Vocabulary
Houses — My neighbourhood is in the suburbs, so there are
many houses here. It is a residential area.
Busy Place
Apartments — As we live in the city centre, most people in
our neighbourhood live in apartments.
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Madhouse: a place that is very noisy, busy, and full of
confused activity
A hive of activity: a place where everyone is very busy
The centre of activity/things
the main area where something is happening
Piccadilly Circus: a place in London where several large
roads join each other and where there is always a lot
of traffic. People sometimes say a place is ‘like
Piccadilly Circus’ when they mean it is busy or
crowded.
Grand Central Station: AMERICAN a place that is very
busy and full of people. In the UK people say a place
like this is ‘like Piccadilly Circus’.
Lively: full of people who are busy or who are enjoying
themselves
Hectic: full of busy activity
Bustling: a bustling place is full of noise and activity
and is usually pleasant and interesting
Buzz: if a place or group of people is buzzing, there is a
lot of noise or activity
Hum: if a place is humming, it is full of noise and
activity
active: used about a period or event that is full
of busy activity
Busy season: a period when
a hotel or place that people go to on holiday is busy
buzzy:a buzzy place or atmosphere is lively and exciting
frenzy: a period of great energy and activity
heave: if a place is heaving, it is full of people and
very busy
Let’s take look at the most common things you can find in
many neighborhoods around the world.
Convenience Store — I go to my local convenience store
about four times a week. I usually buy milk or some snacks
there.
Supermarket — We have two large supermarkets near to
where we live. They have everything we need for our daily
lives.
Post Office — There is a small post office near my house. It’s
small but it can take care of any deliveries.
Park — We have a nice park in our neighbourhood. It’s a nice
little sanctuary in the middle of the city.
Local Shops — Our neighbourhood has many local shops. We
can buy anything we need.
Police Station — We have a local police station in our
neighbourhood, but it is always very quiet there. They mostly
deal with people registering for permits or things like that.
Bus Stop — If I need to get into town, I have to take a bus.
But there is a bus stop just down the road from my house.
Subway Station — There is a subway station in my
neighbourhood. I take the subway to go to work every
morning.
Cafe/Coffee Shop — I like to go to this coffee shop in my
neighbourhood. They serve really great coffee all day, and it’s
a nice place to sit down and read.
Restaurant — There’s a restaurant in my neighbourhood. It’s
not exactly five stars, but the food they serve is very
reasonably priced.
Clinic — We have a clinic just down the road. The doctors
there are very helpful.
Hospital — There is a great hospital in my neighbourhood. I
have not been there, but my grandfather had to go there
recently.
Community Centre — We are very lucky to have a
community centre nearby. They have free classes to learn
different subjects. I go there for my yoga class.
Church — There’s a small church in my neighbourhood. I
haven’t been inside, but on a Sunday morning, I always hear
the church bells ringing.
Bakery — I love to eat freshly baked bread in the morning.
And we are lucky in that we have a great baker in our
neighbourhood. He always bakes fantastic bread first thing in
the morning.
Gym — I go to my local gym about four times a week. It’s a
great gym in our local community.
How To Talk About Your Neighbourhood In English
There are many ways to describe your neighbourhood. Let’s
look at some words we can use.
 residential
 densely populated
 beautiful
 dangerous
 polluted
 crowded
 spacious
 tree-lined streets
 dirty
 clean
 business district
 ugly
 safe at night
 noisy
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quiet
suburban
working-class
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middle-class
bright
convenient
Some sentences to describe your neighbourhood
My neighbourhood is very middle-class. There are many treelined streets and it is very clean. It is also safe at night and
very quiet.
My neighbourhood is not very nice. It can be a little
dangerous as there is a high crime rate, and it is also very
noisy. The neighbours are always playing loud music or
shouting.
I live in a suburban area on the outskirts of town. It is very
quiet there and also spacious. The neighbours all know each
other very well so it is very friendly.
I live in the business district of the city. It is very crowded here
during the daytime, but also very convenient. Everything I
need is very close by.
And every neighbourhood has people. And these people are
your neighbours.
 next-door
 shy
 kind
 quiet
 troublesome
 sociable
 respectable
 noisy
 opposite
 elderly
 nosy
 friendly
My next-door neighbour is very kind. If I need help doing
something, he will always offer to help me.
One of my neighbours is very quiet and respectable. But the
other neighbour is very noisy — they are always playing loud
music late at night.
I have a neighbour who is very sociable. They always invite
the other neighbours over to their place for a barbecue or
some other party. But there’s another neighbour who is very
shy. He doesn’t talk to anyone at all.
I have a really terrible neighbour — she is very nosy. Always
interfering in other people’s business.
One of my neighbours is very elderly, so I try to help her out
whenever I have time.
Weather
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good, great, nice, fine, lovely, beautiful,
wonderful, excellent, gorgeous, fair, pleasant,
balmy;
bad, awful, terrible, nasty, lousy, foul, rotten,
miserable, unpleasant, dull, gloomy, ugly;
sunny, warm, hot, mild, cool, chilly, cold,
freezing, icy, frosty; very cold; bitter cold;
rainy, wet, humid, dry, arid, frigid, foggy, windy,
stormy, breezy, windless, calm, still;
a spell of good weather; a two-day spell of
sunny weather; a spell of rainy weather;
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Sky: cloudy, overcast, cloudless, clear, bright,
blue, gray (BrE grey), dark; a patch of blue sky.
Weather phenomena and related words
Sunshine
warm sun; hot sun; blazing sun; sunshine, sunlight, sunrays,
sunbeams;
bright sunshine; bright sunlight; a patch of sunlight; daylight,
moonlight;
sunrise, sunset, day, night, dawn, morning, noon, afternoon,
evening, twilight, nightfall, midnight.
Wind
wind, breeze; a gust of wind; a blast of wind; strong wind;
high wind; light wind;
cool wind; warm wind; brisk wind; fresh wind; cold wind;
piercing wind;
easterly wind; northerly wind; southerly wind; westerly wind;
hurricane, windstorm, whirlwind, tornado, typhoon, gale,
dust storm, sandstorm, tropical storm.
Rain
heavy rain; pouring rain; steady rain; constant rain; cold rain;
warm rain; light rain; gentle rain;
rain, rainfall, rain shower, downpour, deluge, rainstorm,
drizzle, hail, sleet;
a drop of rain, a droplet, a raindrop; rainbow.
Fog
fog, haze, mist, smog; foggy, hazy, misty, smoggy; dew; dewy;
thick fog; dense fog; heavy fog; patchy fog; a blanket of fog;
pea soup (informal) – thick yellow fog.
Thunder and lightning
thunder; thunderstorm; thundercloud; distant thunder; faint
thunder; loud thunder;
a clap of thunder, a thunderclap; a bolt of thunder, a
thunderbolt;
lightning; a flash of lightning; a bright flash of lightning; a bolt
of lightning.
Snow
flood, deluge, tidal wave, tsunami, drought, fire;
heavy snow; deep snow; fresh snow; light snow; wet snow;
falling snow; melting snow;
disaster, catastrophe, cataclysm.
Other words and phrases
snow, snowfall, snowstorm, blizzard, frost; thaw; slippery
roads;
Nature, environment, ecology; air pollution; water pollution;
acid rain; the cutting down of forests;
snowflake, snowdrift, snowbank; ice, icicle.
industrial waste; chemical waste; toxic waste; nuclear waste;
Seasons
the ozone hole; the greenhouse effect; global warming.
winter, spring, summer, autumn; fall (AmE); early spring; late
autumn; Indian summer;
Weather reports
springtime, summertime, wintertime; spring season; summer
season; fall season; winter season;
weather report; weather forecast; weather man;
thermometer, barometer;
dry season; wet season; rainy season; cold season; warm
season;
climate; temperature; atmospheric pressure; wind, rain; cold,
warm;
cold winters; extremely cold winters; mild winters; cool
summers; warm summers; hot summers.
humidity; cloudiness; precipitation; three inches of snow.
Sample weather reports
Climate
Climate: cold, cool, warm, hot; mild, moderate, temperate,
severe; wet, damp, humid, dry, arid;
a cold climate; a relatively mild climate; a dry climate; a warm
climate; a hot climate;
a continental climate; a maritime climate; cold climates; hot
climates; a wide variety of climates;
The climate of Siberia is continental, with cold winters and
warm summers. The climate of this region is cold and wet.
Ireland has a cool maritime climate. Yalta has a warm
subtropical climate. I would like to live in a warm climate.
France has three types of climate. Agriculture in mountainous
regions is restricted by climate and relief.
Disasters
earthquake, volcanic eruption, hurricane, landslide, landslip,
avalanche;
Mainly cloudy with a little drizzle. Slight chance of a rain
shower. Northeastern wind at 5 to 10 mph. Temperature
below normal in the north and central regions. Near normal
for southern regions. Maximum temperature 50°F (10°C).
Cold and dry in the morning, warmer later. Windy and
increasingly cloudy with sunny periods. Rain expected at
night, with 40 percent chance of showers. Maximum 58°F in
the afternoon. Strong wind expected Monday, with
temperature in low 50s.
Windy and cloudy with occasional rain. Humidity 73%. Cold
westerly wind at 25 mph (40 km/h) gusting to 40 mph (64
km/h) is expected tomorrow.
Sunny in the morning with cloudy intervals later in the day.
Chance of rain 50%. Isolated thunderstorms possible. Highs in
the mid 80s and lows in the upper 60s.
Heat wave expected. Temperature 97–98 degrees F (36–37
degrees C) to 101–103 degrees F (38–39 degrees C) for the
next three days. High atmospheric pressure.
Shop
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Then I shall give up my trade and start a little shop.
The closed shops repel me.
I was now a little in heart, as the nature of my morning avocations had brought me into some sort of familiarity
with the raw material; and I was surprised to find how eloquent I was becoming on the state of the India market
when, presently, he dashed my incipient vanity to the earth at once, by inquiring whether I had ever made any c
alculation as to the value of the rental of all the retail shops in London.
The yellow shop.
We bought some toys one year for one of our Christmas trees in the country from a poor old lame woman who
had a tiny shop in one of the small streets running out of the rue du Bac.
The poor man had left an insurance of five hundred dollars and the little frame building wherein he had conduct
ed a harness shop.
More useful, and the fruit of an even grander tree, are those 'Brazil nuts' which are sold in every sweetshop at home.
The results of all this has been the whittling away of a good many oldfashioned shops and traders; but they are not all gone, and some longestablished businesses still survive and
prosper in our midst.
At an earlier date Mr. Pendennis had exercised the profession of apothecary and surgeon, and had even condesc
ended to sell a plaster across the counter of his humble shop, or to vend tooth-brushes, hair
powder, and London perfumery.
In Mons is a very large splendid shop or warehouse of millinery, perfumery, jewellery, etc.
We turned into the first posada we came toa poor, mean sort of an inn and general shop, to be sure, but we wer
e in no condition to cavil about trifles, being fagged out with our journey and the adventures of the day, and
only too happy to find a house of entertainment still open.
Under its main archway is a dingy apothecary-shop.
Sometimes a piece of jade can be found in a curio shop covered with relief work which represents the labor of
an accomplished artist for years.
We have given this recipe for currypowder, as some persons prefer to make it at home; but that purchased at any respectable shop is, generally
speaking, far superior, and, taking all things into consideration, very frequently more economical.
When somebody talked of being imposed on in the purchase of tea and sugar, and such articles: 'That will not be
the case, (said he,) if you go to a stately shop, as I always do.
For the buying of books, it is the cheaper shops where I most often prowl.
Joe's temper grew more and more vindictive, and the love of talking over his troubles at the
grog-shop increased on him.