Home (noun) is the place where you live or where you feel you belong. As an adjective, it describes something relating to where one lives: home cooking, home address. As an adverb, it means to or at the place where one lives: go home, come home.
What Does Home Mean?
Home comes from Old English hām, meaning a village, dwelling, or estate, related to Old Norse heimr and German Heim. All descend from Proto-Germanic *haimaz. The word has been in continuous use in English since before the Norman Conquest, always carrying its core sense of the place where one lives and belongs.
In modern British English, home is one of the most versatile and emotionally resonant words in the language. It can refer to a physical dwelling ('My home is a flat in Leeds'), a town or region ('Wales is my home'), or even an abstract sense of belonging ('I feel at home here'). The word functions as a noun, adjective, and adverb, making it important for learners to understand which grammatical role it is playing in a given sentence.
The key distinction for ESL learners is between home and house. A house is a type of physical building; home is wherever you live and feel comfortable. You live at home, but you live in a house. Equally important is the adverb rule: verbs of motion take home without a preposition — you go home, not go to home.
Example Sentences
| Sentence | Level & usage note |
|---|---|
| She works from home three days a week. | A2 — core adverbial phrase; introduced by the task |
| I want to go home now. I’m tired. | A2 — adverb after verb of motion; no preposition needed |
| Their new home is a flat near the city centre. | B1 — home as noun with determiner |
| The report highlighted the growing number of people without a permanent home. | B2 — formal register; noun in a complex noun phrase |
| Despite years abroad, she had never quite been able to make the city feel like home. | C1 — idiomatic ‘feel like home’; complex subordinate clause |
Collocations
| Collocation | Example |
|---|---|
| work from home | Many employees now work from home two or three days a week. |
| stay at home | She decided to stay at home with the children rather than return to work. |
| feel at home | He immediately felt at home in the new office. |
| make yourself at home | "Come in and make yourself at home," she said, taking his coat. |
| home address | Please enter your home address in the form below. |
| home cooking | After three weeks of hotel meals, I was longing for some home cooking. |
| drive something home | The instructor used a diagram to drive the point home. |
| nursing home | Her grandmother moved into a nursing home last spring. |
| home country | He returned to his home country after ten years living abroad. |
| homework | Have you finished your homework for tomorrow’s lesson? |
Usage Notes
Key grammar points
- Adverb — no preposition after motion verbs: Say go home, come home, drive home, walk home — never go to home.
- Noun — uses ‘at’ for location: She is at home (state). Compare She went home (motion).
- Adjective — placed before the noun: home address, home team, home office.
- Home vs house: A house is a building; home is where you live. A flat, caravan, or country can all be your home.
- Idioms: hit home (have a strong emotional impact), bring home the bacon (earn money for the family), home and dry (BrE: having safely achieved something).
Common Mistakes
Watch Out For
I want to go to home after school.
I want to go home after school. (adverb — no preposition needed)
She lives in her home in a big house.
She lives in a big house. / Her home is a big house. (do not combine home and house this way)
He arrived to home very late last night.
He arrived home very late last night. (arrived + home, no preposition)