# I'm going home. Why no "to"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-home-why-no-to/336529>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 20, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-home-why-no-to/336529 "2005-12-20T22:45:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-home-why-no-to/336529/1 "2005-12-20T22:45:34Z")

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For any other location, you would need a “to” there. Why is “home” exempt?

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**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-home-why-no-to/336529/2 "2005-12-20T22:57:05Z")

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> [@Strinka](#):
>
> For any other location, you would need a “to” there. Why is “home” exempt?

Not ANY other - “I’m going downtown”. Or, for that matter, “I’m going out”.

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**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-home-why-no-to/336529/3 "2005-12-20T23:01:00Z")

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To is for specific places. “the movie theatre”, “my house”, “Fred’s room”. Home is a general concept like “outside” and “downtown”. Note that you would say “I’m goign to my home.”

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**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-home-why-no-to/336529/4 "2005-12-20T23:01:18Z")

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I’m going north.  
I’m going underground.  
I’m going in the backdoor.  
I’m going crazy.  
I’m going to a home.

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-home-why-no-to/336529/5 "2005-12-20T23:38:05Z")

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Traditional grammarian explanation is that they’re nouns (and adjectives) used adverbially – or possibly as “predicate adjectives,” as in Nick’s example of “I’m going crazy,” which is not “I’m going crazily.”

Better explanation is that it’s a survival of the pre-Old English locative, a noun form used without preposition to denote location. (It had some case ending, I think Dative, in Old English, being the survivor of a proto-Germanic or Proto-Indo-European locative case.) It’s sort of a fossil form. “I’m going home” or “I’m going downtown” is proper, but not “I’m going library” or “I’m going Florida for vacation.”