Cultural facts: English houses

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English houses

In Britain, families live in houses rather than in flats (‘apartments’ in American English). Most houses are made of brick. Many people live in terraced or semi-detached houses. Sometimes when people get older they move to a bungalow.

1- Different types of houses

A detached house is a house which is not joined to another house.

A semi-detached is a  house which is joined to another house on one side; or two houses joined together.

A terraced is a house which is part of a line of houses. It is a house which is joined to other houses on two sides; several houses joined together.

Flats are part of a bigger building.

A bungalow is a house which is only on one floor, no stairs.

2- A typical house plan

A typical British house usually has two floors. A family of four or three persons lives in it. We can meet small and big houses in Britain. Small houses have one or two bedrooms. Large houses have three or more bedrooms. Different rooms are situated on different floors. There is a living room, a dining room, a kitchen on the ground floor. A bathroom and bedrooms are on the first floor.

We can see two gardens near a British house . One is behind the house (backyard) and another is in front of it (frontyard).

3- Inside an English house

There are nine specific details that show you are in an English house:

• no blinds but only curtains ;
• different electric outlets ;
• a switch to shut down the electrical outlets ;
• two cords in the bathroom (one for the light and another for the ventilation) ;
• a particular column shower with buttons (one to run the water, the other to adjust thermostat);
• a cat flap ;
• a special flush mechanism;
• only one door handle on the front door (inside so you always need a key to enter, and the door gets locked when slammed) ;
• carpets everywhere, especially in old houses !

(adapted from http://www.cglearn.it/mysite/civilization/uk-culture/types-of-houses-in-england/ and https://festival.1september.ru/articles/647399/pril2.doc)

To understand better the differences between European and English houses, just watch this video :