"in" versus "at"

1 - I'm at home.

2 - I'm in the home.

3 - I'm at the home.

I understand that the above three sentences are correct. If all the above are correct, then why this one is wrong?

4 - I'm in home.

What is the difference between "I'm at home." and "I'm in home."?

when to use "in" and when to use "at" in sentences?

Solution 1:

First of all when referring to home as the place of residence we never use a determiner. "at/in the home" refers to "home" in another sense, namely a place where people are taken care of, such as old people's home.

Secondly, "in" implies being inside something: either a physical place ("in the bedroom") or as a member of an institution ("in the army"). "at" indicates location while giving more importance to the function than to the actual location. ("At the theatre")

"I'm in home" is wrong because "home" does not refer to a location you can be inside of (but you can say I'm in my house/apartment etc.).

In your example:

"I'm at home" - I'm in the place where I live.

"I'm in the home" - I'm inside the home (old people's home) - stress on physical location, inside the actual building

"I'm at the home" - I'm at the home (old people's home), could be but not necessarily inside the building.

Solution 2:

One needs to take account here of different meanings of the word home. (And, as I speak from the UK, I sense I may run into problems since prepositions are an area where British and American treatment can differ.)

Consider that 'home' can mean:

a) my own home b) someone else's home c) a home in the sense of a nursing or retirement home.

In the case of a) I could only use 'at'. 'I am at home', and I wouldn't normally use the definite article. I could say 'I'm at my/our home', but never 'in home'.

With b) I would most likely say 'I'm at his/her/their home right now'. I could also say 'I'm in his/her.their home'. I would be very unlikely to say 'I'm at (or in) the home' unless I had earlier referred to being at their place of business or in their garden, or somewhere else with them. For emphasis I could say I'm at the home now', but it would be better to say 'I'm at his/her home'.

In the case of c) You can say I'm at the home, or I'm in the home. You would always have to include the definite article unless you refer to it as the home where someone stays. E.g. My elderly father is in a nursing home. I could say 'I'm at his home now' meaning the home where he stays. I could also say 'I'm at the home'.

In Britain we tend not to use 'home' entirely on its own, e.g. 'I'm home', 'she was home when I called', unless we meant 'I have/she has arrived home (from being elsewhere)'