Are you apartment hunting? Welcome back to the Learn English Podcast, the podcast teaching English in context so you can learn naturally.
On today's episode, I want to talk about some vocabulary terms. specifically some vocabulary terms that you will see if you are looking for an apartment.
What are some words and phrases and what do they mean when you see them?
On today's episode, I want to give you all of the basics.
So if you do need to go. department hunting in English, you will understand what the listing is saying and what the apartment has to offer.
If you're interested in learning about this, and of course, building your English vocabulary, then follow along because we're about to begin.
Before we begin, I want to remind you to look at the description of this podcast episode.
There you will find helpful links like links to lessons with me, and the vocabulary list of the words and phrases that I used in the episode.
That way you can take these words, study them, and build your English vocabulary.
Let's start with what the word apartment means.
An apartment is a residence, a place where you can live And when we say apartment, what we usually mean is one particular residence that is in a building that has multiple apartments.
Usually this is called an apartment building.
There might be multiple floors and on each floor, there might be a bunch of different apartments. and you are trying to find one apartment in that apartment building that you can move into.
I know in British English they can call this a flat here in the United States, we never say flat.
That is not a word that we use. we will say apartment.
Now there are different types of apartments.
Some are very small, some are very large.
So let's start with the smallest. The smallest apartment is going to be a studio apartment.
A studio apartment is usually just one room, that is open, that doesn't have any walls.
That's what we mean by open. And it has your bedroom.
It maybe has a table for a living room. and a kitchen all within one area.
Usually it will also have a restroom, and that restroom should have a door on it. may or may not, depending on where you are, but usually it should have a door.
That would be considered a studio apartment.
If you are looking at an apartment that says it is a one bedroom, that is going to be different than a studio apartment.
In a one bedroom apartment, there has to be walls that separate the kitchen and the living area from the bedroom where you sleep.
Some cities and states also have a law that the bedroom has to have a closet.
That's what makes a bedroom, the walls and the closet combined. some places don't have that rule for a closet so it really depends on where you are but In general, you definitely have to have walls that separate where the bedroom is versus the kitchen and the living room.
Of course, you can even have larger apartments.
You can have two bedroom or three bedroom apartments.
And that is still saying that you have separate bedrooms that are separated from each other by walls.
You could still have an open concept apartment. even though it is a one or two or three bedroom.
The bedroom part has to have walls, but there does not need to be walls that separate the hallway and the kitchen and the living room.
If you have an open concept apartment, or house that means that you don't have walls that are separating the kitchen and the living area.
You could see to the kitchen from the living room, maybe where you're watching TV.
There's no walls separating it. That would be an open concept floor plan. or an open concept apartment.
You might be renting an apartment, but you might also be looking to rent a condo.
A condo is very similar to an apartment, but they are individually owned.
So if you have a building that has a bunch of apartments in them, but everyone owns their own apartment, that usually gets called a condo or a condominium. we usually say condo instead of condominium because condominium is a very long word and it's a lot harder to say.
So people will usually say condo. Sometimes people will buy a condo, they will buy a residence in a building that has a bunch of different condos, and then they will rent it out to people and people will come and stay there.
So, You might rent an apartment or you might rent a condo.
The difference usually is is if the apartment is owned by one owner for the entire building, versus is the apartment owned by one person in particular and each person owns their own apartment. that would be a condo usually if you do own your apartment it is called a condo but there is one exception I have heard people talk about New York City and the real estate market in New York City.
If you are buying an apartment in New York City, I've heard it called an apartment and not a condo as frequently.
I've heard both, but I've heard apartment as well as condo.
I would say in general in other places in the United States.
If you own an apartment, it is called a condo, but New York City just. seems to have their own rules and their own real estate market.
So if you are there, you might see both terms being used.
Besides renting an apartment or condo, you might also rent a house.
You can have single family houses or you can have something else.
So a single family house is a house that is just one family living there.
They are separated. They usually have some type of yard and a garage.
What you see in TV shows and movies where you have a bunch of houses close together that are all in a row and perfectly in order on a particular block.
That would be an example of a single family home.
You might not be able to afford to rent an entire home.
Sometimes they're very expensive. I know in my neighborhood it can cost thousands of dollars to rent out a home so instead you might just be looking for a particular bedroom in a home and that definitely happens too people will put signs and advertisements saying room for rent.
And that means you are renting a particular bedroom in the house.
Sometimes the bedroom can come with its own bathroom, but it's not guaranteed. you definitely want to read the listing and see if the room for rent has a private or a shared bathroom.
Private bathroom means you are the only person who's going to be using it.
And of course, that will be very nice. Or it might be a shared bathroom, which means that people who are in the house are going to be using it and you just kind of have to share.
Other examples of homes are duplexes and triplexes and townhomes.
So let's start with the first one. A duplex is...
A type of house that has two residents on it.
It could be that the house has two stories, so you might have a bottom floor and a top floor.
One key opens the door downstairs and Maybe there's a set of stairs and a different key to get into the residence upstairs.
That would be an example of a duplex. There are duplexes in my neighborhood that are different than this.
They are not on the bottom and top floor, but instead are right next to each other.
So it looks like one house, but it actually has two different doors.
And in the center of the house there is a wall.
So the house is basically split into two sides, a right and and a left side and they have their own door.
Now something similar to this is a triplex.
That try part, that prefix try, means three.
So like a duplex, which has two residences, a triplex has three.
You might also have a townhouse. So a townhouse is very similar to an apartment or a duplex or a triplex in that it is a smaller residence and a larger building and it does have shared walls. these are usually individually owned like a condo but instead of being like a condo in that it is like in an apartment building.
A lot of times these are in something called a row house.
So it is when you have a block of a house It looks like just one really, really, really long house all the way down the street block.
But that house is actually divided into a bunch of individual houses.
If you have seen those Rocky movies with Sylvester Stallone, There are a lot of row houses in Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia neighborhood is really kind of famous for having this particular type of housing structure.
So the houses on the end of the block only have one shared wall.
But the houses in the center of the row house, the center of the block, they have a shared wall on either side.
So you can see this get called a townhouse.
You can see this get called a a row house, but they mean about the same thing.
Now that you've found the listing for the apartment or room or house that you might want to rent, The next step would be scheduling a tour.
So a tour is when you go and view the house.
Sometimes people also call it a showing or a viewing.
Go and see it in person and just see if it's a good place to rent or maybe if you want to just keep looking. instead.
So you can call usually the owner or sometimes there's a real estate agent. who is showing the apartment, you can call them and say that you want to schedule a tour of it and they can arrange a time you can go over and actually look at it.
When you do go for your tour, there are a couple of things you want to look at.
You want to see if the apartment is furnished or unfurnished.
Furnished means that there is furniture in the apartment.
Maybe they have tables and chairs and appliances.
Appliances are the electronic devices especially in the kitchen.
So do they have a refrigerator? Do they have a dishwasher?
Do they have a microwave? I can say from personal experience, I rented an apartment when I was in Los Angeles and In Los Angeles, if you do rent an apartment, you're not going to get a refrigerator.
That is not common in Los Angeles at all.
In other places, it is common to get a refrigerator, so that's one of the things you want to look at.
What appliances are available? Do you get a refrigerator or microwave?
Or do you have to buy that yourself? You also want to look at what utilities are included.
Utilities are things like electricity, water, gas, trash.
You want to see which ones are included.
Sometimes you will get an apartment that has everything included.
So you just pay one price and everything is covered.
Sometimes you get an apartment that will cover the but you have to pay for electricity on your own.
I would say that's a pretty common setup for most places that you're going to rent.
And then sometimes you get places that don't even cover water or trash.
You have to do everything on your own. You might also want to know what amenities are available Amenities are little extra things that you can have, especially at an apartment complex.
Sometimes places are very nice and they have a lot of amenities.
They're trying to get you to go and move in because they have these wonderful things. have a swimming pool, a tennis court, a gym.
Some places have laundry rooms on site so you can go and do your laundry somewhere.
Those are examples of amenities. These are not things that come standard in every apartment.
They definitely vary by different places, but they're things that you would want to look at if you were trying to figure out if you want to move in.
Once you've decided that you do want to try to rent an apartment, You usually have to fill out an application.
You usually have to say where you work. how much money you have because the person who owns the house or apartment wants to make sure that you can actually pay for it and Sometimes you have to pay a fee to apply for an apartment.
And that can be difficult, especially if you're not guaranteed to get that apartment.
I have heard that sometimes people have to apply to multiple apartments to try to find one and if you're paying maybe $40 each time That can add up that can be a lot of money.
The reason they do these checks is that they want to make sure that you can afford the rent.
The rent is the monthly amount you pay to stay in an apartment, a condo or a house.
And it's what you pay the owner. You pay that every month.
That is called your rent. When you do apply for an apartment, when you do get it and they tell that you have been approved and that you can move in, you will usually also hear hear something about a deposit or security deposit.
A deposit is money that you pay in addition to your rent and it's money that you pay before you move in.
Usually this is one month's rent. Not always.
It could change depending on where you are.
Usually it's one month's rent that you pay in addition to your regular monthly rent.
You'll also hear this called first and last.
What that means is that you are paying your first month's rent. and your last month's rent.
So when it is time to move out, You tell the owner of the apartment or you tell the manager of the apartment that you're going to be moving. then you have already paid the last month's rent for your apartment.
This is also a security deposit because in case something happens, in case you damage the apartment in some way they could use that money to pay for the damages.
If you didn't cause any damage, if everything was perfect when you moved out, then you should get your secure deposit back when you move out.
Therefore, it is a good idea to walk through an apartment and take video of it before you do move out just in case there's any question about If something was left behind, if there was some damage, just in case you want to be sure.
There's a record of what the apartment looked like when you left and to make sure that you can get your security deposit back.
And the last thing that you want to do before you sign up for an apartment is you want to make sure you know the leasing terms.
So a lease is the agreement that you have between the owner and yourself when you decide to move into a place.
You want to see if there is a set amount of time for the lease, or if it is called month to month.
So sometimes a lease is for a year or maybe even more.
And that means that you are saying that you are going to live there for whatever time period the lease says.
So if it's a six month lease, you are saying you are going to live there for six months.
If it's a year-long lease, you're going to live there for one year.
You want to make sure you know how long that is because there can be costs. if you decide to leave early.
If you try to move out before the end of the lease, that is called breaking the lease.
And sometimes there is a fee. Sometimes that means you don't get your service. security deposit back, even if you didn't do any damage to the place that you're renting.
So you want to make sure you know that. If a lease is month to month, that means you can move out at any time.
You do not have to stay for six months or a year or any period of time.
At the end of each month you have the option that you can move out.
Some places will have you do a years-long lease at the beginning and then switch over to month to month. that happened to me when I was in school.
I did a years long lease and then I did month to month.
Just look and see before you sign anything.
Just make sure you know what the terms are. how long, and if there's any type of fee associated if you do leave before the end of the lease.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you learned some new vocabulary terms. and learned what you should look for and what you should pay attention to when you're looking at listings and when you're thinking about renting a place to live.
If you didn't catch something that I said, if I talk too fast or If maybe you don't remember every word that I mentioned, just a reminder to look at the description of the podcast episode.
You will find the vocabulary list there, so you can refer back to it and look up any vocabulary that I mentioned. during the episode.
If you enjoyed this, if you want more episodes like this in the future, then please leave a comment tell me about it and let me know I can definitely plan more episodes like this there are are a lot more vocabulary terms that we could talk about.
But of course, I don't know unless you tell me.
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