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.

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      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.,

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