What sounds better an apartment or flat

Mrs. Bouquet would certainly say 'apartment' but I would say a 'flat' then everyone knows what you mean.

Riverwalk your comment made me chortle thanks

I think flat/apartment must have been interchangeable on both sides of the Atlantic in the past.

I remember reading in the American novel A Tree Grows In Brooklyn which was written in the 1940s, the family home described as 'a tenement flat'.

Personally I prefer apartment. Bed sit sounds like a student pad. As absent says studio apartment sounds much more appealing.

The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge will be moving into Apartment 1A (21 rooms) at Kensington Palace.

Wouldn't sound the same described as Princess Margaret's old flat!

Oh it certainly does Absent !

Sounds so much better saying "oh mine is the penthouse Dahhhhling" than saying "me? I'm in the top floor flat"

Actually, I think apartment sound quite posh

Here in Australia, it's called a unit - duh!

An apartment is also just a room, isn't it? <goes off to check>

apartments is estate agent speak

gillybob "I live in the penthouse sounds even flasher".

I think "apartments" is a developers word for selling "flats" .12Michael How different it sounds to say "I live on the top floor apartment" than to say "I live on the top floor flat" .

What's the difference other than flats being the usual English term and apartment being the usual American one? In any case, if it's a bedsit, it isn't either of those but I don't suppose they – whoever they are – would want to use that term as it sounds poky and old-fashioned. I think these days, they are more often called studio flats or just studios.