When to use "To"
Hello everyone!
As I promised, today we will talk about the kind of words that use and don't use the preposition 'to'. Usually students learn about this very early in their studies, but it can still be a problem later.
First, let's cover the most important thing about 'go to'. That is, we DON'T USE 'to' before -ing verbs describing activities. For example:
I went to shopping. -> I went shopping.
I will go to skiing on the weekend. -> I will go skiing on the weekend.
I'm going to go to swimming. -> I'm going to go swimming.
We DO use the preposition 'to' for most places. For example: go to school, go to hospital, go to London, go to a concert.
However there are some place words that do not take 'to'. These include:
Here. (Come here. NOT 'come to here')
There. (I'm going there tomorrow, NOT 'I'm going to there tomorrow')
Home. (Lets go home. NOT 'lets go to home')
Overseas. (I have travelled overseas many times. NOT 'I have travelled to overseas many times.')
Generally, words that indicate a RELATIVE place do not use 'to', while words that indicate an ABSOLUTE place do use 'to'.
What does that mean? A relative place means it depends on where you are, while an absolute place is the same place no matter where you are.
Still confused? Think about this. 'Here' means 'where I am right now'. If I am in the kitchen, and I say 'here', I mean the kitchen. If I walk into the dining room and say 'here', NOW I mean the dining room. The meaning of 'here' changed depending on where I am.
So 'here' is a RELATIVE place. We don't use 'to'.
However, if I say a place like 'London', I mean the city in England. If I go into the dining room, or go to the moon, the place indicated by the word 'London' has not changed.
So 'London' is an ABSOLUTE place. We use 'to'.
What about 'home'? Where your home is doesn't change just because you move from one place to another. But, it DOES change depending on who SAYS the word.
Consider: If I say 'London', and then you say 'London', we mean the same place. However, if I say 'home', and then YOU say 'home', we mean DIFFERENT places. 'Home' is still a relative place, so it doesn't use 'to'.
That's a little tricky, but hopefully you can soon learn the difference between the kind of place words that use 'to', and the kind that don't.
Next lesson we will continue thinking about 'go to'. In particular, we will learn more about the difference between the 'going to' in 'I'm going to America', and the going to in 'I'm going to buy a hat'. It's a subtle but important difference, so stay tuned for next weeks blog!
See you next week.
-Tim
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