two-family house

Question

Which is correct or better?1. Upon completion of the two-family housing, the son's couple separated.2. Upon completion of the duplex house, the son's couple separated.Thank you.

Marius Hancu · Accepted Answer

>the son's couple separated

Hm, what do you mean in the above?

A duplex house or two family-house are pretty much the same:

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two-family house
Function: noun

: a house divided either vertically and designed for two families living side by side but separated by a party wall or horizontally and designed for two families occupying separate apartments one above the other -- called also duplex house

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Itasan · Answer

Thank you, Marius.
The father had a two-family house built with what money
he had for him and his wife and his son's couple to live in.
But the son got divorced. What's the use of the duplex.

Marius Hancu · Answer

what is "his son's couple"?
not idiomatic to me

is it "his son's family"?

Itasan · Answer

Oh, that's the problem. I see. You don't say 'his couple', right?
I mean 'the son and his wife'. OK. I'll change it to 'the son's family'.
Or will it be better to say, "Upon completion of the two-family housing,
my son got divorced"?

Thank you.

Nona the brit · Answer

yes your last option would be much better. Or 'my son's marriage broke up'.

The 'two family housing' doesn't sound natural to me (and i had to look up duplex) for British English.

Marius Hancu · Answer

>two-family house

Nona the brit · Answer

My comments apply to British English only.

That would mean that the two families are sharing one house, not lving next door to each other in two separate houses/flats that are adjoining.

Perhaps it is the living arrangement itself causing some confusion. It would be unusual to do this in the west. These buildings would be called either flats (one on top of the other) or semi-detatched houses (next to each other).They wouldn't be seen as one shared overall unit of accomodation and it is unlikely that family members would be living in both sides.

The only thing that seems appropriate is the phrase 'self contained'. Sometimes you find larger properties with 'self-contained' flat used by independent family members or staff (often also referred to as a granny annexe or granny flat!). But this is not an equal division; it is one large house with a smaller independent property within in.

As this living situation (family in purpose-built adjoining homes) is quite unusual in the west the situation cannot be clearly described in just a few words. You'd need to put something like

Just after the man completed the building of a pair of semi-detatched houses, one for himself and one for his son, his son's marriage broke up.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Where I live, duplex houses are very common. Sometimes they are called "twins." Usually you would have a block of twins, and there are not single-family houses mixed in, but there may be single-family homes only one block over or on a different section of the same street. However, it's NOT common for family members to live on both sides. They are just neighbors like you would find anywhere else.

The other comment about your original sentence, Itasan, is that it makes it sound like the completion of the house either caused the break-up, or the break-up was going to happen and the couple was just waiting for the house to be finished. Because I don't believe there was a causal relationship, it's better to say "As soon as" or "Shortly after" or even "Immediately after."

Nona, what do Brits call the types of houses you find in cities, where they are all in a row, sharing walls to the right and left, but with their own front doors? Usually they are narrow - perhaps only one room wide - but they go far back, and often are at least three floors? Row houses? Brownstones?

Tanit · Answer

how about...

terraced houses?

Nona the brit · Answer

Terraced, yes, but most are only 2 floors high. 'end terrace' is the phrase for the lucky 2 houses at each end of the row. We call a 3 story house a 'townhouse'.I live in an end terrace townhouse so I have 3 floors and a neighbour's house attached to one side. Although in the UK, the third floor is usually more like a loft conversion rather than a whole full floor (right up under the roof with a dormer window).

You do get some very large terraced Victorian houses with about 3/4 floors plus basement level plus attic level (imagine a big well-off Victorian family living with a ton of servants) but these are not that common and would cost a LOT of money if you bought the whole thing. Most of them are now converted into flats (apartments).

An apartment block is here called a block of flats (although some developers are starting to use 'apartments' to make their properties sound posher!).

two-family house

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