Home Vocabulary: Idioms, Collocations and Word Forms

Level: B2. Reading at B2. The word lists range from B1 to C1 on purpose; frequency scores show which words are common.

Printable: Student activity handout (PDF) | Teacher’s key (PDF)

Home: More Than a Place

Home is one of the first words many of us learn, and one of the hardest to define. For some people it is a house or an apartment. For others it is a city, a family, or the smell of a particular meal. Wherever it is, home gives us a base: a place to rest, to be ourselves, and to return to after a long day.

The language of home reflects all of this. We feel at home when we relax and belong somewhere, and a good host tells guests to make themselves at home. When we move away, we may feel homesick and miss our mother’s home cooking. Some places become a home away from home, while others are nothing to write home about. And some words or stories hit home because they make us see something clearly for the first time.

This page explores the idea of home and the language we use to talk about it. You will find word forms, collocations, expressions from “home sweet home” to “the home stretch,” synonyms and antonyms, interactive activities, discussion questions, and a practice text for shadow reading and typing.

Word Family

Common mistakes

Go home, not go to home. Here home works like an adverb, so no preposition is needed: go home, come home, get home, arrive home. With a possessive you do need one: go to my home.
House or home? A house is a building. A home is where you live and feel you belong. It is a big house, but it does not feel like a home.
Homely changes meaning. In British English homely is warm and welcoming. In American English it can mean plain or unattractive, and it can sound unkind about a person. Homey is the safer word for cozy.
Homework is uncountable and one word. Say a lot of homework or a piece of homework, not homeworks or home work. Do not confuse it with housework, which means cleaning and chores.
Homeless is not homesick. Homeless means having nowhere to live. Homesick means sad because you miss home. Also note home in on (to focus on a target); hone in on is common, but many writers treat it as an error.

Collocations

Collocations are words that often go together. For a longer list, see home on OZDIC, a free collocation dictionary.

Verb + home

Kinds of home

Describing a home

Home + noun

Compound words

Many compounds begin with home. Most are written as one word.

Preposition Patterns

Home often takes no preposition at all (go home), but other patterns are fixed: at home, away from home, home to.

Expressions: Sayings About Home

These idioms and sayings use home to talk about belonging, making a point, finishing a task, family life, and disappointment.

Belonging

Feeling comfortable and welcome

Making a point

Understanding, focusing, and explaining

Nearly there

Success and the final stage

Family and daily life

Earning, feeding, and caring

charity begins at home: you should help your own family and community first.
She says charity begins at home, so she looks after her own family first.
Translations: 善行从家开始 | 慈善はまず身近なところから | 자선은 가까운 곳에서 시작된다 | दान घर से शुरू होता है | الإحسان يبدأ من البيت | милосердие начинается дома | la caridad empieza por casa | charité bien ordonnée commence par soi-même

Letdowns and consequences

Disappointment, closeness, and time

Synonyms and Antonyms

House, residence, and the other words below overlap with home, but none means exactly the same. The notes explain the differences.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Activity Page

Five activities: Expressions, Collocations, At Home or Not, Error Correction, and Fill in the Blank. Open the activity page in a new tab

Speed Challenge

Answer 12 questions against the clock. Every wrong answer adds 5 seconds, and the lowest score wins. Open the speed challenge in a new tab.

Shadow Reading and Typing: A Home Away from Home

This short story uses many of the expressions on this page. Use it for shadow reading (reading aloud along with a model) and for typing practice.

I grew up in a small hometown by the sea, and I never thought much about the word home. It was simply where my family lived. Then, at eighteen, I left home to study in a big city. My new apartment was tiny, and it felt cold and quiet.

The first month was hard. I was homesick every night, and I missed my mother’s home cooking and her homemade soup. My dinners were nothing to write home about: instant noodles and toast. I did my homework at a small desk, and the evenings felt very long.

Slowly, things changed. A neighbor invited me for dinner. Her kitchen was warm and homey. At the door she said, “Come in and make yourself at home.” I realized how much I had missed that feeling. I began to cook simple meals, put photos on the walls, and invite classmates over. I even became a bit of a homebody. My little room had become a home away from home.

Last week, I went back to my hometown for the first time in a year. It felt like a real homecoming. But when evening came, I wanted to go home to my own small apartment. I smiled. Home is where the heart is, and now my heart had room for two places.

How to practice

Read the text silently once and check any expressions you are unsure of.
Read it aloud slowly, one sentence at a time. On the typing page, the Listen button reads each line with your device’s voice, so you can listen first and then repeat.
Shadow: read aloud again at a natural speed, trying to keep a steady rhythm without stopping.
Record yourself, listen back, and note one sentence to practice again.
Type it on the typing page below and check your speed and accuracy.

Open the typing practice in a new tab

Quotations

Use these as warm-ups. Read the quotation, then discuss the question.

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

Robert Frost, The Death of the Hired Man (1914)

A character in the poem says this. Another character answers that home should be something you do not have to deserve. The two ideas make good discussion.
Warm-up: Is home a place that must accept you, or a place you choose to be? What is the difference?
Translations: 家是这样一个地方:当你不得不回去时,他们必须接纳你。 | 家とは、帰らなければならなくなったとき、迎え入れてくれる場所だ。 | 집이란, 가야만 할 때 반드시 받아 주는 곳이다. | घर वह जगह है जहाँ जब तुम्हें जाना पड़े, तो वे तुम्हें अपनाने को बाध्य होते हैं। | البيت هو المكان الذي إذا اضطررتَ إلى الذهاب إليه وجب عليهم أن يستقبلوك. | Дом это место, где тебя обязаны принять, когда тебе приходится туда вернуться. | El hogar es el lugar donde, cuando tienes que ir, tienen que acogerte. | Chez soi, c’est l’endroit où, quand on doit y aller, on est obligé de vous accueillir.

“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”

John Howard Payne, Home, Sweet Home, a song from the opera Clari (1823)

The song made the saying famous in English, but similar sayings were in print earlier. Humble means simple, not grand.
Warm-up: What is the simplest place where you have ever felt at home?
Translations: 家再简陋,也没有哪里比得上家。 | どんなに粗末でも、我が家にまさる所はない。 | 아무리 초라해도 집만 한 곳은 없다. | चाहे कितना भी साधारण हो, घर जैसी जगह कोई नहीं। | مهما كان متواضعًا، فلا مكان كالبيت. | Пусть скромный, но нет места лучше дома. | Por humilde que sea, no hay lugar como el hogar. | Si humble soit-il, il n’y a pas d’endroit comme chez soi.

“The ache for home lives in all of us.”

Maya Angelou, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986)

Angelou wrote about living in Ghana, a place she hoped would feel like home. Here an ache is a deep, lasting longing.
Warm-up: Have you ever missed a place you could not return to? How did it feel?
Translations: 对家的思念存在于我们每个人心中。 | 家を恋しく思う痛みは、私たちみんなの中にある。 | 집을 향한 그리움은 우리 모두의 마음속에 살아 있다. | घर के लिए तड़प हम सबके भीतर रहती है। | الحنين إلى البيت يسكن فينا جميعًا. | Тоска по дому живёт в каждом из нас. | La añoranza del hogar vive en todos nosotros. | La nostalgie de chez soi vit en chacun de nous.

Discussion Questions

What home means to you

How many places have you called home? Which one feels most like home now?
Is home more of a place or a feeling? Can it be both?
Which sounds, smells, or objects make a place feel like home to you?
What is your strongest memory of the home you grew up in?
What would you change about your home if you could? What would you keep the same?
If you live away from your family, how do you make your room or apartment feel like home?
Would you prefer to live with your family or on your own? What are the advantages of each?
How important is it to live close to your family? Does the answer change as people get older?
Describe your dream home. Where would it be, and who would live there?
How do homes in your country differ from homes in other countries you know?
Has technology changed what home means, for example through remote work and video calls?
What does a person need in order to feel safe at home?

Using the language of home

When do you feel most at home? Who or what helps you feel that way?
Have you ever been homesick? What helped you most?
Are you a homebody, or do you prefer to be out? How do you spend a free weekend?
What is your favorite kind of home cooking? Who makes it best?
Do you or your family use any home remedies? Do you think they work?
What are the good and bad points of working from home?
What is the best home away from home you have found?
Describe a time when someone told you to make yourself at home. How did you react?
What was nothing to write home about for you recently? What deserved a long letter home?
Which song, film, or experience really hit home for you?
What is the best thing about your hometown? What would you like to change?
Why do you think some people become homeless? What could help them?
Do you agree that home is where the heart is? Can a person have more than one home?
Why do some people say that charity begins at home? Do you agree?

AI Practice Prompt

Copy this prompt into an AI chat tool to practice.

I am a B2 English learner studying the word “home” and related expressions. Ask me one question at a time. Mix multiple-choice, true or false, and short sentence-writing tasks. Use these words and phrases: feel at home, at home with, away from home, home to, homesick, homeless, homely, homey, homebody, hometown, homemade, homecoming, homework, nursing home, home cooking, make yourself at home, home away from home, hit home, home in on, home free, home and dry, the home stretch, bring home the bacon, nothing to write home about, close to home, until the cows come home, charity begins at home. If I make a mistake, explain it briefly in [your language] and give a correct example in English. After ten questions, tell me which items I should review.

Online Resources

The Death of the Hired Man (Poetry Foundation). The full poem by Robert Frost, the source of the first quotation. It is a long narrative poem, so read the section about home first.
Home! Sweet Home! (Wikipedia). The history of the song behind the saying “there’s no place like home,” with its 1823 premiere and later uses.
Why do we say “There’s No Place Like Home”? (BookBrowse). A short explanation of where the saying comes from and how it spread.
“Home, sweet home” (The Big Apple (Barry Popik)). Early printed examples of the phrase before the song. Aimed at word lovers, so some quotations are long.