Places & Countries(jp)

Directional Particle

The particle へ indicates a direction towards which something or someone moves/after a location to show where you’re going! This movement is the direction away from the current location. When used as a particle, へ is pronounced as [e].

Kanji	Meaning	Kunyomi Reading	Onyomi Reading
行	Go	い•く	こう kou
会	meeting, association, interview	あう、 あわせる、 あつまる	カイkai、 エ e
社	company, firm, office, association	やしろ	シャ sha
校	school, printing, proof, correction		コウkō、 キョウ kyō
所		ところ tokoro

Location and Time Particle

The particle に with a time expression indicates a specific point in time(after a location to show where you’re going!). に can also express times on a clock, days of the week, or years.

Direction	English	Location or Time	English
会社・かいしゃへ Kaisha e	to the office/company	３時・じに	at 3 o’clock
学校・がっこうへ Gakkō e	to school	月曜日・げつようびに	on Monday
日本・にほんへ	to Japan	５月・がつに	in May
アメリカへ	to America	２０１６年・ねんに	in 2016

会社に行きません。(Kaisha ni ikimasen.)

• (I) am not going to work/office.

しごと 仕事 Work

学校に行きません。

• I do not go to school.

八時に学校へ行きます。

• I go to school at eight o'clock.

八時ごろに学校へ行きます。

• I go to school at around eight o'clock.

• ごろ（頃）means "around/about" and is not a particle.

What’s the difference? Well, に(ni) focuses on the journey and the destination of going somewhere, but へ(e) focuses more on the process of going. But don’t stress too much here. In daily life, they’re basically interchangeable.

Where do you live?

In Japanese, you end your sentence with the phrase ...住んでいます sunde imasu

京都に住(su)んでいます

• I live in Kyoto.

田中さんは東京に住んでいますよね？

• Mr. Tanaka lives in Tokyo, right?

そうです。