English language has a wide range of  vocabulary. Some of them have different meanings, while others have the same pronunciation. For e.g. there, they’re and their – these three words have the same pronunciation but different meaning and spellings. Likewise, there are many words which create confusion. Among them are life, live and lives, that are sometimes used interchangeably and they create a lot of confusion. Today, we’ll explain the difference between life, live and lives.



Use of Life, Live and Lives

Life

Life means a state of living.

Examples:
I read a book about the life of Steve Jobs.
What life will a poor beggar’s child have?
His words inspired her life.

Live

The word Live can be used as a verb as well as an adjective. Here we will consider it as a verb. Live, here means a place where you or someone resides or belongs to. It means to be based at a particular place.

Examples:

I live in New York.
Ram lives in London.
How are we going to live in this hot region?

Now, we will use the word live as an adjective. The word live is pronounced differently and has two meanings.

1. Live means something happening now and which is not recorded.

Examples:

We are watching Coldplay live.
I saw the live coverage of the India-Pakistan 20-20 cricket match.


2. The other live means to be alive and not dead.

Examples:

Is that a live wire?
Is that puppy live?
Do go to the forest areas. There might be some live wild animals.

Lives

Lives is the plural form of life.

Examples:

The daily lives of people living in Mumbai are extremely strenuous.
During 2004 Tsunami,  more than 200,000 people lost their lives.

Let’s take a quick test check your understanding:

1. Do you believe in ____ after death?
2. Have you bought the DVD with the ______ recording of the Coldplay concert?
3. Sneha still ____ with her parents.
4. Where do you ____?
5. My father's words have lived with me all my ­­______.
6. Have you ever seen a real ____ scorpion?

Answers:  1. Life 2. Live 3. Lives 4. Live 5. Life 6. Live

The above explanations will help you to improve your communication skills. But a spoken English course will always help you sail the boat. Join an online English program today and take your communication to professional levels.

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