The family camped in the woods.

Meaning: They spent the night outdoors in a tent or other temporary shelter in a forest.

Choice of Words: Family is a group of people related to each other. Camped means to spend the night outdoors in a tent or other temporary shelter. Woods is an area of land covered with trees. This sentence means the group of people related to each other spent the night outdoors in a tent or other temporary shelter in an area of land covered with trees.

Alternative Expressions

The family stayed in the woods.

Meaning: This sentence describes an activity where a group of people related to each other remain in a natural area that has trees for a period of time.

Choice of Words: Stayed is a verb that means to remain in one place for a period of time. It is similar to Camped, but it does not imply that the family set up a shelter. In is still used to indicate the location of the family.

The family visited the woods.

Meaning: This sentence describes an activity where a group of people related to each other go to a natural area that has trees for a short period of time.

Choice of Words: Visited is a verb that means to go to a place for a short period of time. It does not imply that the family stayed overnight. The is still used before Woods to specify which woods the family is visiting.

Related Expressions