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  • "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.

"Are you going to home?" "Are you going home?" "Where are you going?" "What are you doing?"

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