How to Describe your Town in English

Learning how to talk about places around town is important since you need to get to new places when you are traveling or if you are new in town.

To learn how to talk about places you need to know:

• Vocabulary about places
• Prepositions of places
• Adjectives to describe places in your town

Continue reading to learn more about places around town in English

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#1 Places around Town Vocabulary

This is some key vocabulary about places around town divided into categories.

The examples given at the end of each category uses there is and there are.

Remember that we use there is to refer to one thing and there are to refer to more than two things

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Places around Town: Transportation

These are some places related to transportation that you will find in small or big cities

bus stop	Bus terminal
bus station	taxi stop
subway station	parking lot
Train station	gas station

• There is a bus stop nearby
• There is a gas station next to the taxi stop
• There are three bus stations by the park
• There is a taxi stop near the bus station

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Places around Town: Miscellaneous buildings

These are some places that most of us go to:

School	Hospital
Supermarket	Department Store
Restaurant	Hotel
Bank	Motel
Post office	Museum
Library	Movie Theater
Police Department	Fire Department
City Hall	Town Hall
Church	Prison

• There is a catholic church in front of my house
• There are four banks around here
• There is an old museum near here
• There is a motel near the prison
• There is a library near the school

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Places around Town – Entertainment

These are some places around town where you can find some sort of entertainment

Museum	Art Gallery
Park	Zoo
Amusement Park	Water Park
Cinema	Movie Theater
Dancing Hall	Club

• There’s a cinema near the park
• There is a small zoo
• There is a water park five kilometres away
• There are several clubs in this town

Places to Eat in Town

These are some of the most common places to grab something to eat

Restaurant	Cafeteria
Cafe	Coffee shop
Snack bar	diner
Pizzeria	fast food restaurant
bar	mexican restaurant

• Is there a bar near here?
• Are there any restaurants around here?
• There is a cafe that we can visit
• There is a nice coffee shop around the corner

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Places to go Shopping

These are the places that you usually visit when you need to buy thing such as clothing, shoes and others

Shopping Center	Shopping Mall
Department Store	Shoe store
Computer Store	Bookstore
Grocery Store	Bakery
Food Market	Mall

• There is a department store near here
• Are there any bakeries in this small town?
• There are two computer stores
• There aren’t any shoe stores around here
• There is a mall near the park

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Places around Town: Sports facilities

These are the most common sport facilities that you will find in a small or big city

Fitness Center	Tennis court
Gym	Swimming pool
Stadium	Soccer Field

• I want to go to the gym
• Is there a swimming pool near here?
• Is there a stadium near the gym?

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Places around Town: Health facilities

These are some health facilities that you can find even in small towns and cities

Hospital	Clinic
Dental Clinic	Pharmacy
Drugstore	Nursing home
Maternity House	Health Center

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Places around Town: Educational Facilities

These are some examples of educational facilities in English

Kindergarten	High school
Elementary School	University
Academy	College
Day care center	Campus

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Others Places around Town

These are other places around town which offer important services

Rental Agency	Real State Agency
Repair Shop	Service Station
Dry Cleaning	Laundromat

• There is a real state agency in town
• There are two repair shops nearby
• There is a dry cleaning near my house

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Prepositions of place

If we want to give and ask for directions in English, we need to use prepositions of place.

These are the most common prepositions of places to use when giving directions:

Besides to	Next to
Near	Between
Behind	In front of

• I live in front of the supermarket
• The Supermarket is next to the gas station
• There is a police station in front of the police department
• There are many parks near the hospital

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Description of places

These are some of the most common adjectives to describe places around town

modern	expensive
old	polluted
large	clean
small	noisy
interesting	quiet
boring	calm
exciting	crowded
beautiful	busy

• The city is boring at nights
• The city is very beautiful
• This is an old town
• I live in a very quiet city
• The river is polluted
• I live in a calm city

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How to Talk about Places Around Town – Lesson Plan

This is a lesson plan that I created with the task based approach in mind.

First day Routine:

1. Teacher introduces himself/ herself using a powerpoint presentation, he/she talks a bit his likes in music, movies and anime.
2. Teacher ask students to send a whatsapp message to his/her number and then he/she sends an invitation link so they can join the group
3. Once the group is created, teacher sends a google form with personal information so students can interview each other.
4. Teacher talks about the contents and the evaluation of the course.
5. Teacher sends the information to their email addresses.

Schema Activation

Activity #1

1. Teacher plays some songs and students pass around a balloon.
2. When the music stops, the student with the balloon in her hands has to introduce the classmate he/she has to introduce himself /herself.

Activity #2

1. Teacher distributes strips of paper of the lyrics of a song called “Good Life” by One Republic
2. Students have to make groups and arrange the song

Pre-Task

Task #1

This activity is to introduce vocabulary and reinforce new vocabulary

1. Teacher sends a TinyCard Set about places.
2. Students make pairs and quiz their classmate by asking a question about the new vocabulary
3. They switch places and quiz other students

Task #2

The aim of this task is to help students familiarize with the expressions to talk about what you can find a city.

1. Students make groups of 5, they are given a set of scrambled sentences and they have to arrange the words so the sentence makes sense .
2. Each member of the group is given a  set of 3 sentences, once they finished
3. Students gather with other students that have the same set and make sure they have the same answers.

Task #3

1. Teacher plays a  video,students listen to it
2. Teacher plays the video one more time and students answer this online quiz

Task #4

1. Teacher introduces how to make polite questions using do you know? could you tell me? can you tell me?
2. Teacher sends different maps that students need  and they describe those places to their classmates.

Main-Task

Alternative #1

1. Students make group of 5.
2. Students have to create a collage, the collage must be about 10 places they can find in the nearest city.
3. Students have to know where those 10 places are located.

Once the groups are finished, a member of each group join a group and they ask question to each other about the places in their collages.

Alternative #2

1. Students are sent this video 
2. They analyze it and they have to make groups of 3 and create one similar.

Post-Task

1. Teacher reviews the vocabulary by doing an exercise online with the students

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