spanruss Dec 15, 2015:

I'll plead ignorance as far as the connotation of "dwelling" in the UK. When I hear "dwelling", I think of either the animal kingdom, or small primitive or low-cost homes (cottages, huts, shacks, hovels, etc.). It feels like a bit of a size issue. However there probably is quite a bit of geographical variance.

Robert Carter Dec 15, 2015:

@Neil I've always thought of it as more of a literary sounding term, formal yes, but not necessarily old-fashioned. Btw, vivienda is one I often translate as "housing", depending on the context, of course, as in "Instituto del Fondo Nacional de la Vivienda para los Trabajadores".

neilmac Dec 15, 2015:

US vs UK usage preferences? I'm not sure if my feeling is right, but to me "dwelling" sounds very formal and old-fashioned and I tend to use it as little as possible (although I do think it works in the context of the current query). For example, I have one client whose texts contain several instances of "vivienda", which I normally translate as "home" nine times out of ten. I wonder what our colleagues think about this.