We use thenounhouseto refer to a building:
They’re building six newhousesat the end of our road.
When we refer to beingat someone’s house, we can leave out the wordhouseand useat+ possessive orat+ the definite article + possessive:
We stayed overnightat Mike’s.(at Mike’s house)
We’re going to be atthe Jacksons’this evening. Want to come with us?(at the Jacksons’ house)
We usehomein a more personal and emotional way to refer to where someone lives. The nounhomedoes not usually refer to the building. We often usehomewith the prepositionat:
It’s not very big but it’s myhome.
Why don’t you phone her now? I think she’sat home.
When we talk about the building we live in, we usehousenothome:
Our dog stays in thehousewith us.
Not:Our dog stays in the home with us.
We usually don’t use an article or other determiner with home unless we are talking about homes in general:
A lot of energy can be saved inthe homeby making small changes such as turning off lights.(energy can be saved in all homes)
We usehomeas an adverb with verbs of movement such asget, go, come, arrive, travel, drive. We don’t useto:
I’mgoing homenow. I’m really tired.
Not:I’m going to home now.
Would you like me todriveyouhome?
Not:Would you like me to drive you to home?
Homecan be used as a countable noun to refer to the place where people or animals live and are cared for by people who are not their relatives or owners:
There’s ahomefor the elderly at the end of our street.
We got our dog, Scotty, from the local dogs’home.