Having a roof is very important. It is said to be an important thing for a living. A house is a place where an individual goes after work, vacation, or after completing his entire day. It is a place where he feels the safest and comfortable. It is a basic necessity. When an individual starts earning, the priority is to have a home or house of his own. House and home both are said to be the same, but this is not true. Both of them are similar indeed but have differences too.
Home vs House
The main difference between home and house is in the people if the people live in a building love each other, and have an emotional connection with each other it is considered as a home on the other hand in the same building if people don’t love each other have to emotional connection and maybe don’t even know each other the same building will be considered as a house.
Home is a residence for a family mostly. It is a place filled with love and emotions mostly. It is said to be an abstract concept. It is a place where everyone knows each other and has respect towards each other. And it is not always family who lives there, they can be friends or relatives, the main element is the love and bonding they share.
Like home, a house is also a building or residence where people live. But there is no love or affection among the people living there; they just live with each other to have a roof over their heads. They might not even like each other. It can be a family, friends, relatives, or just strangers, most these people change their house easily due to lack of any connection.
Comparison Table Between Home and House
| Parameters of Comparison | Home | House |
| Concept | Abstract concept | Concrete concept |
| Love | It has love | Love is absent |
| Belonging | Has a sense of belonging | No sense of belonging |
| Emotional attachment | Has emotional attachment | No emotional attachment |
| Family | Family is a part | It may or may not be a part. |
What is Home?
A home is a place where a person lives with the people he loves. It is a place where he feels most comfortable and secure. A home is made with the people that live inside it. It does not need to be big or with luxurious furniture and supplies, but the most important part is the people. A small one-room is home to a person who lives there happily with his family, while a person who owns a big building might not be a home for him due to lack of love and support from his family.
It is a personal belonging that might not have some monetary value but holds a very high emotional value. It is the last thing any individual wants to lose, and it is not tied to a particular building. It can be changed into a house in a day. When a person says, ‘this is my home, it directly indicated how much he loves his home and holds an emotional attachment towards it. In fact, it is not necessary that a home is a building. It can be just into someone’s mind and not in reality. A home is filled with love, affection, warmth, peace, etc.
What is House?
It is a place where people live. It is just a building where one or more people live, and it just serves the purpose of providing a shelter or roof to someone. There is no attachment. So in case if they have to leave their house, there will be no difficulties or problems in doing so. For a house to be good, it must be spacious, have good quality furniture, and privacy, etc. All the materialistic things have more value than other people living over there to an individual. Therefore, when a person looks for a house, he firstly looks at the location, interior and lastly talks to the person living there.
Even if in the house along with a family, for a member, it may not be home as like for others due to lack of emotional connection. And a house can be changed into a home by the people who live there. For example, if a person is living in an apartment and has a roommate, initially he may not have any bonding or connection with him, but by the time, they may start bonding and build an emotional connection, and therefore the apartment that was just a house earlier turned into a home.
Main Differences Between Home and House
- A home is a place where more people live together and share an emotional connection, whereas in a house, too people live together, but the emotional connection is not present among them.
- Home is said to be an abstract concept that is it can be felt but not seen by the eyes, while the house is a concrete concept that can be seen with the eyes.
- Home is more connected with emotions and made with the love of the members, whereas house is more a materialistic building where more importance is given to the materials and things than emotions.
- A person feels a sense of belongingness in a home, where it feels safe and secure and most comfortable with the other people where the sense of belongingness is not present in the house.
- In a home, family is an important part, not by blood sometimes, friends living together is also considered as a family if they have the love and connection, whereas, in a house, there may or may not be a family, total strangers can also live in the same house.
- A home does not necessarily need to be a building. It can also be in someone’s mind only, whereas a house is always a building.
Conclusion
Due to their similarities, they are used interchangeably, which is fine, but knowledge of differences is important too. For a person, it may be the same thing due to lack of emotional attachment, but for someone who loves family and relations, home and house both mean different. This is also a reason why we never hear sweet house sweet but sweet home sweet. A house can be changed into a home, and vice versa. A home is a place with family and love. Otherwise, there won’t be much difference between these two.
It is important to understand the difference between home and house to use the correct term in a sentence.
References
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916587192004
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/41064194
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/40970630
- https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-5OCAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA29&dq=home+and+house&ots=KKKtJU7N4g&sig=A7UQpS7xNPmZT4DdZKHjPtXDVOo
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1398-9995.2009.02098.x