へ行く ＶＳ に行く for I will go (verb)

Japanese
#1

This may sound a trite trivial but Its a little difficult to look this specific Grammer point up. While doing reviews came across “飲みに行きます” or to the effect of “I will go drinking”.

I wanted to, as it is more natural for me to type out “飲みへ行きます” and was confused as to why it was wrong at first before switching it to に．Is there any particular reason it MUST be に or would the point still be understood?

Not that it matters much but I had a Japanese speaker behind me and they just kinda went “ahh yea, that I guess” and just kinda said it ment the same thing.

Am I wrong in thinking that too, or does に play a bigger role that I dont know about yet?

#2

Going to reply to myself since I asked a second person who speaks better. And he said that (飲みへ行く) makes zero sense and that when it follows a verb it’s always に。in which case, now I can ask,

Why? one of those smaller nuisances i’ll learn

#3

I found that へ is used much less than the text books make you believe in the beginning.

If in doubt, use に, you will be correct more often.

That aside, my understanding is that へ is used with a meaning of “direction”. It describes where you are “headed”. It is more like a heading on a compass, where are you going at the moment.

に is about specifying the “destination” or “purpose” of the movement, especially following verbs, where へ does not make sense (I believe).

This is just my impression. Please correct me, if I am wrong.

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#4

I would say that へ is a bit more on the ‘towards’ or ‘headed to(wards)’ side of things. に on the other hand is much more direct, going more into the goal or destination meaning.

To apply this to your sentences:

  • 飲みに行きます
    I will go drink [alcohol] (drinking is the destination)
  • 飲みへ行きます
    I will go towards drinking/the act of drinking. (drinking is the direction, you are heading toward)

As you might see above is that you are saying quite different things. に makes sense because drinking is the goal of the act of going somewhere, not bound by space or direction. Actually you can (and often do) put a place there as well if you now where to go. Here へ would show that you have no specific place in mind (i.e 歌舞伎町へ飲みに行きます, I will head towards Kabuki-chou to drink something).

I just a Japanese friend of mine and he agreed with this explanation, though the difference in nuance between へ and に that I just explained for the degree of certainty is so slight that it only really comes through in certain contexts and quite specific sentences.

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#5

に focuses on the destination/goal and/or purpose.
へ is about the journey/direction.

ChatGPT puts it a bit more elegantly:

In Japanese, both に (ni) and へ (e) are particles used to indicate direction or destination, but they have slightly different nuances:

  • に (ni): This particle is often used to indicate the destination or the end point of an action. It can also indicate purpose. When you use に, the focus is more on the destination or the goal of the action.

    • Example: 学校に行く (gakkou ni iku) – “to go to school” (focusing on the destination)

  • へ (he): This particle emphasizes the direction or the journey towards a destination rather than the destination itself. It’s more about the process of heading somewhere rather than reaching a specific endpoint.

    • Example: 学校へ行く (gakkou e iku) – “to head towards school” (focusing on the direction)

That said, I would suggest that ChatGPT can be helpful in some situations (to get this response, I put in what I typed at the beginning of my comment and asked “if it was true”) but I would not rely on it completely as it’s not always correct.

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