http://www.engvid.com/ "I'm going to home" or I'm going to home"? "I'm going to school" or "I'm going to school?" Why do we use 'to' with some words and not with others? In this English grammar class, I'll teach you many words that don't go with 'to'. This is a mistake that sounds bad to native speakers, so try to learn these words and stop making this mistake! Go here to take a quiz on this lesson: http://www.engvid.com/when-not-to-use-to/
TRANSCRIPT
"Are you going to home?" "Are you going home?" "Where are you going?" "What are you doing?" You're watching a video. My name's Ronnie. I'm going to teach you one trick. Finally, you will understand why in English, we say "I'm going to school" or "I'm going to work." But when we talk about our beautiful, warm, and cozy home we don't say "to". Why, why, why, I don't know. It's just English, isn't it? I can give you some clues. I'll give you some words. You will get this right away. It will be easy for you to do.
So if you look at this sentence, "Are you going home?" A very, very big mistake that everyone says will be, "Are you going to home?" And I go, "No, no 'to'. Don't say 'to'. Don't say 'to', no!" Okay, okay, okay, "Are you going home?" Yes, don't say "to", but why? You learned that when you are going someplace, you say "to". For example, "Are you going to bed?" We don't say "to the bed", by the way. We just say bed. "Are you going to bed?" "Are you going to work?" Or you can use the past tense, "Did you go to work?" "Did you go to school?" "Did you go to engvid.com today, and check out a new lesson?" But when you say "home", you do not use "to". So you know the rule, maybe that this is a noun. This is a noun, so when you use going to a place which is a noun, you have to say "to", and then you come along, and you find this beautiful home, and Ronnie freaks out, because you say "to" and then you don't understand why. I don't know but I will give you a list of words that are places. But all of these words on this board, you cannot use with "to". So "are you going abroad?" You cannot ask someone, "Are you going to abroad?" If you look in the dictionary; the dictionary, one of those books. If you look at an online dictionary it'll tell you that these are adverbs of location, whereas the other ones you've learned are nouns.
But hold on, "home" is a noun. Home is just this big exception going, "No, I am a noun. I don't want to have "to". All of these ones are not proper nouns, they're adverbs of location. Let's go through underground, underneath the surface of the land. If you have ever been to London, there's a big system called the Tube. It's also called the "underground". Most places in the world call it the "underground". In Canada, we call it the subway -- "sub" means "under". So you can say, "I'm going underground. I'm going underground." If you know The Jam -- "Wow, what an amazing band, Ronnie," I know. You will know this song called "I'm Going Underground." Maybe by the magic of video, we'll put on that video for you. "I'm going underground." "I'm going downtown," or you can say "uptown". I would just sing songs for everything, "Uptown Girls" -- little bit of Billy Joel for you. Uptown, downtown -- you don't need the "to". There, here, anywhere, nowhere, somewhere -- you don't need "to". In, inside, out, outside, upstairs, downstairs don't use "to". They're not nouns. They're places.
One other thing to be very careful about, please, when you say this you want to say "upstairs" and "downstairs." Too many times I hear people say, "I went down-stair." Only one, just one stair, I made it. "I went up-stair." And then what did you do? You just stood there? Wow, don't say "down-stair, up-stair". Please use all of the stairs. Go up, okay? That'll be fun, more exciting. You can fall down the stairs too, that's fun. But again, we don't say "to". "I'm going downstairs." "I'm coming upstairs."
If you are confused, or if you have ever been confused about when to use "to", the only advice I can give you is please remember this list of words. Once you have remembered this list, you'll go, "Oh that was easy." [That was easy.]" Yes, it was. Thank you, goodbye.
