"Where do you stay?" vs "Where do you live?"

Question

I am not a native speaker of English and I was having a casual conversation with my friends in the US. I asked them, “Where do you stay?” (which is pretty common in India, as far as I know) for which they gave me a surprised look and told me that people generally don’t use the word “stay” and instead the same question will be asked as, “where do you live?”.

If I use the word stay, is that offensive or is it just uncommon? What’s the major difference between the two usages?

american english differences non native english phrase usage

If I use the word stay, is that offensive or is it just uncommon? What's the major difference between the two usages?

DJClayworth · Accepted Answer

It's just uncommon. Uncommon enough to be confusing, and so worth avoiding, unless you are operating in a dialect where it is normal.
The word would be "live" in US English, Canadian English and English English, but not Scottish English which also uses "stay" (which is why I said English English before).
Where "live" is used for long term residence, "stay" normally implies a short term visit. If you ask a visitor "where do you stay" they will probably give you the name of their hotel (while thinking you had made a grammatical mistake).

"Where do you stay?" vs "Where do you live?"

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