?

Where Do You Live?

Imagine a person asking you about where you live. How do you respond? How do you give details or more information?

In today's Everyday Grammar, we will explore ways to talk about where you live. You will learn about questions, answers, and different situations where such discussions might be important.

Let's start with some useful terms and ideas.

Asking questions and giving answers

Imagine a person asks you the following question:

Where do you live?

Let's break the question into its individual parts. We have the question word “where.” Then we have the helping verb “do.” Finally, we have the subject and main verb “you live.”

The kind of answer you give will depend on the situation in which the question is asked. For example, if a friend at school asks that question, they might only want to know the neighborhood or general area where you live. So, for example, a person in New York might give the following answer:

I live in Queens.

Or

I live in Brooklyn.

A person in Cairo might say,

I live in Agouza.

Or

I live in Shubra.

Note that we used the following structure for all of these statements:

subject + live + in + the name of the neighborhood

Giving details

It is possible that the person might ask for more information or details. For example, imagine the following exchange with a friend at school or work:

Where do you live?

I live in Brooklyn.

Really? My brother lives there too. Where in Brooklyn?

There are a few nice ways to respond to this kind of question. Your response can involve the prepositions “by” or “near,” as in:

I live by Prospect Park.

Or

I live near Prospect Park

Or

I live near the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Lincoln Road.

These answers involve important locations – a famous park, an intersection. There are, of course, other ways to give details about where you live.

Specific information

So far, we have explored how you might talk about where you live in a friendly, everyday sort of situation. But what should you do if the request is specific? So for example, official documents or situations often require an exact address instead of a general description.

So, an official might ask you, “What is your name and address?”

In this case, you could provide your name and the address of where you live. For example, an American person might say:

My name is John.

My address is 1234 Maple Street, Pleasantville, Alaska, 51099

Note that the general way of giving an address in the United States is as follows:

number street, city, state, zip code

Practice

Let’s take some time to work with these ideas. Ask a friend about where they live. Pause the audio to consider your answer.

Here is the answer:

Where do you live?

Now imagine a friend asks you about where you live. Use the name of the neighborhood “Manhattan” in your answer.

Pause the audio to consider your answer.

Here is one possible answer:

I live in Manhattan.

Now imagine that someone asks the following:

Where in Manhattan do you live?

Use the noun “Penn Station” in your answer. Pause the audio to consider your answer.

Here are two possible answers:

I live near Penn Station.

I live by Penn Station.

Closing thoughts

In today’s report, we learned about some ways to talk about where you live.

You learned about the importance of question words such as “where.” You also learned about the importance of short words such as "in,” “by” and “near,” as well as how nouns play an important part in talking about locations.

The next time you talk about where you live, we hope that you are able to use some of what you have learned today.

I’m John Russell.

John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.

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Words in The Story

respond – v. to say something as an answer to a question

intersection – n. the place or point where two or more things come together

specific – adj. clearly and exactly presented or stated : precise or exact