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Why don't we use at when we use home? For example:

I arrived home
vs.
I arrived at home

or

I am home
vs.
I am at home

herisson
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John Doe
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  • Questions which lack results of research are out of scope. For an introduction to the site, take the [Tour]. For help writing a good question, see [ask]. – MetaEd Jul 29 '16 at 14:16
  • The premise of this question as it is asked is somewhat faulty, because we do use "At" with home sometimes. However, we don't use any prepositions with a verb's direct object, as exemplified in the first sentence. Now that you mention it though, I suppose I am curious why we can substitute "I'm home" for "I am at home" when we can't omit the preposition for any other location. – Tonepoet Jul 29 '16 at 15:11
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    @Tonepoet Can you find a dictionary licensing 'arrive' as a transitive verb? Not everything that looks like S + V + DO actually is. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 29 '16 at 16:40
  • The question is a duplicate of “At home” or “home”. Though Gary brings out further detail in his answer here. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 29 '16 at 16:42
  • @EdwinAshworth Although I can, that obsolecent sense doesn't apply here so, I admit that I made a bad presumption in this case. I'd state my next assumption in normal conversation, but I'd rather not make the same mistake twice given the circumstances. v_v – Tonepoet Jul 29 '16 at 17:01
  • The prepositionless locative/directional usages of 'home' have been covered before. Essentially, they stem from old declension, single words meaning at-home / to-home. These became isomorphic with the noun, and nowadays their POS is contentious. Adverb of place / intransitive preposition (I still don't like either, and stick with locative or directional particle). – Edwin Ashworth Jul 29 '16 at 17:21
  • @Tonepoet ~ my bad: http://i.stack.imgur.com/Scq3i.jpg –  Jul 29 '16 at 18:04

1 Answers1

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You can use both, they both mean the same thing, literally.

In common usage they are used slightly differently.

If I have just arrived home, I would say "I am home".

Whereas if someone asked me where I was, I would say "I am at home".

Idiomatically you would not use the word arrive often as a native English speaker, you would instead say "I came home". There's a little discussion about this here.

Gary
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