Places in Town

Hook

You arrive in a new town. You need cash, medicine, a train ticket and something to eat. Before you can ask for directions, you need the names of the places you are looking for, and the things people do there.

Notice

  • I need some money. Is there a bank or a cash machine near here?
  • I have a headache. I’m going to the pharmacy.
  • The train leaves from the station at 9.
  • We buy our food at the supermarket.
  • Let’s meet at the café opposite the park.
  • The bus stop is next to the post office.

Which places do you visit every week?

Rule

PlaceWhat you do there
bank / cash machine (ATM)get or change money
pharmacy (UK: chemist’s)buy medicine
post officesend letters and parcels
station / bus stopcatch a train / a bus
supermarketbuy food and things for the house
hospitalsee a doctor when you are very ill
libraryborrow books, study
museumlook at art and history
restaurant / caféeat a meal / have a drink or a snack
hotelstay for a night
parkwalk, relax, play
cinemawatch a film

Use at or in with places: I’m at the station. She works in a bank. Use to for movement: I’m going to the pharmacy.

Watch Out

  • ✗ I go to pharmacy. → ✓ I go to the pharmacy. (use “the”)
  • ✗ a library = a shop that sells books → ✓ a library = where you borrow books (a bookshop sells books)
  • ✗ I’m going at the bank. → ✓ I’m going to the bank. (movement uses “to”)

Practice

  1. Where do you buy medicine?
  2. Where do you catch a train?
  3. Where do you borrow books?
  4. Where do you send a parcel?
  5. Where do you watch a film?
  6. Where do you stay on holiday?
  7. Complete: “I’m going ___ the bank.”
  8. A library or a bookshop: where do you buy books?
Show the answers
  1. at the pharmacy
  2. at the station
  3. at the library
  4. at the post office
  5. at the cinema
  6. at a hotel
  7. to
  8. a bookshop

Your Turn

Write six places near your home and one sentence for each: There’s a pharmacy near my house. I go there when I’m ill.

Connect

Check meanings of town words in our Vocabulary Quiz (choose A1).

Try our Vocabulary Quiz →

Our Hangman game is a fun way to practise spelling everyday words.

Play Hangman →

CEFR A1 — Reading: I can understand familiar names and words on signs, for example in a town or at a station.

Azizul Hakim
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