Houses — B1 Vocabulary

B1 VOCABULARY · HOUSES

Estate Agent English

PICTURE

(you add this)

"Estate agent English is not lying, exactly. It's poetry with a financial motive."

Where people live · parts of a flat and a house · describing homes · *roof / ceiling*, *chimney / fireplace*

Reading

Speaking

LEAD-IN

The gap

Describe your dream home in exactly three phrases. Now describe your actual home in three phrases.

1. Compare the gap with a partner — whose gap is bigger?

2. Which single feature of the dream would you most like to move across?

3. Is there anything in your real home that the dream version forgot?

PICTURE

(you add this)

VOCABULARY · B1 & B2

In or on? Then sort the parts.

1. Complete: I live ____ the country · ____ the outskirts of the city · ____ a village · ____ the coast · ____ the third floor · ____ a suburb of Madrid.

2. The ________ is a residential area outside the centre; the ________ is the very edge of the city, furthest from the centre.

3. Flat or house? Sort these: balcony · chimney · basement · gate · entrance · path · ground floor · roof · steps · top floor · terrace · wall

4. Which of them could belong to both?

VOCABULARY · B3

Trap pairs — complete the rules.

1. The ________ is the top of the house; the ________ is the top of a room.

2. The ________ is the structure on the roof; the ________ is where you actually burn the wood, inside.

3. (American English alert) The UK ground floor = the US ________ floor.

4. And one more: the UK first floor = the US ________ floor. Count carefully.

BEFORE YOU READ

41 properties in 18 months

Henrik Voss has become fluent in a language he never wanted to learn.

READ ONCE AND ANSWER

PICTURE

1. What do cosy, characterful and up-and-coming really mean?

(you add this)

READING

Estate agent English: a translation guide

After viewing forty-one properties in eighteen months, Henrik Voss has become fluent in a language he never wanted to learn. "Estate agent English is not lying, exactly," he says. "It's poetry with a financial motive."

Take cosy. "Cosy means small. Always. 'A cosy second bedroom' means a room where the bed touches three walls. When we finally bought our flat, the listing called the kitchen cosy. My wife and I cannot open the oven and the fridge at the same time. We have a rota."

Characterful was the word that cost him the most. "Characterful means old, and old means surprises. We viewed a 'characterful stone cottage in a peaceful village' — and it was genuinely beautiful: low ceilings, wooden floors, an open fire, roses over the gate, a stone path to the front steps. My wife was in love before we reached the entrance. What characterful actually meant, we discovered, was: the roof needed replacing, the chimney was decorative only — light a fire and the smoke visits every room personally — and the 'peaceful' village had no bus after six o'clock."

Location language is its own dialect. "Up-and-coming area means the area has not come up yet and might not. On the doorstep of the countryside means on the outskirts, far from everything. Convenient for transport links means the motorway is in the garden. And a stone's throw from the sea depends entirely, as our agent admitted, on who is throwing the stone."

His favourite discovery was the humble word potential. "'A basement with potential' is a dark hole. 'A garden with potential' is a wall, a dead tree and someone else's cat. Potential means: bring money."

And yet — Henrik isn't bitter. "We ended up buying a spacious, light, genuinely lovely flat on the top floor of a 1930s building: big windows, a tiny balcony where two people can stand if they like each other, and a view over the rooftops and chimneys of the whole street. The listing described it as 'an entertainer's dream'. We have never entertained anyone. It's perfect."

COMPREHENSION

Match the estate-agent phrase to Henrik's translation.

1. cosy

2. characterful

3. up-and-coming

4. convenient for transport links

5. a stone's throw from

6. with potential

a) old — expect expensive surprises

b) the motorway is extremely close

c) distance is negotiable, and probably large

d) small

e) needs money

f) not desirable yet, and possibly never

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Find, decide and complete.

1. Find in the text: five parts of a house ( roof, ________ , ________ , ________ , ________ ), two parts of a flat ( ________ floor, ________ ), and four describing phrases ( low ________ , ________ floors, an open ________ , made of ________ ).

2. Cosy — trap or treasure? In the text cosy means small. In normal English it is positive: warm, comfortable, intimate. Which meaning does it have in "We spent a cosy evening by the fire"?

3. Prepositions from the text: on the ________ floor · over the ________ · on the ________ of the countryside (= edge)

4. Opposites: spacious ↔ ________ · light ↔ ________ · modern ↔ ________ (two options — one of them is what you say when you are selling it)

PRACTICE · F1

Complete with one word.

1. We live ________ the fifth floor of a block of flats — no lift.

2. They've moved to a village ________ the coast, an hour from the city.

3. Smoke was coming out of every ________ on the street — first cold day of autumn.

4. The flat has a small ________ where we grow tomatoes and opinions.

5. Walk up the ________ , through the ________ , and the path leads to the front door.

6. The ________ in the bedroom is so low that my brother cannot stand up straight.

7. We keep the bikes and the boxes we will "definitely sort out" in the ________ .

8. Croydon is a ________ of London; they live right on the ________ of Milan, practically in the fields.

PRACTICE · F2

Translate the estate agent. Rewrite honestly.

1. "A cosy studio, convenient for transport links." → ____________

2. "A characterful cottage with a garden with potential." → ____________

3. "An up-and-coming area, a stone's throw from the centre." → ____________

Your turn: write one estate-agent phrase for the room you are sitting in — then the honest version.

SPEAKING

The listing

In pairs, write two versions of a property advert for the same home, invented or real.

• Version 1: the estate agent version — five lines of beautiful lies.

• Version 2: the honest version — five lines of truth. Use at least eight target words across the two.

• Read both aloud; the class guesses what price gap separates them.

• Discuss: a small flat in the centre, or a spacious house on the outskirts? Has your answer changed in ten years?

PICTURE

(you add this)

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

B1 in the country · on the outskirts · in a village · on the coast · on the third floor · in a suburb. The suburbs are the residential area outside the centre; the outskirts are the far edge of the city.

B2 Flat: balcony, basement, entrance, ground floor, top floor · House: chimney, gate, path, roof, steps, terrace, wall · Both: entrance, basement, steps, terrace/balcony, wall — accept sensible arguments.

B3 1 roof / ceiling · 2 chimney / fireplace · 3 the UK ground floor = the US first floor (and the UK first floor = the US second floor)

GIST cosy = small · characterful = old, with expensive surprises · up-and-coming = not desirable yet, and possibly never.

COMPREHENSION 1 d · 2 a · 3 f · 4 b · 5 c · 6 e

LANGUAGE FOCUS 1 House: roof, chimney, gate, path, steps (also walls) · Flat: top floor, balcony (also basement) · Describing: low ceilings, wooden floors, an open fire, made of stone (implied by "stone cottage"); also spacious and light. 2 The positive meaning: warm and comfortable. 3 on the top floor · over the rooftops (also "roses over the gate") · on the doorstep of the countryside. 4 spacious ↔ cosy/cramped · light ↔ dark · modern ↔ old, or characterful if you are selling it.

F1 1 on · 2 on · 3 chimney · 4 balcony (terrace) · 5 steps / gate · 6 ceiling · 7 basement · 8 suburb / outskirts

F2 1 A very small studio right next to the motorway. · 2 An old cottage that needs a lot of money, with a garden that is currently a disaster. · 3 An unfashionable area, quite far from the centre.

HOMEWORK Write the honest listing for your own home (60–90 words). Be kind to yourself — end with its genuinely best feature.