Mark usually gets home at seven o'clock.

Question

What's the difference between the following sentences?Mark usually gets home at seven o'clock.Mark usually gets to home at seven o'clock.

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

The first sentence is fine. The second is not correct.

While we say "got/walked/ran/returned/etc. to school/church/etc.", with "home" the word "to" is not needed. We just say "got/walked/ran/returned/etc. home".

CalifJim · Answer

northwindMark usually gets ~~to home~~ at seven o'clock.

Any time you see "to home", you are looking at a mistake. Use only "home".

CJ

Mr Wordy · Answer

CalifJimAny time you see "to home", you are looking at a mistake. Use only "home".

"close to home" is an exception, albeit not quite in the same pattern as the sentences being discussed. I can't think of any others right now (ignoring the numerous unrelated cases like "guide to home improvements", where "home" is used as part of a bigger noun phrase).

CalifJim · Answer

... in the relevant reading ...

CJ

Northwind · Answer

Mr Wordy · Answer

northwind
I think book authors are so careful about grammar. So I think these books are correct. Or are they wrong?

The "textbook" answer is that in standard English you should not use "to home" (in the sense we're discussing). However, authors do not always follow textbook rules or use standard English. "to home" is not a grammatical impossibility, and is in a slightly different category from some flat-out grammatical errors that would be labelled "wrong" in any circumstance. It's just that we don't normally say it in standard English. Beware also of counterexamples to grammatical rules in dialogue. Many authors attempt to reproduce non-standard speech patterns of their characters.

I can't see all of the pages you reference. #1 is the "close to" exception that I mentioned ("to" is justified by earlier "close"). #5 was written more than 150 years ago. #6 is written in non-standard English. #7 is dialogue that may be attempting to replicate a certain dialect of a certain place and era. #8 has two instance of "get home" and one of "get to home", which may have been a momentary oversight.

Northwind · Answer

Thanks!
Gotcha!

I understand #1, 5, 6, 7, 8 have some reason to use 'to home' and think they have no problems.

I think #2, 3, 4 are incorrect since you said nothing about them. Am I right?

Mr Wordy · Answer

northwind
I think #2, 3, 4 are incorrect since you said nothing about them. Am I right?

I can't see those pages.

Northwind · Answer

Sorry.

I changed the URLs.

Don't they work?

book 2

:
15th line from the bottom, page 74

book 3

%

22nd line from the top, page 64

book 4

6th line from the bottom, page 132

CalifJim · Answer

northwindbook 2

http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=l_Cn8wFQK_kC&printsec=frontcover&dq=At+Home :
15th line from the bottom, page 74

There are only 28 pages. Where is page 74?

I think you are expecting too much of those of us who are trying to help you.

I believe it is up to you to compile the quotes and place them in your post -- not links. You yourself were at those sites. Couldn't you have made a copy of the relevant sentences and put them in your post? I don't have time to go back through all of that material to do the same job that you should have done in the first place.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but you have set up a very frustrating job for the rest of us.

By the way, I noticed that the first one (by Ford) was from a letter written in 1943. I hope your other examples were more up-to-date.

CJ

Mark usually gets home at seven o'clock.

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