So I'm beginning Spanish, and I was wondering- in the sentence "yo voy a mi casa", can you just say "voy a casa"? I know you can omit the pronoun without any worry, but do you have to say "mi casa"?
3 Answers
Yes, you can omit it. The meanings are slightly different.
Voy a mi casa
means I'm going to my house.
Voy a casa
means I'm going home.
As I learned from a comment, the second version doesn't work in all countries, for example, it would apparently be quite unusual in Colombia where people usually include the "mi" and almost always use the preposition "para": "Voy para mi casa".
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1I agree and BTW there are regional differences. In Colombia you will almost never hear someone saying "voy a casa" without "mi" while in Spain I think the opposite is true (Spaniards, please confirm or reject my statement).– DGaleanoApr 27, 2017 at 16:51
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1@DGaleano Indeed, in Spain we'd say "voy a casa" unless we wanted to stress the "mi" for some reason.– GorpikApr 28, 2017 at 8:15
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1@aparente001 "Ya me voy a la casa" would not be common in Colombia. We would say "Ya me voy a mi casa" and more commonly you will hear "Ya me voy para mi casa". We almost never omit mi and almost always use "para" or its unofficial contraction " pa' " (Me voy pa' mi casa)– DGaleanoApr 28, 2017 at 16:39
You can omit the pronoun and keep the meaning, but you cannot omit the preposition
Yo voy a mi casa andando los viernes
Voy a casa en coche los lunes
Estoy cansado. Me voy a (mi) casa
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I agree, and also you can use another preposition like "para" as we always do in Colombia. Estoy cansado. Me voy para mi casa– DGaleanoApr 28, 2017 at 16:43
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Adding to the other answers, note that you can omit "mi" from "mi casa" because the meaning can be inferred. In other cases omitting it would be inappropriate or incorrect:
- Where you need to stress "mi":
-- ¿Vamos a mi casa o a tu casa?
-- A mi casa.
- With other nouns: "Voy en auto" and "voy en mi auto" mean (slightly) different things ("I go by car" [maybe a friend's, not by train] and "I go in my car").