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Does the following phrases have the same meaning?

  1. work from a studio vs work in a studio
  2. work from home vs work at home

I mean, when can I use the phrase "work from"? What's the difference between "work from" and "work in/at/..."? Can you give me some more examples relative to "work from"? Thanks.

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    The choice of prepositions is not always straightforward. We can explain the same thing from different perspectives, and that can affect our choice. For example, consider: Many students walk miles from home every day, vs. Many students walk miles to school every day. Also, the choice of prepositions is not the direct result of the verb and its object. For example, having a treadmill at home, I walk miles at home every day. But that would be a little lie. ;-)
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented Jan 12, 2014 at 10:40

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My opinion (not a professional language teacher, and this may be more subtle):

"work from" and "work at" mean almost the same thing and you will not cause confusion or communicate something wrong by using the wrong one.

I think that when I "work from" the underlying metaphor is that I am SENDING work FROM the place that I am "working from" TO the place that I "work for." So, for instance, "I am a speechwriter in DC. My boss lives downtown, but most days I work from home because I hate the commute."

compare:

"My job is to cook breakfast for the 500 people who live in my building, so I work at home!"

But I don't think I would notice if in either of those sentence you swapped the from and the at.

As for at and in, that's hairier. "I work in home" is definitely wrong. "I work in my home" is not wrong but is weird. "I work at home" is much more natural. This is probably the specific semantics of the word home, and has nothing to do with working. For example, "I work in a studio" and "I work at a studio" mean virtually the same thing.

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I think you have to consider what sort of work is involved and from what point of view we are talking about. Does all the work entirely take place within the home? Does it involve some sort of connexion with the outside world?

I would say of someone who is a teleworker, that he is a "work-at-home" employee, from his point of view he works at home, but as far as economics is concerned he works from home because his work involves answering calls from or making calls to people outside his residence.

I would not say that someone who manufactures objects (clothes, food, works of art,etc.) entirely by himself in his house works from home but that he works at home. The actual creation of the finished goods (which excludes the buying of raw material or the sale of the finished goods) entirely takes place within his residence.

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