Grammar

Question

Hi . She goes to school . She goes home. Would you please explain why the second "go" can not be followed by the preposition of " to " ?Thanks in advance.

Ozzourti · Accepted Answer

The reason is that the word "home" in the second example is considered an adverb, just like "nowhere" in "They're going nowhere."

Nazanin saryazdi · Answer

When we say: Last night we stayed at home and watched TV. In this sentence "home" is a noun, and means a place where you live, synonymous with the word "house". in this form, use of prepositions is allowed.
but when we say: I'm going home. the word "home" is an adverb and means: to or at the place where you live ! and the use of prepositions of to or at is not allowed. It is sensible because in the adverb form , "to" or "at" is in the heart of the word and its meaning.
It is interesting to know that home in a noun form has a second meaning : the place where a child live with his or her family ( that is more emotional than the word house) : are you till living at home? ( means with your parents)
I hope that helped!

Mohamadreza0 · Answer

Thanks , but I still don't get the point why the first example like " school" can`t be considered as an adverb ?

Nazanin saryazdi · Answer

I am going to my school. ....................: school is not an adverb. It is a noun.
I am going to my house. ...................... the same!
I am going home............................... home is an adverb. This is an exception that we normally do not use the noun form in this sentence. home here is adverb and means TO or AT the place where you live. no prepositions needed.

But why we can't use the noun form with preposition? because that is an exception in English. the general rule is that when the focus is on the building ( I was at home and watched TV, we should use the noun form and can use prep.), when the focus is on where you live with your family ( emotional), we use the adverb form ( no preps.) ....example:

Is she home?/ Is he home from work?/ I am going home. ..................... adverb
I stayed at home and watched TV/ He was away from home........................ noun

The interesting thing is that some times that general rule is not working! and that is the matter of usage:

For example we could say: I stayed home last night/ or I stayed at home last night.
the meaning is the same, the focus of the speaker might or might not be the same, the grammatical forms differ ( one adverb and one noun)

I hope that helpedddd:dddd

Mohamadreza0 · Answer

Thanks a lot for your explanation , of course that helped.

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