Could somebody explain to me the difference between "make your way home" and "go home" . Thanks a lot in advance.
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2To the extent that there is any meaningful "difference", it's much the same as the difference between I'm going to the little boys' room and I'm going to the toilet (or washroom or whatever, for Americans). The circumlocutory form may be facetious or euphemistic, for example. If rendered as wend your way home it may even be a device for showing off the speaker's command of (dated/archaic) English. You'd probably need to know the exact context to have any hope of understanding why a speaker might choose one form over another.– FumbleFingersCommented Jan 6, 2016 at 17:45
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2The second is the unmarked expression; the first at least hints at something interesting or demanding in the necessary journey.– Edwin AshworthCommented Jan 6, 2016 at 17:47
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3What @EdwinAshworth said. From a literary standpoint, "make your way home" infers something that will make the journey challenging/demanding or interesting and has an expectation of something newsworthy to the reader. "Go home" has none of those expectations.– Kristina LopezCommented Jan 6, 2016 at 17:58
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1Yeah, "make your way" implies that some effort may be required, possibly because of distance, possibly because of weather, possibly because of your state of drunkenness.– Hot LicksCommented Jan 7, 2016 at 5:05
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1One phrase is longer than the other.– Blessed GeekCommented Jan 7, 2016 at 6:41
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2 Answers
Both "making your way home" and "going home" mean to leave where you are and proceed to your place of residence. The former, however, is employed to describe an arduous journey. From Hope: A Memoir by Bernard Warach:
I rose at five, washed, had a cup of coffee, and walked to the Independent subway station at First Avenue and Houston Street. I took the D train express to 125th Street and changed to the local to 135th Street. I had a very long climb up several hundred steps from the base of St. Nicholas Part to St. Nicholas Terrace above and a further walk to the college buildings, and my class was at eight. There were frequent snows and ice during the winter on the park steps and terrace. I carried a heavy school bag with textbooks.... I then reversed direction to make my way home.
Go here for a view of the steps from Nicholas Avenue to Nicholas Terrace above.
The obstacles are not required. It's acceptable to say, "I left the party and made my way home without incident or hindrance."
Make your way means to set off on a journey. It's not clear whether you will arrive at the destination, or even whether that will remain your destination. All that's known is your intention to head in that direction, i.e., with that as your initial destination.
Go home is more ambiguous and, without more context, more definitive: a priori, you will go home, and will thus get (arrive) there.
Make your way is about the journey, as a process (maybe even an adventure). Go is about the destination.
When you make your way home you might end up stopping here or there, changing your route (detours), etc. What will happen on that journey is perhaps unknown, but it is what will be of interest in the text the follows. When you go home, all that matters, a priori, is that you left the current location and you will end up at home.
