When going somewhere, is there any difference between e (へ) and ni (に)?


Can you use へ and に interchangeably, as in:

> 北海道 **へ** 行く

and

> 北海道 **に** 行く ?

Are there any subtle differences in the use of these two?




The confusion comes from the fact that in English we often translate these
simply as "to"; they do, however, emphasize different spatial aspects of an
action:

  * に emphasizes the location. This is sort of the basic one you'll use for "person A goes to location X":

東京に行った → "I went to Tokyo."

  * へ emphasizes the direction, and you'll often see it on signage indicating the direction that a train line heads:

"東京へ" → "to/towards Tokyo," probably with other stops on the way. You can also
use it interchangeably with に in the previous example sentence, but now with
an emphasis on the direction.

東京（の方）へ行った → "I went to/towards Tokyo."

  * まで emphasizes the process or journey, where the specified location is a stopping point. You could translate it as "all the way to" or "as far as":

東京まで行った → "I went to Tokyo (and that's where my journey ended)."

If you want to think of it geometrically, に specifies a point (the
destination), へ specifies the direction of an arrow, and まで refers to a line
segment between the start and end points.




The confusion comes from the fact that in English we often translate these
simply as "to"; they do, however, emphasize different spatial aspects of an
action:

  * に emphasizes the location. This is sort of the basic one you'll use for "person A goes to location X":

東京に行った → "I went to Tokyo."

  * へ emphasizes the direction, and you'll often see it on signage indicating the direction that a train line heads:

"東京へ" → "to/towards Tokyo," probably with other stops on the way. You can also
use it interchangeably with に in the previous example sentence, but now with
an emphasis on the direction.

東京（の方）へ行った → "I went to/towards Tokyo."

  * まで emphasizes the process or journey, where the specified location is a stopping point. You could translate it as "all the way to" or "as far as":

東京まで行った → "I went to Tokyo (and that's where my journey ended)."

If you want to think of it geometrically, に specifies a point (the
destination), へ specifies the direction of an arrow, and まで refers to a line
segment between the start and end points.

