Learn English: “I live... at? on? in? near? close to?”

1

In this lesson, you will learn how to answer the simple question, "Where do you live?"

Now, when somebody asks you that question, of course, you know where you live, but in

order to express that correctly in English, we need at least possibly up to nine different...

Nine different prepositions.

So, let's look at what they are.

You don't need all of them, but you need different ones depending on what you're trying to say.

So, let's look at what they are.

Now, the first three, "at", "on", and "in", I've actually covered in a separate lesson

where we focus just on "at", "on", and "in", and I'll give you a link to that lesson in

the lesson description.

But here, we're going to cover lots of other options as well.

So, let's look at how to answer this question, "Where do you live?"

So, let's start over here.

We could say, "I live at 25 Main Street."

So, we use "at" when we're being very specific.

Exactly, like the exact point.

I live at 25 Main Street.

I live at the corner of Main and Bay Street.

It's also very specific.

I live at the intersection.

At the intersection where two roads cross, at the intersection of Main and Bay Streets.

So, here, we're using "at" whenever you're talking about something very specific.

Let's go to the next one.

This one is used quite a lot.

So, here, you kind of have the idea of, like, in something.

In, it could be inside, but let's look at all of the options for "in".

So, we could say, "I live in an apartment."

I live in a condominium.

Condominium is just an apartment that you or somebody owns.

I live in a house.

I live in Los Angeles.

So, we use "in" also to talk about the city, okay, where you live.

I live in California, to talk about the state where you live.

I live in the US, to talk about the country that you live in.

So, "in" covers a lot of different possibilities, but you're in these places.

So, make sure you get that right.

And in case you do live in the US, make sure that you're saying "the US".

We use "the" before the names of certain countries, like the Philippines, the US, and so on, but

not in... before many, most countries.

Like, we say, "I live in Canada."

"I live in France."

"I live in Germany."

There's no "the" there.

But many people forget to put "the" before "US".

Next, if you're talking about something, like, kind of horizontal, okay, then we say, "I

live on", "on the 7th floor", "on the 5th floor", "on the 1st floor".

Remember, you're saying "first", "second", "third".

So, also, in terms of the numbers, don't say, "I live on the 1 floor."

"The 1st floor."

But "on a certain floor".

And if you're just giving the name of the street, then we say, "on Main Street".

Here, it was very specific.

So, this is Main Street, and I live at 25 Main Street.

But I live on Main Street.

So, that's "on".

Next, who do you live with?

You might want to be sharing that.

So, I live with my family.

I live with my parents.

I live with my roommates.

I live with my wife and children.

I live with my husband and kids.

Or maybe you don't live with anyone, so then we have the option, "I live alone."

That's not a preposition; that's just a statement.

So, here we have the most common prepositions that you're going to need to talk about, the

most basic information that you need to give when somebody asks you, "Where do you live?"

And depending on who's asking you and what the context is, you're going to need different

Now, perhaps you're giving somebody directions and they want to get an idea of the neighborhood,

so you might need some other prepositions.

Let's look at some of these.

I live near a mall.

A shopping center.

Or, I live near the subway.

Now, what's important?

When these two words, "near" and "close to", they both mean the same thing.

It means not far away from, but pretty close.

But what's important is that many people make a mistake and they say "near to".

Or, they forget to say "to" here.

So, you need to say, "I live near the mall" or "I live close to the mall".

"I live near the subway" or "I live close to the subway".

Now, what you'll do later is I'll give you an idea how you can lock this in for yourself.

By writing some sentences down about yourself, in reality, where you live.

Okay? Putting your own information into each and every one of these prepositions.

"I live next to".

So, "next to" means, let's say, your house is here, and there's something right here,

or something right here on this side, on the right-hand side, on the left-hand side.

Usually, it's exactly touching you, but it could be more or less next to.

So, "I live next to the bank."

"I live next to the library."

Again, remember to say "next to".

Let's look at these two.

Now, these two have the same meaning also.

"Opposite", okay, or "across from".

So, that means your house is here, something else is here, so we could say "I live opposite

Let's say you have a cafe opposite your house.

You could say "I live opposite Starbucks" or "I live across from".

Both those mean exactly the same thing.

"Across from", sometimes we say "across the street from", but it doesn't matter, you don't

need to say that.

"I live across from a park."

"I live opposite the park."

So, these are several prepositions that you can use to describe and to answer the simple

question "Where do you live?"

It's not always that simple because I've seen that people do have a little difficulty.

They know where they live, but they're not sure of the preposition to use.

So, hopefully this lesson will help you to get that exactly.

So, what I suggest is that you write down after this a few sentences about yourself.

Where do you live?

Using "at", right?

Give your exact address.

Say "in" for "Is it an apartment?

Which city is it?

Which country is it?"

"Is it on a particular floor?

Who do you live with?"

Write something about that.

"What are you near?

What are you close to?

What are you next to?

What are you across from or opposite?"

So, that's what you can do for yourself so that you can answer this and read those answers

out loud so when somebody asks you, you'll know the answer right away.

You don't have to think through it the way we are now.

But, in order to get to that stage, let's do the next step.

Let's practice this a little bit with a few examples.

So, now, let's fill these in.

So, the sentence we're going to use before this is "I live _______" and then the information

that we're going to read.

If you would like a few minutes, then you could pause the video, decide what your answers

are, and then follow along with me, or you can just continue watching and we'll do it

So, number one, "I live _______ the 21st floor."

"I live", see if it comes to you automatically, which eventually it should, "on", "I live

on the 21st floor."

Next, "I live _______ to the supermarket."

There was one of those expressions that had a "to" in it.

Do you remember what it was?

"I live", actually, there were two expressions.

Do you know what they are?

Well, one could be "I live close to", you could also say, by the way, "I live next to".

So, either of those would work.

Next, "I live _______ India."

"I live in India."

"In", "in India", "in Mumbai", right, city, country, and so on.

Next, "I live _______ from the office."

One of them, one of those expressions had "from" with it.

Do you remember what it was?

"I live", it sort of has the same meaning as "opposite", "I live across", okay?

"Across from" means opposite.

Next, "I live _______ 45 Mill Street."

"I live", this is very precise, so, "I live at", okay?

"I live at 45 Mill Street."

Next, "_______ New York", a city, so what do we say?

"I live", yes, "in New York".

The next one, this time, just "Mill Street", do you remember?

Here we said, "I live at 45 Mill Street", now we're just talking about Mill Street,

"I live", do you remember what it is?

"I live on Mill Street."

And what could you say here?

"I live _______ the Chinese restaurant."

There are a few possibilities here.

Do you remember one of them?

You could say, "I live near the Chinese restaurant", or you could say, "I live opposite the Chinese

restaurant", okay?

So, what you should do is really review these, because these need to come automatically.

You can't really think about them too much, right, when you're actually speaking, and

you don't want to make mistakes when you're writing and writing these - this very basic

So, as I said, write it for yourself.

Give an example, think about where your parents live, write some more sentences, think about

where your friends live, or anything like that, and just practice it in a practical

way that makes sense to you.

And also, if you want to improve your English in terms of these kinds of errors, you might

want to check out my online course.

It's called "Correct Your English Errors in 10 Minutes a Day", and it helps you to correct

these kinds of errors in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and lots of other areas in

a very quick and easy way.

So, check that out.

Plus, if you want to master these, go to our website at www.engvid.com.

There you can do a quiz on this and just reinforce it.

And again, if you weren't sure about those three basic ones, "at", "on", and "in", then

I have a couple of lessons, and I'll give you some links to those that help you to really

understand that.

The "at", "on", and "in", and also related to place.

So, after that, you'll be able to talk about where you live, where you work, and so on.

And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and ring the bell so that you'll know

whenever we have a new lesson.

Thanks very much for watching, and all the best with your English.