A place which... /A place where...

Recently I heard a junior high school student define a drugstore as a "place where sells medicine." Now just a minute, there's something wrong here. Please look at these 2 sentences:

A drugstore is a place which/that sells medicine, toiletries, and other things.
A drugstore is a place where they sell medicine, toiletries, and other things.

Note: toiletries means things that we use for washing (soap, toothpaste, shampoo etc.)

Do you see the difference? The sentences are very similar, but there is a grammatical difference:
In Sentence 1, the drugstore sells the medicine and toiletries.
In Sentence 2, they (the drugstore's staff) sell the medicine and toiletries.
We can add a third sentence:

3. A drugstore is a place where you can buy medicines, toiletries, and other things.

Sentence 1 tells us what a drugstore does; Sentences 2 and 3 tell us what happens in a drugstore, or what people do in a drugstore.

Let's look at some other examples:

A bakery is a place which/that makes and sells bread.
A bakery is a place where people can buy bread.

A hospital is a place which/that treats sick people.
A hospital is a place where sick people can receive treatment.

A good coffee shop is a place which.../ where...

Sometimes, in the middle of the afternoon, I like to leave the classroom and visit one of my favourite coffee shops. I'm sure most of you have your own idea of what a good coffee shop is. Here are some of my ideas:

A good coffee shop....
... sells good coffee, ... has friendly staff, ... keeps a good stock of newspapers and magazines, ... plays nice, relaxing background music, ... gets very full at lunch time.
In a good coffee shop you can...
...drink coffee, ... have a cheap but tasty snack, ... meet people, ... read the newspaper in comfort, ...take a break a break from shopping, ... forget about work for a while.
Also, in a good coffee shop...
... the coffee is always nice and fresh, ...the menu is varied, ...the seats are comfortable, the staff are friendly... there are a lot of nice comfortable seats.

We could use these ideas to make sentences like these:

A PLACE WHICH...

A good coffee shop is a place which sells good coffee.
A good coffee shop is a place which keeps a good stock of newspapers and magazines.
A good coffee shop is a place which plays nice, relaxing background music.

A PLACE WHERE...

A good coffee shop is a place where you can drink coffee and have a cheap but tasty snack.
A good coffee shop is a place where you can take a break from shopping.

A good coffee shop is a place where the coffee is always nice and fresh.
A good coffee shop is a place where the staff are always friendly and smile a lot.
A good coffee shop is a place where there are a lot of nice, comfortable seats.

And I'm sure you can think of many other examples.

Exercise

How many sentences can you write beginning with A good bookshop is a place where... or A good bookshop is a place which....?

When you have finished, click here to see some of my suggestions.

Try this with your friends (Pass the bomb)

Here's a nice little activity that you can do with your English speaking friends. You need a kitchen timer and a small cloth bag.

Make a group and stand in a circle.
Set the kitchen timer to go off （鳴る）in a chosen time, (e.g. 40-80 seconds) - this is the "bomb."
Start the timer and quickly put it in the cloth bag.
Say a sentence beginning (e.g.) A good language school is a place which.../where... and pass the bomb to the person on your right.
The next person makes a sentence: A good language school is a place... and passes the bomb to the person on their right.
The passing of the bomb continues until it "goes off."

By the way, you can use this game to practise almost any structure. I use it a lot in my classes - try it. It's fun!

Click below if you want to try some of my other one-point lessons:
Bob's One-Point Weekly Lesson Archive