Describing My Home

1A letter Ishimwe cannot finish

Ishimwe has a pen friend who lives far away, near Lake Kivu. Her letter arrives and it asks one simple question: "Tell me about your home. What is inside it?"

Ishimwe picks up his pencil. Then he stops. He can see his whole home inside his head - but how do you put a home into English words?

Two small phrases will do it: there is and there are. Learn them today and you can describe any room on earth.

2The rooms in a home

• kitchen - where the food is cooked
• sitting room - where the family sits together and visitors are welcomed
• bedroom - where you sleep
• bathroom - where you wash
• yard - the open ground outside, all around the house

And here are things you may find inside them: a bed, a mat, a table, a chair, a cup, a plate, a pot, a broom, a door, a window, a lamp.

3there is means ONE. there are means MORE THAN ONE.

There is a pot.

Now you look at the shelf. You see three cups. That is more than one! So you say:

There are three cups.

Worked example, step by step

In Ishimwe's bedroom there is one bed and two mats. How do we write that? Let us go slowly.

1. Step 1 - count the beds. One bed. One thing means there is.
2. Step 2 - one thing needs the word a. So: "There is a bed."
3. Step 3 - count the mats. Two mats. More than one means there are.
4. Step 4 - many things need an s on the end. mat becomes mats. So: "There are two mats."

Now Ishimwe can finally write to his friend:

In my bedroom there is a bed. There are two mats on the floor.

Notice the two things that always travel together. are brings the -s with it. is brings the a with it, and no s. They are like friends who always walk side by side.

Try it yourself

Do each one, then tap Show answer to check.