English with Nab

“Go home” or “Go to home”?

I see it as quite an exception. I go to school, go to work, go to hospital, but go home not “go to home”. 

What is so unique about “home”?

In English, the word “home” can be both a noun and an adverb of place* (or location). In this example it is being used as an adverb of place, so it does not need the preposition “to.”

Note: By mentally adding the suffix “-ward” to the word, you can see how it operates as an adverb, not a noun. E.g., “I’m going home(ward).” “The wind is blowing south(ward).” Note that this is not a rule, but just a way of looking at it.

Adverbs of Place: “Go home” NOT “Go to home”

With adverbs of place, we don’t need the preposition (to/from/at/in, etc). We do not use prepositions before nouns when they are used as adverbs.

“Home” can be either a noun or an adverb, as in the following examples.

1) I want to buy a home.

Here, home is a noun. It is the object of the verb (buy). It is a noun just like house, dog, or car.

2) The man went home.

Here, home is used as an adverb of place. Adverbs of place tell you where an action happened, happens, or will happen. 

For example, “I jumped up. / The wind blows south. / The girl will turn around.” 

Up/south/around tell you where you jumped, where the wind blows, and where the girl turned.

 

Watch the video to avoid more of the common mistakes like this one that you have just learnt. 

3 thoughts on ““Go home” or “Go to home”?”

  1. That’s a good video. I teach English in Korea and I will be in exile from America, until common sense returns to my homeland. Meanwhile, I am coping with the Konglish I run into while in Korea. Oddly, most of my work does not involve reading, speaking, and listening. I deal with writing and would like to see one or two videos dealing dangling modified or displaced modifiers, but more on adverbs of frequency, specifically with “go to home”. This particular website, I am going to use and I thank you for it

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