The subject is true. I really DO want to stay home today, but that’s not the point.
When we talk about staying somewhere, we use the preposition “at.” (I am staying at the bar).
If we talk about going somewhere, we use the preposition “to.” (I am going to school).
Why are we allowed to leave those prepositions out when we talk about home?
I am going home.
I am staying home.
I got asked that question this week and was stumped. Is the answer, “just because?”
“Home” here is actually an adverb of place, like “here” or “there.”
Or like “downtown”, or “abroad”, I believe.
Thanks. 
I am going crazy. It’s a state of being, not a place.
I thought “I am going to there” was officially sanctioned English in this country. Everyone I know says it.
I thought “I am going to there” was officially sanctioned English in this country. Everyone I know says it.[/quote]
And it’s almost impossible to get them to stop doing it.
They don’t get that the complete verb is “am going” and not “going to.” They’ll say the the subject is “I” and the very is “going to.” Every freaking time.
Does anyone else teach their students to label every part of speech in the sentence as they learn the grammatical functions of the words? That helps a lot with them seening these problems.
I thought “I am going to there” was officially sanctioned English in this country. Everyone I know says it.[/quote]
And it’s almost impossible to get them to stop doing it.[/quote]
If you think of how often you might hear “I like listen music” it is kind of annoying, isn’t it? 
“Go to” is so often a single unit it’s easy to see how the mistake arises though.
Here and there function as pronouns and locative adverbs in English (unlike Mandarin, which is a bit stricter about treating 這裡 and 那裡 as pronouns).
Comparison:
“He walked from here to there.” (pronominal)
“He walked here and there.” (adverbial)
Home, however, is not an adverb, but sentences of this sort are often elliptical (because we say that we’re home or are going home so damned much). Ellipsis occurs most often to eliminate redundant information that the context usually clarifies or highly frequent syntactic markers (like the complementizers that, which, and as, while, who, when…).
Comparison:
“Let’s go home.”
“Let’s go [to D] home,” where D is a “possessive” determiner: {my, our, your, your(pl.), his, her, its, their}.
I think we are being overly picky here and therefore making our jobs more difficult on ourselves.
actually, it can be dative (not adverb) which is why a preposition is not necessary.
but notice you can also say, I’m staying at home today. and it’s just as valid.
Mmm.
“I want to stay home” isn’t good for me (sounds like American usage 
). I’d never write or say that - it needs an at in there to be correct.
No probs with “I want to go home” though.
There’s a grammar of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) that seems to say that home’s ancestor, hām, is in the accusative case in certain constructions in Old English, but it also describes it as adverbial in those kinds of constructions:
I think this is similar to the above:
I don’t know how or even whether that would apply to “stay home.”
But back on topic: I, too, would like to stay home today, and tomorrow as well.
Mmm.
“I want to stay home” isn’t good for me (sounds like American usage ). I’d never write or say that - it needs an at in there to be correct.
No probs with “I want to go home” though.[/quote]
Maybe there’s a way for you to correct these guys posthumously:
Naw, let them rest. But fair enough. I’ll amend to “American English or obsolete Britsh English”.
Hardy d.1928
Lawrence d.1930
Are you sure?
I was fairly unsure even when I typed it, but knew you’d enjoy pulling out the counter-examples.
It (home) clearly doesn’t always need a preposition. Although “I want to stay home” doesn’t sound natural to my ear, but obviously does to others.
[strike]I’ll amend again to “American English or colloquial British English”.[/strike]
No I won’t. I’ll stop digging.
Maybe somewhere along the way in go home’s journey from Old English, stay home came into being by some kind of (structural?) analogy (I don’t know what the linguists’ term would be, if there is one). Or maybe there’s some other explanation for it.
Next topic: I’ll be home for Christmas.