Home in this example is behaving like an adverb expressing direction. We do not need a preposition with home when it is used with any verb referring to direction:
I will ARRIVE / GO / COME / LEAVE home late this evening.
Note that most verbs expressing direction require the preposition to before the noun:
I ranto the theatre so that I wouldn’t be late.
I’m going to walk to work from now on. It’s healthier.
Now, once you arrive home, then you are at home, and no more direction is suggested, so at is then the appropriate preposition to use with home:
Will you be athome tonight, or are you going out? ~ No, I’ll be at home.
However, even here, at is often omitted, especially in American English.
So AT HOME / FROM HOME / GO HOME / LEAVE HOME are common fixed expressions with prepositions where no article is required:
Working from home continues to be a popular choice among employees, even after the pandemic.
PRACTICE 1 – LISTENING: Listen to vocabulary related to working from home, from announcements to buying and setting up computers to work from home.
PRACTICE 2 – SPEAKING: answer the questions
Three years later, what’s the future of remote work?
What kind of work environment do you think employees expect in 2023?
Do you think remote workers are more productive than the ones working in an office?
Studies show promising results for hybrid work, especially for those who enjoy face-to-face interactions and the excitement of office environments.
When you are talking about PHYSICAL DISTANCES, you can use either word:
The hospital is near.
The hospital is close.
Both these sentences are correct and mean the same thing, a SHORT DISTANCE.
NEAR and CLOSE have also this same meaning when referring to TIME:
Summer is near.
Summer is close.
When close has this meaning, it is pronounced /kləʊs/.
And notice that close is often followed by the preposition to:
The hospital is close to the park.
The hospital is near the park.
Be Careful! Don’t confuse the adjective close with the verb close /kləʊz/. If you close something, you move it so that it fills a hole or gap.
Close near
Now, when you are talking about something that deals with ABSTRACT IDEAS OR QUALITIES, like RELATIONSHIPS, you use CLOSE instead of near:
My friend and I live in different countries, but we are very close.
Here, I am saying that my friend and I are not in the same physical area, but we are emotionally connected. We are good friends.
However, if I say, “My neighbor and I live in the same apartment building, but we are not close,” I mean we occupy the same physical area, but we are not emotionally connected. My dog tried to bite his dog once, and he has never spoken to me again!
You can refer to someone you know well as a close friend.
Mike and I are very close friends.
His father was a close friend of my father.
You can refer to someone who is directly related to you as a `close relative.
She had no very close relatives.
You can also refer to someone as a `near relative, but this is less common.
You can say:
They’re a close family.
My dad was closer to his brother than to his sister.
Close is also used in the following collocations:
a close encounter The mountaineer Joe Simpson has had several close encounters with death.
a close race After a close race, Obama won the election.
a close finish It was a close finish – only a tenth of a second separated the two runners.
Near close
a near miss The asteroid passed 27,700 km from the surface of Earth – a near miss.
in the near future The volcano could erupt in the near future, according to scientists.
in the near distance We could see someone in the near distance.
Near and nearby both mean close. They are just used differently in the sentence.
Here are some guidelines:
Use NEAR as a preposition that states the proximity of something to something else– where something or someone isin relation to another thing or person.
It is what a PREPOSITION does. A preposition is a word that shows the relation of one word in a sentence to another word.
There is a beach near my house. (this means that there is a beach close to my house)
He worked in a restaurant near the station. Not: He worked in a restaurant nearby the station.
NEARBY can never be properly used as a preposition, although you may hear someone say it occasionally:
The book is nearby the table. (it is not considered correct)
The book is near the table. (near means close to the table)
Use NEARBY before a noun, as an ADJECTIVE, meaning ‘not far away’:
We can meet at a nearby beach.
Luckily, the nearby buildings weren’t damaged by the fire.
Or use NEARBY, meaning ‘not far away’, near whatever is being mentioned, as an ADVERB, to say that something is closewherever what or who is being mentioned is:
The beach is nearby.
Does Paul live nearby?
Remember that an ADVERB is a word that tells us more about a verb, an adjective or another adverb. It describes or modifies these words.
So,note that NEARBY can appear either before or after a noun that it describes, but NEAR can normally appear only before the noun, and even then, only when referring to time:
We slept at a nearby motel. (nearby + noun)
We slept at a motel nearby. (noun + nearby)
I hope to visit you in the near future. (near + noun, and near=close in time)
So, NEAR can mean close in time (=soon), as well as close indistance, but nearby cannot, as shown below:
Summer is near. [near=close in time]
May is nearby. [nearby cannot mean close in time]
According to Practical English Usage by Michael Swan, near to is also possible with the same meaning as near, but it is less common.
There are some differences between these three ways of talking about the future. The differences are not always important; often we can use two or three different forms to talk about the same thing.
PREDICTIONS
Going to: we can see the future in the present; we see things coming or starting:
Look out! You’re going to break that glass! (I can see it now.)
Will: we think or believe things about the future:
Don’t give him a watch – he‘ll break it. (I think so, because I know him.)
Practice I: What’s the best form?
Perhaps we are going to / will meet again one day.
Look! Andy is going to / will fall off his bike!
I think you are going to / will love Paris.
Look at those clouds: it‘s going to / will rain.
DECISIONS
Will: we are making decisions; spontaneous decisions made at the time of speaking:
‘We’ve got a letter from Jan.’ ‘Ok, I‘ll answer it.‘
Going to: decisions are already made; decision made before the time of speaking:
‘There are a lot of letters to answer.’ ‘I know. ‘I‘m going to do them all on Tuesday.’
Practice II: Which one: I’ll or I’m going to?
I’ve decided (that) ……………… stop smoking.
‘I don’t want to cook tonight.’ ‘All right, then. ……..cook.’
‘I haven’t got any money.’ ‘No? OK. ………….. pay.’
‘Do you want to go out tonight?’ ‘No, ………….. study English.’
‘These pants are dirty.’ ‘Really? Oh, yes, they are. …………. wash them.’
‘Is Ann eating with us?’ ‘Wait a minute. ………….. ask her.’
PLANSAND ARRANGEMENTS
Going to and the present progressive are often both possible when we talk about plans.
We use the present progressive mostly for fixed plans with a definite time and/or place:
I‘m going tosee Ann sometime soon.
I‘m meeting Ann at the theater at 8 pm.
Sarah‘s starting university on September 17.
Practice III: In three of these sentences, the present progressive is possible. Which three?
Jack is going to arrive at 4 pm.
I’m going to learn French one of these days.
I’m going to fly to Paris next year.
Mom’s going to tell me about her problems.
We’re all going to spend this month in Brazil.
Are you going to answer all those emails?
ANSWERS:
PRACTICE I: 1. will; 2. is going to; 3. will; 4. is going to
IT é o pronome que representa coisas, objetos, animais, plantas. Basicamente, IT pode ser usado para representar qualquer coisa, exceto pessoas.
Don’t drink the milk. It smells terrible.
Não beba o leite. Ele (o leite) cheira muito mal. = O cheiro é terrível.
I have to take the book back to the bookstore because it isn’t new.
Eu tenho que devolver o livro para a livraria porque ele(o livro) não é novo.
Is it a boy or a girl? / É menino ou menina?
Lembrando que quando falamos de um bebê, podemos usar IT para representar ambos os sexos.
IT é usado para referir-se à animais, a menos que o relacionamento seja pessoal (como um animal de estimação que tem um nome). Então não há problema em usar “ele” ou “ela”.
My horse, is my best friend. He comforts me when I ride him.
Meu cavalo, é meu melhor amigo. Ele me conforta quando eu o monto.
No entanto, o IT também tem outros papéis que não estão relacionados ao seu uso pronominal.
Visto que deve haver um sujeito (nas frases), os dummy ou empty subjects (boneco e vazio, respectivamente) devem ser usados. Empty subjects, sendo apenas IT ou THERE, são sujeitos que não possuem nenhum conteúdo semântico (relativo ao significado), mas que simplesmente preenchem o espaço no qual um sujeito é necessário. Usamos o IT como sujeito inexistente:
Quando falamos de tempo, clima, temperatura, distância ou algo não específico:
What time is it?
It‘s four o’clock.
It‘s cold.
It‘s going to rain.
It‘s 10 km to the hotel. / São 10 km até o hotel.
It‘s over! / Acabou!
Quando temos um infinitivo atuando como o sujeito da sentença. Então o pronome IT é usado como um sujeito provisório e antecipatório – anticipatory it:
It’s great to see you!
Podemos remover o IT da frase e substituí-lo por ver você:
To see you is great.
Veja mais exemplos:
It is not good to say goodbye to him. Não é nada bom dizer adeus a ele.
It is funny to play with them. É tão divertido brincar com eles.
It is an adventure to travel with his family. É uma aventura viajar com a família dele.
It is so great to see the moon from there. É tão maravilhoso ver a lua de lá.
Em algumas expressões muito usadas:
It makes sense to go there tomorrow. / Faz sentido ir lá amanhã.
It’s not up to you to judge. / Não cabe a você julgar.
It’s a pity you can’t come to my party. / É uma pena que você não pode vir à minha festa.
OIT é usado como SUJEITO e OBJETO (complemento dos verbos transitivos e que indica o ser ou a coisa que sofre a ação realizada pelo sujeito):
This is my favorite song. I love to hear it when I’m happy.
Essa é minha música favorita. Eu amo ouvi-la (ela, a música) quando estou feliz.
The book is excellent. I read it last year.
O livro é excelente. Eu o li (ele)ano passado. IT refere-se ao “livro”.
E damesma forma que na função de SUJEITO, o IT como OBJETO, empty ou dummy object, refere-se a um objeto não explicitamente mencionado na sentença.
Hold it! / Segure!
Take it easy! Vai com calma! – Pega leve!
Can you make it to the party? / Você consegue ir à festa?
Também podemos usar o IT para dar ênfase a um substantivo ou pronome:
It was my mom who made this delicious pie.
Foi minha mãe quem fez esta torta deliciosa.
PRACTICE
Em cada uma das frases a seguir, indique se o IT é um pronounit, dummy it, or anticipatory it.
1. It won’t do any good to hide from me. Não vai adiantar nada esconder-se de mim.
2. I think you’ve broken it. Acho que você o quebrou.
3. It’s very kind of you to see me at short notice. É muito gentil da sua parte me atender em cima da hora/na última hora.
4. It was after midnight when I left the office. Já passava da meia-noite quando saí do escritório.
5. I’ve had it with this place – I’m leaving! “Para mim já deu, deste lugar” – estou saindo!
ANSWERS
Há apenas um pronoun it neste exercício, na sentença (2). Como pronome, pode ser substituído por um substantivo, ou, mais precisamente: “I think you’ve broken the computer”. / Acho que você quebrou o computador.
Você pode testar o anticipatory it, “invertendo” a frase em que ele aparece:
(1) It won’t do any good to hide from me ~To hide from me won’t do any good
O it em (3) também é anticipatory (cf. To see me at short notice is very kind of you).
Dummy it é encontrado na (4) e (5). Dummy it refere-se à tempo, como na (4) ou clima, ou algo não específico, como na (5).
