Reply
Sun 6 Apr, 2008 10:51 pm
I will be home.
/
I will be at home.
Which one is correct?
If both, please explain the difference
Thanks.
Both are correct, of course. Somehow, "I will be home." seems to imply for an indefinate period of time. "I will be at home" leaves me expecting the stay to be for a precise span of time. That's pretty much my own perception, though.
If I say I will be home this weekend, I mean I'm not going to be out of town, but I may be doing errands. When I say I will be at home, you can knock on the door, and there I'll be.
"I will be home" is American English. "At home" is more common in Britain.
Exception, "I will be home at ten" means I will be arriving at home at ten o'clock. (in Br. E.)
Not just American english, Mctag. How would the British say "Be home by midnight", when giving a teenage daughter an instruction, for instance?
"Be at home by midnight" sounds wrong, no?
vid wrote:Not just American english, Mctag. How would the British say "Be home by midnight", when giving a teenage daughter an instruction, for instance?
"Be at home by midnight" sounds wrong, no?
It does sound a bit wrong, but the phrase may still hint at movement, arriving, as I pointed out in my "exception".
I will invite Clary to speak on this, and maybe contrex and JTT will turn up. They're always telling me I'm wrong about something or other.
There is an expression, which is common to both the English language and to the American language, which is "to be at home" and meaning that one is not simply at one's home, but prepared to receive callers, guests.
In fact, the expression was once sufficiently common that one would refer to the casual entertaining of callers which was implied as "an at home." So for example, one might say: "Mrs. Roberson has her 'at homes' on Wednesdays."
That usage is rather dated, however, as people in the English-speaking world show far less formality than once was the case. There is still, though, an implication in the use of "at home" that one will receive callers. So, if you ask me if i mind if you come over to visit, i might reply: "I'll be at home after 1:00 p.m." That doesn't mean, necessarily, that i'll arrive at my home at 1:00 p.m.--rather, it means that i will be prepared to receive callers beginning at 1:00 p.m.
There is an amusing story relating to this, which I will now recount.
(I don't remember the name of the aristocratic or hoity-toity lady involved.)
There was a custom in the higher levels of English society, 100 years ago or so, to present calling cards, indicating that a visit was invited.
They took the form something like "Lord Devonshire will be At Home on Sunday afternoon between the hours of two and five-thirty of the clock."
When you got one of those, you were supposed to turn up.
According to legend, George Bernard Shaw got one: "Lady ****-*** will be At Home on........" to which he sent a hasty handwritten reply "And so will G B Shaw."
vid wrote:How would the British say "Be home by midnight", when giving a teenage daughter an instruction, for instance?
"Be at home by midnight" sounds wrong, no?
We say go home, or come home, and in this case 'be home' means that, doesn't it?
I think the American preference for 'I'm home alone' is now prevalent in Britspeak, over 'I'm at home alone'. But I may be wrong.
By contrast Americans go to the hospital, whereas we just go to hospital.
Indians go to office but we go to the office.
We go to school and so do Indians and Americans.
The thot plickens.
Clary wrote:vid wrote:How would the British say "Be home by midnight", when giving a teenage daughter an instruction, for instance?
"Be at home by midnight" sounds wrong, no?
We say go home, or come home, and in this case 'be home' means that, doesn't it?
Well, maybe. Especially when some movement is implied.
If movement is not implied, I'm not so sure; as in "Where are you now?" "I'm at home."
Ladies and Gentlemen
I extend my deepest thanks to each and every one of you for taking your valuable time to answer my question.
hopefully I didn't over do it.
)
Nothing is ever left underdone on A2K. Especially not on the English threads.
But I'm not sure we even gave you an answer. At least, not one that you might have been expecting.
:wink:
Francis, whatever you're on, save some for me.
On our TV screens this evening (in a programme talking about the future progress of the Olympic torch) a map with the legend "San
Fransisco".
Embarrassing.
McTag wrote:On our TV screens this evening (in a programme talking about the future progress of the Olympic torch) a map with the legend "San Fransisco".
Embarrassing.
I use the BBC World News for my principle "non-print" news source. They just did the Olympic torch story, and the announcer consistently said "San Franciscah" . . . not much hope, is there?
Yeah well .... I can't blame the BBC this time because mine was on ITV or Channel 4 where you get a much lower class of person, don'cha know.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace