make yourself at home

Meaning

This friendly expression is used to welcome guests into your house. It tells them to relax, sit down, and behave as comfortably as they would in their own home. It is a polite and warm way to show hospitality.

Examples

• Come on in, make yourself at home, and I'll grab us some drinks.

  Come on in, make yourself at home, and I'll grab us some drinks.

• You can put your coat on the rack and make yourself at home.

  You can put your coat on the rack and make yourself at home.

• Please make yourself at home while I finish cooking dinner.

  Please make yourself at home while I finish cooking dinner.

• They told me to make myself at home, so I kicked off my shoes and sat on the couch.

  They told me to make myself at home, so I kicked off my shoes and sat on the couch.

• Feel free to grab a snack from the fridge and make yourself at home.

  Feel free to grab a snack from the fridge and make yourself at home.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ Please make yourself at your home.

  ✓ Please make yourself at home.

  Learners often add the word 'your' before 'home'. The fixed idiom is always 'at home' without any possessive adjectives.

• ✗ Make you at home.

  ✓ Make yourself at home.

  You must use the reflexive pronoun 'yourself' (or 'yourselves' for multiple people) to make the phrase grammatically correct.

Related Expressions

Practice

• Come in! Put your bags down and ___.

  💡 Tell your guest to get comfortable.

  Show answer

  make yourself at home

• She told us to ___ while she went to answer a quick phone call.

  💡 Change the pronoun to match 'us'.

  Show answer

  make ourselves at home