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[chileno]

Let's consider this. I am from Chile living in the US.

I go home every night.

I would go back home if I could.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by chileno

Let's consider this. I am from Chile living in the US.

I go home every night.

I would go back home if I could.

Correct - as an emotional concept, home can refer to a region or country or even a continent. An astronaut lost in space might even 'want to go home' referring to the planet Earth.

[xchic]

Originally Posted by pjt33

I'm not sure that's strictly true. I'm sure a lot of people would agree that that's what it means, but if you analyse the way they use it I think it's less about residence and more about emotional attachment; and that there's an extent to which it's not about the physical location so much as the environment - to the point that some people might reject the label "home" for their house when their family is away even though they apply it happily when the family is present.

In reference to the place where Tom lives, I would probably tend to say "Tom's place" and sometimes "Tom's house" but, like Perikles, I don't think I would say "Tom's home". It just sounds marked.

"Home is where the heart is".

To many people 'home' is their country/place of birth - many British people living in Spain (or elsewhere abroad) think of the UK as home.

I imagine the same can be said for people of any nationality living abroad, as Perikles says.

To me, Tom's home sounds stilted.

I think also in BrE to go back home sounds strange - to me it would be referring to someone's home country or town, rather than the building in which they live.

[Elaina]

Originally Posted by irmamar

Puede que diga que tenemos que volver a casa.
She may say that we have to go home.

Wouldn't it be better saying "go back" (volver) instead of "go" (ir)?

Thanks.

To "go back" implies we were there and just left ... and because we (let's say) forgot something we have to go back home to get whatever we forgot.

We have to go home.........implies you haven't been home for a while (maybe just got out of school) and you went with you friends to the mall and you see your mother who says........"Go home!"

Unless of course you use the expression for emotional reasons.... I just want to go home (you are living in another country and something bad happens).