Place, Location and Position

（单词翻译）

This week we answer a question from Pakistan. Shahid writes:

Question:

What is the difference between these terms: place, location¹, position, site and situation? -- Shahid, Pakistan.

Answer:

Dear Shahid,

The five terms you gave are very close in meaning. The English language often has more than one word to describe a similar idea or action.

Place

The word "place" is used to describe an area that may not have an exact border. In fact, it may not be a particular or special area. Place is so general it could be a room, a building, a town, a country, or something else. For example, in a news broadcast, I heard this sentence:

The beach is one of the safest places to be these days.

Official documents may ask for your "place of birth," which usually means² a city and country.

Have you ever been waiting in line but need to leave for a short period? Then you might ask someone:

Will you hold my place in line?

This use of place is the same as how we use the word "position."

Position

Position means a specific³ point.

The position of something is relative to other things. For example, in an auto⁴ race, the "pole position" is in the first row on the inside lane⁵.

She earned the pole position for the race because she was the fastest driver this year.

A position can also be a way of holding one's body, as in this example.

Most office workers spend the day in a sitting position.

Location

The word "location" is used to describe a specific point in physical space. For example:

The location of a business is very important to its success.

People who buy and sell homes and buildings often use the expression:

Location, location, location!

That means a store on a busy street corner is more likely to be successful and a house that is in a nice neighborhood will be easier to sell.

Site

A related⁶ word is "site," which we can use for the present or past location of a building or an important event in history, as in:

This was the site of the first battle in the war.

We also use "site" to talk about the future location of a building or structure⁷:

The mayor⁸ chose the site of the new memorial⁹.

Situation

Finally, Shahid, you asked about the word "situation." This is an old-fashioned¹⁰ and more formal, or official, way to talk about a place:

The house is in a wonderful situation close to the water.

However, American English speakers generally no longer use this word when talking about specific places.

I hope these answers help when you want to use these five place terms.

Your questions

What questions do you have about English? Send us an email at [email protected].

And that's Ask a Teacher for this week.

I'm Jill Robbins.

Words in This Story

location – n. a place or position

site – n. the place where something (such as a building) is, was, or will be located¹¹

beach – n. land along a body of water

row – n. several objects organized in a straight line

lane – n. a narrow road or path for a single line of vehicles¹²

old-fashioned – adj. of or related to something from the past