I am writing an article for a magazine about my visit to my village. I want to use a better word or phrase for 'my village' or 'my native place'. The following is the part 'When i heard of stories of hardships and suffering from my grandparents I realized how fortunate I was to live in the city I now call home. When the day came to visit "my village/my native place", I felt uncertain and nervous..' And better word or phrase to make the content more appealing?
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Birthplace.....?– user66974Mar 11, 2015 at 8:55
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1First let me say that I understand exactly how you feel. Although Britain has been a mostly urban society for 200 years I spent my childhood and upbringing in a village, albeit only 7 miles from a City of 120,000 people. I left the village in 1961 - 54 years ago. But I still return there from time to time, though I know no one who lives there now. One's point of origin is important. I see nothing wrong with, and do myself use the term my village.– WS2Mar 11, 2015 at 8:56
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@Josh61 Not quite the same thing. I was not actually born in my village, though my parents lived there at the time. In the OP's case, if I understand him correctly, he has never lived in the village, but it is his family's ancestral home.– WS2Mar 11, 2015 at 8:59
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@WS2 - referrting to the expression ' my native place' it appears that he was born there but lived elsewhere afterwards.– user66974Mar 11, 2015 at 9:43
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Why does this sound wrong to me - "When I heard of stories of....". Shouldn't it go like - "When I hear stories of......". Google only gives 5 hits for the former whereas the later has far more hits.– Hubble07Mar 11, 2015 at 13:28
4 Answers
If you were born there and have memories of it from a young age it would be your "home village" or "hometown". If you were born there but left very early it would be your "birthplace". If you were not born there but your ancestors came from there it would be your "ancestral home".
'When i heard of stories of hardships and suffering from my grandparents I realized how fortunate I was to live in the city I now call home. When the day came to visit "my village/my native place", I felt uncertain and nervous.'
I do not quit understand you, sir: did you live in that place yourself personally when you were a child and then moved to live in the city or you never ever lived there but heard about it from your elders and thus you now feel not quite comfortable upon going there for the first time recalling all those stories of past hardship and suffering?
If you have lived in your native village when you were a child and have evocative sweet memories about it (as am about mine), then I would suggest the following rewriting:
'When i heard of stories of hardships and suffering from my grandparents I realized how fortunate I was to live in the city I now call home. When the day came to visit "the scenes that charm'd me when a child'. From American poet Lydia Huntley Sigourney poem:
"Sweetly wild, sweetly wild,
Were the scenes that charm'd me when a child."
If, however, it's the second scenario ( I have a feeling it is) then how about:
'When i heard of stories of hardships and suffering from my grandparents I realized how fortunate I was to live in the city I now call home. When the day came to visit "that place of my huanting recollections", I felt uncertain and nervous..'
I would use 'birthplace'. Hometown is also fine (as suggested). If you weren't born there...you can use the word 'roots' informally, but I think using 'birthplace' or 'native place' should be good enough if not being too specific.
A better word for "my native place" would be "hometown."
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Hometown might work for Americans, because they don't have villages. They will talk about a town of 120 inhabitants. But that is the sort of idea I'm sure the OP has in mind.– WS2Mar 11, 2015 at 18:51