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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?

nevan king
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    I was told by my teacher that whenever I am unsure which to use I should go with に. – Chris Mar 23 '16 at 08:48

8 Answers8

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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.

Nate Glenn
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    +1 for mentioning まで too. – Amanda S May 31 '11 at 21:54
  • I'm pretty sure the first two are backwards. に　is the direction and へ　is the definite final location. Ex:

    学校に行く　- I'm going to (head toward) school (but I may get sidetracked along the way). 学校へ行く　- I'm going, and will end up at school and nowhere else

     – istrasci Jun 01 '11 at 00:18
  • I'm pretty sure not... But if you can find a grammar somewhere that says that then post it :) – Nate Glenn Jun 01 '11 at 01:08
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    I was told まで means "until" and thus would be about the destination...? – hippietrail Jun 01 '11 at 09:18
  • 'basu de gakkou made itta', 'basu de gakkou ni itta', intuitively made doesn't feel like it has anything more to do with the process/journey (i.e. the fact that it was by bus). Any natives care to chime in? – Ali Jun 04 '11 at 20:58
  • I'm guessing Nate Glenn means that it's about how far the journey went and across what prior locations it passed, and not so much about exactly where the final destination was. – flamingspinach Jun 06 '11 at 16:56
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    Re: まで: Concurring with flamingspinach, the point indicated by まで is not necessarily the final destination: 東京駅まで電車で行って、地下鉄に乗り換えた。. Also, when showing a destination in this manner, まで is better for action verbs such as 歩く, 走る, 泳ぐ, etc. (駅まで走る rather than 駅に走る or 駅へ走る.) – Derek Schaab Jun 06 '11 at 19:03
  • @Derek so exactly is Nate Glenn right or hippietrail right.. or are they both right in that matter? and is the answer at http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/275/how-to-use-e-ni-made-and-no-h-with-destination-and-directi/286#286 wrong regarding まで? – Pacerier Jun 15 '11 at 03:09
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    @Pacerier: I think Amanda has the better answer to this question: に for focusing on the destination and へ for focusing on the process/journey. In my answer to the question you linked, I state that まで focuses on the distance traveled, so I have to say Nate's answer seems a little off to me here. – Derek Schaab Jun 15 '11 at 12:34
  • @Derek ok thx for the clarification – Pacerier Jun 16 '11 at 15:06
  • @DerekSchaab Thx for the clarification! But still 2 questions: 1. The standard to distinguish"pure motion verbs" and "motion manner verbs" seems unclear to me, since 動く and 移動する also don't necessarily need a direction(e.g., 一歩も動けなかった,遊牧民たちは絶えず移動した). 2. Why can まで be used in "motion manner verbs", where the usage of に and へ are ungrammatical? – Sheepeagle Oct 18 '23 at 10:29
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There is a very subtle difference between the two--with に, the destination is more important; with へ, the journey is more important. You might use に if you want to say you're going "to the store" and へ if you want to say you're going "in the direction of the store [and ending up there]."

Is there a lot of practical difference in how they are used? Not really.

Amanda S
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    I was told "の方" (no-hō) means "in the direction of" - is this just more explicit? See my broader question: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/275/how-to-use-e-ni-made-and-no-h-with-destination-and-directi – hippietrail Jun 01 '11 at 09:18
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Side note to the question but relevant:

Use only へ when you want to use the grammatical construct 〜への〜.

◯　改札口への階段はどこですか。　Where are the steps to the ticket gate?

×　改札口にの階段はどこですか。

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makdad
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On a pedantic note, there is an old saying the goes like

京へ、筑紫に、坂東さ (ca 1609)

京に、つくしへ、坂東さ (ca 1496)

[Source]

which shows how each dialect used different particle to say 北海道○行く around that time. 京 is for Kyoto, 筑紫(つくし) is Kyushu and 坂東 is Kanto/Tohoku.

Being just a layperson on Japanese linguistics, I'll just stop here, but I'm sure a more learned person will have a lot to say about why the place of に and へ are different between the two quotes above, and how these regional differences came about.

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ento
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I've always seen に as meaning going somewhere directly without any intention of stopping, whereas へ shows that they are going that way, but if they see something interesting they may stop or make a detour.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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2

Those 2 threads asking the same question should be merged and maybe become wiki to be edited easily (particles questions are recurrent)

see also: How to use へ (-e), に (-ni), まで (made) and の方 (no-hō) with destination and direction?

To sum up and try to correct some of the answers already given:

-へ is the direction particle. You could say it focuses on the journey

-に is the destination particle. It focuses on the destination.

-まで Is a final destination particle as well but implies that you're coming from somewhere (から) and thus that there's some distance between the 2 points.

-のほう（の方） means in the direction of. It could be used in a case where you are giving direction to someone:

郵便局の方へ３００メートルをあるいて、中学が右に見えます。

(walk 300m towards the post office and you will see the middle school on your right)

Community
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    Not relevant to the topic of the question, but: in the last example, a more natural sentence is 郵便局の方へ３００メートル歩くと、中学が右に見えます。 (1) 歩いて is unnatural in this sentence and should be 歩くと, but I cannot explain why. (2) 歩く is usually written with kanji unless it is written for foreign speakers and/or small kids who do not read kanji, in which case 郵便局 should be avoided first. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jun 05 '11 at 22:42
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へ is the direction に is the purpose

When I say デパートへ行きます, I am just heading towards the department store. When I say デパートに行きます, I am going to the department store with a purpose. The department store is the location where I will complete my purpose.

It is the same as saying 買い物に行きます or 仕事に行きます Shopping and work are not physical places but merely activities or purposes in this sentence. に cannot be replaced by へ in that case.

But when we are speaking about a location, we could either used へ　or に as we usually go to a place with a purpose. Japanese people tend to never use へ in a conversation but rather に

David Caupos
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へ is also used to soften に in some cases, since it's slightly more vague. For instance, at a restaurant I saw a sign posted over a counter that used something like 「こちらへ食器をお返し下さい」.

chocolate
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Wahnfrieden
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  • "こちらへ" just means "this way, this direction", that doesn't soften anything ;) just shows you a direction –  Jun 01 '11 at 10:39
  • my suspicion was that に would have been just as fitting in this example, but would also seem more direct – Wahnfrieden Jun 03 '11 at 09:59
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    This is not relevant to the topic of the question, but お返して下さい is incorrect. It should be either お返し下さい or 返して下さい, the former being more polite. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jun 05 '11 at 22:43