Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 4: 4/13

へ行(い)くTo go to, To head toward

Structure

Place + へ(1) + 行(い)く

(1) に

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Expression

  • Word Type

    Verb

  • Register

    Standard

About へいく

へ行(い)く is a common construction used when describing a place that someone/something is 'heading'. The particles に and へ are mostly interchangeable, but there is a slight difference in meaning. に has the nuance of 'going to', while へ has the nuance of 'heading to'.

In these examples, while they may seem the same at first glance, へ focuses much more on the journey, while に puts more emphasis on the destination. This is true for other uses of に and へ as well. に will always put more focus on the destination of an action, where へ will put more emphasis on the distance traveled/between the origin and destination.

Examples

--:--

    学校(がっこう)へいく。

    To head to school.

    駅(えき)へいく

    To head to the station.

    東京(とうきょう)へいく。

    I will head to Tokyo.

    教室(きょうしつ)へいく。

    I will head to the classroom.

    道(みち)へいきます。

    To head toward a road.

  • Get more example sentences!

    Premium users get access to 12 example sentences on all Grammar Points.

Self-Study Sentences

Study your own way!

Add sentences and study them alongside Bunpro sentences.

  • Online

    • Offline

        • Genki I

          Page 91

        • みんなの日本語 I

          Page 38 [CH 5]

        • [DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

          Page 149

      • Track Resources!

        Bunpro tracks all of the resources you’ve visited, and offers relevant bookmarks of physical books to help with offline tracking.

      へいく – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (4 in total)

      • nekoyama

        nekoyama

        There is a slight difference in nuance in that へ is more about the direction and に is more about the destination. You might see へ e.g. when talking about a bus route in terms of the final destination even though the bus also stops at other locations on the way.

        In general usage, に is vastly more popular than へ and it’s almost always a safe choice. Exceptions are mainly certain set phrases that use へ, and when it’s followed by the particle の as in への (there is no にの).

      • matt_in_mito

        matt_in_mito

        @nfive, @nekoyama is absolutely right, but I want to add that when I was learning about this, I asked so many Japanese people what the difference was and most of them didn’t know and used them interchangeably.

      • Duolingo

        Duolingo

        I know this topic is very old but @matt_in_mito made the point that I want to ask about.

        The grammar point for へ行くsays that ‘he’ and ‘ni’ are interchangeable but they have a different nuance to them.

         'ni' has the nuance of 'going to' - it focuses on the destination.
 'he' has the nuance of 'heading to'  - it focuses on the distance traveled

        Then BP follows up with the following two examples to complete their point.

        • ジョンは学校がっこうへ行いく。

        John is heading to school.

        • エルサは病院びょういんに行いく。

        Elsa is going to the hospital.

        Everything is great up to here. But then the examples for ‘he’ consistently uses it in the ‘to go to’ sense, e.g.,

      Got questions about へいく? Join us to discuss, ask, and learn together!

      Join the Discussion