Dec 15, 20203 min read

New Vocabulary: Words for Places

Updated: Mar 10

Names of places associated with social media. — Social media places

Introduction - Learn new vocabulary: names of places

This series will focus on the names of things that are around you to help you develop a new vocabulary of English words.

That is, the words for things you use (or need the words to know to use) in your everyday life, your immediate experience.

It is better to know these everyday words than waste time learning words that you will rarely use.

Having said that, I do not know, and I cannot predict, what vocabulary is around YOU.

All I can try is guess the vocabulary that we might share.

This article will start with words associated with general places or locations.

When you would use such words might be in response to a question.

So, if someone asks you “Where are you going?” or “Where have you been?” you need to be able to explain it in one or two words – as part of a growing vocabulary of place.

Think about the places around you

Before I go any further though, it is a good idea to think about how you might organize your vocabulary.

For ‘places’ I would consider words that belong with inside and outside places. Or, in other words, the names of internal and external places.

And think of your collection as a work in progress. As you think of places, add them either as belonging to inside or outside locations.

If you do not, and you list them in any order, your list will confuse you.

So, let's think of inside words first.

Inside words

room in house with chairs and hammock with windows all round — inside places

Rooms inside your house: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, hall, lounge, sitting room, toilet, etc.

External/outside words

2 people sitting on stone bench in park looking at scenery of buildings and sea — Exterior places

Do you have a fence around your house?

A path, letter box, or garden?

A front yard/garden, back yard/garden?

A gazebo, vegetable garden, shed, workshop, garage?

An orchard, a swimming pool, tree house, trampoline?

Let's go further from home

Words might include:

footpath, street, road

driveway, crossroads, roundabout, corner

shops, restaurant, supermarket

park, playground

school, university, college

traffic, bridge, highway

bus stop, bus station, train station

ferry, taxi rank

There are hundreds of other words that are the names of places, or things associated with places.

Get a Notebook

an open notebook on a wooden desk top with a pen placed on top of the cream notebook pages — Notebook and a pen

Start collecting them in a notebook, writing them with all the other words you have collected.

But group them together. Doing that will help you find and practice the words that are related or similar.

Use them and you will begin to remember them.

It is a technique I used when I was learning Mandarin in China.

I would take my notebook every time I went out and take it out when I wanted to say the word.

Gradually, I discovered that I had memorised every word.

I then had to start a new set of pages (and a new notebook) to continue my language acquisition.

Conclusion

I hope this collection of the words for inside and outside places has helped.

I am sure that many you already knew.

There are of course, many more.

A better vocabulary will help improve your spoken and written English.

Get this freebie too!