tu / sem, doma / domov

Here, There and Home

Level 2

Kde? Som tu. Som doma. Kam? Poď sem! Idem domov. Tam works for both.

How It Works

Location and direction

  • kde? (where?): tu (here), tam (there), doma (at home), vonku (outside)
  • kam? (where to?): sem (here, to this place), tam (there), domov (home), von (out)

Tam is the same for both: Bol si tam? Zajtra tam idem. (Were you there? I'm going there tomorrow.) Hore (up, upstairs) and dole (down, downstairs) also work for both.

Which verbs take which

  • being somewhere: byť, bývať, sedieť, čakať: Čakám tu. (I'm waiting here.)
  • moving somewhere: ísť, prísť, dať and the command poď: Poď sem! (Come here!) Daj to sem. (Give it here.)

English uses here and home for both, so the Slovak difference is easy to miss. Idem doma and Poď tu are mistakes.

Where from? The question odkiaľ? (where from?) takes odtiaľto (from here), odtiaľ (from there) and z domu (from home).

The same split with prepositions. V škole (at school, locative) answers kde?, but do školy (to school, genitive) answers kam?. See Where: v and na With the Locative and Going Into: do.

Examples (6)

  1. Som tu.

    I'm here.

  2. Poď sem!

    Come here!

    sem shows direction: toward this place.

  3. Som doma.

    I'm at home.

  4. Idem domov.

    I'm going home.

    domov shows direction, so it goes with ísť.

  5. Bol si tam? Zajtra tam idem.

    Were you there? I'm going there tomorrow.

    tam works for both location and direction.

  6. Deti sú vonku.

    The children are outside.

    For direction, use von: Poďme von! (Let's go out!)

Common Mistakes

  • Using doma with a verb of motion.

    Idem doma.
    Idem domov.

    Ísť needs a direction (kam?), so use domov. Doma means at home and goes with verbs like byť.

  • Using tu for direction.

    Poď tu!
    Poď sem!

    Poď asks someone to move, so it needs sem (to here). Tu only says where something is.

  • Using von for location.

    Deti sú von.
    Deti sú vonku.

    Byť needs a location (kde?), so use vonku. Von is for moving out: Idem von.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

tu / sem, doma / domovLevel 2Here, There and Home

Learn This First

Before Here, There and Home, learn Going Onto and To: na. tu and doma mark location, while sem and domov mark direction, like the na + locative / accusative contrast.

Words in This Pattern

semkam