apartment complex do you live

[Silver]

Hi,

Let's say there are six groups of buildings nearby and they are under the control of the same company, if I want to know at which building someone lives, can I ask:

Which apartment complex do you live?

Thanks a lot

 

[The Newt]

Hi,

Let's say there are six groups of buildings nearby and they are under the control of the same company, if I want to know at which building someone lives, can I ask:

Which apartment complex do you live?

Thanks a lot

You can say either of the following:

Which apartment complex do you live in?
In which apartment complex do you live?

 

[JulianStuart]

You need to add "in" after live (or, more formal but less idiomatic - start the sentence with "in")

 

[dojibear]

Hi,

Let's say there are six groups of buildings nearby and they are under the control of the same company, if I want to know at which building someone lives, can I ask:

Which apartment complex do you live?

Thanks a lot

As the others say, it is "live in", not "live".

But if you want to know what building someone lives in, you must use "building", not "complex".

The word "complex" usually means "a group of buildings, controlled by the same company, built in the same style".

So your "six groups of buildings" may be "six complexes" or may be "one big complex". Often you can tell because of the name. If each of the six "groups of buildings" has a different name (Sunshine Acres, Lake Terrace Apartments) they are six complexes. If the whole shebang has one name (Stonybrook Village) it is one big complex.

 

[You little ripper!]

There seems to be some disagreement between what dictionaries define as 'an apartment complex' and Wikipedia's definition. I agree with doji that it refers to a group of buildings. I'd call it an 'apartment block'.

Which apartment block do you live in?

Apartment - Wikipedia

An apartment (American English), flat (British English) or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies only part of a building, generally on a single level. Such a building may be called an apartment building, apartment complex, flat complex, block of flats, tower block, high-rise or, occasionally mansion block (in British English), especially if it consists of many apartments for rent.


apartment complex - Macmillan Dictionary

a large group of apartment buildings

 

[dojibear]

Such a building may be called an apartment building, apartment complex, flat complex

Perhaps the key is "may be called". If a single building has many apartments, and is by itself (not part of a group of buildings) then the single building may be called an apartment complex.

In other words, "complex" does not mean "single building" -- it means "group of apartments" -- but a small complex could be just one building.

 

[DonnyB]

Going back to the original question, which was:

Let's say there are six groups of buildings nearby and they are under the control of the same company, if I want to know at which building someone lives, can I ask:

Which apartment complex do you live?

I think the most natural way of phrasing that in BE is:
"Which block of flats do you live in?"

 

[You little ripper!]

Perhaps the key is "may be called". If a single building has many apartments, and is by itself (not part of a group of buildings) then the single building may be called an apartment complex.

In other words, "complex" does not mean "single building" -- it means "group of apartments" -- but a small complex could be just one building.

I've just googled the expression "apartment complex" and most of the websites I looked at used the expression to mean one building and the size of the building didn't seem to matter. It seems you can use the expression to mean one bock or more than one.