{"id":2708,"date":"2016-01-27T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2708"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:44:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:44:22","slug":"english-grammar-at-home-vs-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/english-grammar-at-home-vs-home\/","title":{"rendered":"English Grammar: &#8220;At Home&#8221; vs. &#8220;Home&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The English language is full of small quirks and exceptions. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/the-and-places\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recent post<\/a>, I looked at some interesting exceptions related to nouns of location and article \u201cthe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In this post, we\u2019re going to look at another noun-of-location that is a special exception to the usual grammar rules of English. This special exception labels a special place\u2026 a place we call <em>home<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2709 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/01\/gh_img1-e1478782812871.jpg\" alt=\"gh_img1\" width=\"589\" height=\"363\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/01\/gh_img1-e1478782812871.jpg 589w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/01\/gh_img1-e1478782812871-300x185.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 589px) 100vw, 589px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Photo by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theodysseyonline.com\/6-reasons-why-college-students-love-going-home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">theodysseyonline<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To start thinking about the unusual grammar of the word home, read the two sentences below. See if you can find the difference between them:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Angelina is at home.<\/li>\n<li>Angelina is home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In these two sentences, the <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/sentences-subjects-and-predicates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">predicates<\/a> <em>\u201cis at home\u201d<\/em> and <em>\u201cis home\u201d<\/em> both have the same basic meaning: they tell the reader that Angelina (the subject of the sentence) is in her home.<\/p>\n<p>There is one small distinction though. &#8220;At home&#8221; emphasizes Angelina\u2019s location. In sentences using the word \u201chome,\u201d sometimes this kind of emphasis is optional, and doesn&#8217;t change the meaning very much. However, if Angelina\u2019s location of &#8220;home&#8221; is being contrasted with another location, emphasis that she is home and not somewhere else is needed.<\/p>\n<p>For example, suppose you know that Angelina is in her house, and someone asks you the question &#8220;Is Angelina at the store?\u201d The correct response would be \u201cNo, Angelina is at home.\u201d In this way, you would contrast the location of &#8220;home&#8221; with the location of &#8220;store&#8221; suggested in the question. A simpler response of &#8220;No, Angelina\u2019s home\u201d would sound a little bit &#8220;off,&#8221; even though it doesn\u2019t break any grammar rules.<\/p>\n<p>By now you may have noticed another unusual thing about \u201chome\u201d compared to other nouns of location. You can say \u201cAngelina is home\u201d or \u201cAngelina is at home,\u201d but you <em>can\u2019t<\/em> say \u201cAngelina is store.\u201d You must say \u201cAngeline is <strong>at<\/strong> <strong>the<\/strong> store.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As I showed you in an earlier post, \u201chome\u201d is on a short list of nouns of location that doesn\u2019t require \u201cthe\u201d before it. So that\u2019s why \u201cstore\u201d needs \u201cthe.\u201d But store is <em>also <\/em>different from home, because store absolutely needs \u201cat,\u201d while \u201chome\u201d can do with or without \u201cat.\u201d This is true for lots of other nouns too. You must say someone is <em>at<\/em> school, <em>at<\/em> the theater, and <em>at<\/em> work. You can\u2019t say \u201che is school,\u201d \u201cthey are theater,\u201d or \u201cmy dad is work.\u201d This is a completely ungrammatical way to describe someone\u2019s location. So why can you describe a person\u2019s location in their home without at?<\/p>\n<p>What you\u2019ve just noticed is one of the oddities of the English language. Most nouns of location (school, work, London, parking lot, etc&#8230;) can be used ONLY as nouns. However, &#8220;home&#8221; is a special exception to that rule.<\/p>\n<p>The word &#8220;home&#8221; can be a noun of location, or it can be an adjective describing a state of being\u2014the state of being in one&#8217;s home. The special nature of &#8220;home&#8221; can be a little confusing sometimes. Below I&#8217;ll give you some examples of home-as-adjective and home-as-noun.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><strong>Example 1: <\/strong>\u00a0She spent a week in Los Angeles, but now she&#8217;s home in New York City.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><em>(&#8220;Home&#8221; as an adjective to describe her state of being in a place where she lives; in this case the place where she lives is NYC.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><strong>Example 2: <\/strong>\u00a0Her home is in New York City.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><em>(&#8220;Home&#8221; as a noun, labeling the house or apartment she has in in New York City.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><strong>Example 3:<\/strong> I thought he was home, but he&#8217;s away at work.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><em>(&#8220;Home&#8221; as an adjective describing the man&#8217;s state of being in the place where he lives; &#8220;away&#8221; serves as an adjective that&#8217;s opposite of home.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><strong>Example 4:<\/strong> No, he&#8217;s not at work; did you actually knock on the door of his home?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><em>(&#8220;Home&#8221; as a noun to label the specific place where the man lives.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><strong>Example 5:<\/strong> Soldiers who are sent abroad can go home a few times a year to visit their families.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><em>(&#8220;Home&#8221; as an adjective to describe the soldiers&#8217; state of being home. In this case, the adjective \u201chome\u201d can be preceded by the verb &#8220;go,\u201d because the soldier must move from one place to another to be home.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><strong>Example 6:<\/strong> When they come back from their overseas assignments, soldiers go to their homes to be with friends and family.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><em>(Here, &#8220;homes&#8221; is a plural noun that labels the different places that various soldiers live when they are not overseas.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Like so many words in the human language, \u201chome\u201d is a little word that can create big confusion. Study this post carefully, and you\u2019ll be able to resolve your doubts about this truly special word.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The English language is full of small quirks and exceptions. In a recent post, I looked at some interesting exceptions related to nouns of location and article \u201cthe.\u201d In this post, we\u2019re going to look at another noun-of-location that is a special exception to the usual grammar rules of English. This special exception labels a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>English Grammar: &quot;At Home&quot; vs. &quot;Home&quot; - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/english-grammar-at-home-vs-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"English Grammar: &quot;At Home&quot; vs. &quot;Home&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The English language is full of small quirks and exceptions. In a recent post, I looked at some interesting exceptions related to nouns of location and article \u201cthe.\u201d In this post, we\u2019re going to look at another noun-of-location that is a special exception to the usual grammar rules of English. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C50&amp;q=Recine+magoosh&amp;btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2708"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}