庭 & Ambiguity of Yard or Garden? I've been communicating back and forth with my host family in Japan. We recently talked about a picture that I sent involving my backyard and my host mom used the kanji which means garden or yard. My yard actually has a garden in it though. Is she talking about the yard as a whole or the garden in it? Is this an ambiguous case? How would I ask if she meant the garden explicitly or the yard as a whole? **EDIT 0:** In the US, yard typically means the region in back of a house, whereas garden typically means a region for growing food.

refers to a (wide but usually enclosed) place adjacent to a house. Assuming your yard looks like this, refers to everything in this picture, including the brick-paved part.

![enter image description here](

Your "garden" may be , , , or in Japanese. It's possible to explain the difference in sentences, but perhaps it's best to see images, so please check the links.