Differences between zu Haus/nach Haus/zu Hause/von zu Hause REVISITED

Question

Firstly, obviously I am aware of the other thread. What is different is that in the other thread it is not clear what people use to say when they are going to someone else's house or coming from.

I have made the following conjecture which needs confirmation:

• (komme) von zu Hause: I come from my house.
• (gehe) nach Hause: I go to my house.
• (gehe) zu (jemandes) Haus: I go to someone else's house (more correctly, I go to a house different that the subject's house).
• (bin) zu Hause: I am in my house.
• (bin) im Haus: I am in someone else's house (more correctly, in a house different than that of the subject's house).

Thanks!

Answer 1

von zu Hause

Duden recommends to write it like that but it was and is common to write it

von zuhause

which is great because it makes it clear this is a different word than

Ich gehe zu jemandes Haus.

Same for nachhause, though it's more common to write nach Hause.

So, zuhause/zu Hause and nachhause/nach Hause are fixed phrases, meaning at home and towards home. Same with von zuhause/von zu Hause, which is a fixed phrase meaning from home.

Das Haus in contrary never means home but always an arbitrary house (or lineage).

Answer 2

None of your conjectures is completely correct.

Note:

• zu Hause = home (when talking about a place)
• nach Hause = home (when talking about a direction)
• Haus (no e) = house

A house is a building, but a home is a place where someone lives. Many people (like me) live in an apartment. Some live in tents, some on boats. Neither an apartment nor a tent nor a boat is a house. But they are all homes.

And houses are not always used for living. Also offices and shops are in houses.

• Ich komme von zu Hause.

  I'm coming from home.

  This means: I was at the place where I live, and I came directly from this place. Between leaving my home and entering here I made no longer stop at any other location. When I live in a tent, then I come directly from this tent.

• Ich gehe nach Hause.

  I go home.

  I will move to the place where I live. When I live in a boat, then I go to this boat.

• Ich gehe zu Karins Haus.

  I go to Karin's house.

  Note, that here we are not speaking of a home, but of a house. The sentence says, that I go to a house that belongs to Karin. The sentence doesn't say that I enter the house, and it doesn't say, that Karin lives there (but both is possible, we just can't know it when we have only this sentence). (Karin might own many houses, maybe used as shops or offices, and she might live in an apartment.)

  But if the owner of the house is the subject of the sentence, then the subject goes to his own house:

  Ich gehe zu meinem Haus.
  I go to my house.

  (And again we don't know if I live there and if I will enter the house.)

• Ich bin zu Hause.

  I am at home.

  This means: I am at the place where I live. When I say this sentence, then I am in the apartment that I did rent to live.

• Ich bin im Haus.

  I am in the house.

  Note: im = in dem, where »dem« is a definite article ("the" in English). So, here we are talking about a specific house, and I tell somebody that I am in it. I might be a police officer that inspects a shop where an alarm came from, and after entering the house, I tell my colleagues via radio, that I am in the house now.

  But I also could be in my own house. Lets say, I own a house with some green around it, and I live there, and on my ground there also is a little hut. My wife comes home, and she believes that I am in the hut, but she doesn't find me there. So she calls me on the phone and asks me:

  wife: Wo bist du? (Where are you)
  me: Ich bin im Haus. (I am in the house)