As far as I know, a home generally means a place for people to live in, but a family is people, especially children, hence "Do you have family?" means "Do you have children?" but can a home (or a family) be formed when two lives are united because of love?
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1A good dictionary entry would help answer this question. home (n.) An environment offering security and happiness (American Heritage)– J.R. ♦Commented Oct 14, 2017 at 11:21
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A professor of English language (non-native speaker) writes the sentence "a home is formed when two lives are united because of love", according to you, that is insensible, because they can only form a relationship, but not a home (which needs work or money to have it), nor a family (that are made up of kids), am I right? @J.R.– NanningYouthCommented Oct 14, 2017 at 12:38
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You totally missed the point of my comment if you believe I find that “insensible.” I am trying to tell you that the word home has many definitions, not one. Click on the link, please.– J.R. ♦Commented Oct 14, 2017 at 21:50
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@Clare Before I posted the question, I have done the search and found the question you give above but I have not found my question has very strong relations with that one. My concern is about "can a home be formed by two lives because of love"，my answer to it is No, because a home is a place, two lives can only form a couple (not even a family, because they need a third one to form a family).– NanningYouthCommented Oct 15, 2017 at 2:27
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3 Answers
There are various proverbs and idioms: "Make a house a home", "Home is where the heart is". These point to "home" having a meaning beyond being a place to live.
A home doesn't need kids, or money. There is no reason that there needs to be two people to make a home. A single person can have a home. An animal can have a home. Even a screwdriver can have a home (in the toolbox). Many homes are centred around a family, and bonds of love are what allow people to share their home with others. One might say "a home is formed when two people are united by love" in a poetic or romantic way, but it isn't true that this is the only use of the word "home". Forming homes one way doesn't stop other homes from being formed in other ways.
I suspect the professor is trying to distinguish the word "family", which has a range of meanings, and the same person will use it in different ways Two people can be a family, though more often we will talk about "starting a family" to mean having children. But family can also include Aunts, cousins etc, and family doesn't always imply cohabitation.
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There is a word in Chinese 家 which can have the meaning of "home", "family", "household", or even "clan", so that professor may have used wrong word in English to describe the thing, or it is impossible to use only one word of English to describe all these things or aspects of the same thing, because they are not equivalent. In one language, it is no problem to do so, but in another, you have to use more than one words to cover all. Perhaps I have made myself across. Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 2:34
A family, for example consisting of a mom, dad, and two children, that are standing on the street because they do not have a place to live are still homeless.
Home is always a place, and can be used to answer the question where?, not who?.
Probably what you are getting at is something like this: What makes a place a home?
Home connotationally means things like where you live, can relax, do not have to worry about anyone else interfering with your business, and that you consider your territory, and possibly even such that you will defend it or support it.
When you move into a new house, you may not feel like it is your home until you get used to it.
Families, where people grow up together and form deep bonds with one another, can help make a place feel like home, because being there will recall memories of such deep bonds, or other emotional reasons.
So it could somewhat be said that a family can turn a place into a home. Someone who has always been around large families and is used to that sort of thing in their home life may think this way.
In English, "at home" and "in my|our|their|his|her home", can refer to the ethos of the place, as distinct from the place as place, or as dwelling; reference to the ethos indirectly encompasses those whose ethos it is. And so yes, those phrases could refer indirectly to the people in the home, how they feel and behave, their practices, the mores they adhere to, etc.
