A city is a large, important place, and a town is a smaller one. The word is chosen by size and importance: Moscow and London are cities, while a place with twenty thousand people is a town. There's no exact line; the overall impression decides.
city or town — can you pick the right one?
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a big/capital + city; a small/seaside + town; the city centre; go into town; be in town; home town
- Tokyo is one of the largest cities in the world, with excellent public transport.
- My grandparents live in a quiet seaside town where everyone knows each other.
- I'm going into town on Saturday to buy a new jacket.
What changed
First versionI grew up in a small city of fifteen thousand people.
RevisionI grew up in a small town of fifteen thousand people.
Small city may seem the obvious way to describe a small place. But for a place of fifteen thousand people, a native speaker would say town; city sounds too big. Small city does exist, but it's used for well-known places that just aren't among the largest.
In conversation town can also mean the centre, or the place where the listener lives. Even someone from a big city will say I'm going into town, meaning a trip to the centre for shopping. And I'll be in town next week means “I'll be in your city”, however big it is.
Your turn
With almost nine million people, London is the biggest ___ in the UK.
Show the answer
city — Almost nine million people and the biggest in the country: that's definitely a city. Town is used for smaller places, and it doesn't suit a capital with millions of people.
Write about where you grew up. Name the place, say whether it's a town or a city, and add one detail about life there.
I grew up in Suzdal, a small town where life is quiet and everything is within walking distance.
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