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Please, help me to solve this moment, which has been torturing me for a long time

The sentence:

-Where are you, he can't see you, you are already going somewhere there or only to there?

I mean I want to separate the word "there" for 2 meanings:

1) Already at the place - there

2) Or moving in direction to the place = to there

But I see the latter one really seldom. It makes me feel deplorable. Don't people use it? Then how should I distinguish them?

"I am going there" - you are already at the place or only going to there!?=(

I believe in your wisdom, friends.

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  • Without "to". You can tell the difference bewteen "I am going there" and "I am there" from the verb usage.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 17:55
  • But "I am there" doesn't tell anything to person about my activity. Maybe I am there and at the same time I am going back and forth waiting. But I din't mention "back and forth", but only "I am going there" when "I am there" doesn't include any physical addition to the sentence.
    – Michael Azarenko
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 18:17
  • @MichaelAzarenko from this question I think you're asking how you express "going" (as in, "moving around") while you're in a particular place and confined to that place? I don't think you could use "going" by itself in this case. You could say "I am going back and forth [like you said] here" or you could be more specific about what type of movement you're engaged in: "I'm walking/running/jogging/etc. around over here". I think you'd have to use a phrase like "back and forth" or "around" to indicate movement within a confined space.
    – Mixolydian
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 19:07
  • But even the phrase "I go back and forth here" doesn't let me be sure for 100% what is meant here: 1) I go back somewhere and then return (to)here 2) I go back and forth already right here within 2 metres. It's like two people, one of them saying: 1) Go back and forth here, meaning in the range of 3 metres ("here" relates to both "back" and "forth" 2) Go back and forth here, meaning going back for 150 metres and forth (to) here ("here" relates only to forth cause "back" is out of the range. 2) Or he goes back and forth there every mon
    – Michael Azarenko
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 3:35

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I would say the verb "to go" has direction built into it.

"I am going there"

means I am going towards or to "there", wherever "there" is (as opposed to "here," where I am now).

"I am there"

means I am at that place ("there") already. People usually wouldn't say this to mean they are in a particular location, though. Instead, it's more likely they would say "I am here." (since "here" is by definition the speaker's current location.) "There" usually means "someplace that is not the place I am in right now." A person might say "I am already there," to mean they started going to another place ("there") and have arrived. Or, "I am almost there," meaning they are on the way to that place but have not arrived yet.

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  • Okay, let's change the verb for "send" for instance. -What about that room? -I send the letters there. How should I get it? I send the letters already being in that place(already being there) or I send them "to there" not being in that place originally? It may be hard to find the perfect exmaple with the equal rights of the each variant to be in, but the idea itself is interesting for me.
    – Michael Azarenko
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 18:14
  • I think you might be confusing "from there" and "there" ? If you say "I am sending a letter from there," that means you're located "there" and sending a letter to somewhere else (not "there"). If you say "I am sending a letter there, that means you are not located "there" and are sending a letter to wherever "there" is. You wouldn't normally say "to there" as the "to" is implicit. Does that help?
    – Mixolydian
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 18:24
  • Okay, let's imagine there is a room with two boxes. I come to that room and take the letters one by one from the first box and send them to the second one. It's like changing the box. Being outside the room and having said "I send the letters from there" means the letters achieve the B point which is outside the original space but in my situation both A and B point and I myself are in the same area - in the room. I guess it would be I send them there. But if I step out of the room and send the letter into it's like sending it to there. What about this example?=)
    – Michael Azarenko
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 18:54
  • @MichaelAzarenko I think what you're asking is how to distinguish doing an action in a certain place as opposed to doing an action where something goes to a certain place. Right? "I sent it there" will pretty much always mean "I sent it to there." If you want to say something that means "I sent it while I was located over there," you would say "I sent it from there," or more verbosely, "I sent it while I was there." Does that answer your question? In English, "send to there" has the same meaning as "send there" but just sounds redundant.
    – Mixolydian
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 19:20
  • If a person will(one more moment) say "I sent it while I was located over there" - I don't know what he means. Either sending something along the territory of "there" or sending behind the territories of it Even "behind". I throw a rock behind the house or to behind the house Behind the house should mean I'm behind the house myself and throw the rocks there To behind should mean I am not behind the house yet but throw the rocks in the direction of it I sent it from there should mean "it" is not on the territory of sending but it can be still there, it's the confusion
    – Michael Azarenko
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 3:26

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