Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 4: 4/13

()To go to, To head toward

Structure

Place + (1) + ()

(1)

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Expression

  • Word Type

    Verb

  • Register

    Standard

About へいく

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

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


Antonyms



Examples

--:--

    学校(がっこう)へいく

    To head to school.

    (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.

    (みち)へいきます

    To head toward a road.

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      へいく – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (6 in total)

      • 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く。

        John is heading to school.

        • エルサは病院びょういんく。

        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.,

      • mrhollow

        mrhollow

        I have a suggestion for the hint that is offered to make it more clear without giving away exactly what it’s asking.

        Maybe instead of ‘standard’ you could say something like ‘movement’?

        The example I get is like:

             'Standard' 
        

        教室___

        Which could be one of a couple, for instance does it mean 教室です, etc…

      • JamesBunpro

        JamesBunpro

        The ‘Standard’ hint is a tense hint, not a nuance hint, so it is there to tell you what kind of word or conjugation to use, not the meaning of the grammar being sought. Here it is ‘Standard’ (行く) instead of, say, ‘Polite’ (行きます). The nuance hint related to the meaning of the grammar we’re looking for can be revealed by clicking the hint button in the bottom left, or you can have it shown by default by adjusting your settings during reviews.

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