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While studying Japanese through Rosetta Stone, I've run across these two
sentences:

私は仕事に行きます。

私は仕事場にいます。

I'm confused as to why the first sentence doesn't use "仕事場" since the person
is going to the workplace.
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2013-05-20T19:25:28.600
11923
2013-05-22T13:43:58.493
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question
grammar word-choice
Question about 仕事 vs. 仕事場
仕事に行く is standard for "go to work", just as in English we don't tend to use
'go to the/my workplace', although you might use 'office' as an alternative if
you work in one. I think the purpose is implied - you are going to move from
your current location to another location, and work there.

仕事場 would be used if you wanted to clarify that you meant the location. If you
were talking about visiting someone else's workplace, or going back outside
working hours to pick something up, for example, you might use 仕事場 (or other
terms such as 事務所{じむしょ} or 職場{しょくば}) instead of 仕事.

So when talking about physical location, 仕事場にいます is logical. If you wanted to
just indicate that you are working, including if you were working from home,
then something like 仕事中です can be used instead.
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2013-05-21T12:38:27.467
11936
2013-05-21T12:38:27.467
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answer
The difference is the same as the difference in English between "work" and
"place of work".

私は仕事に行きます。= I go to work.

私は仕事場にいます = I am in "my place of work" / "my/the office".

It is that easy - although

私は仕事に行きます。= is more likely than: 私は仕事場にいます行きます。

私は仕事場にいます。
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-22T13:43:58.493
11941
2013-05-22T13:43:58.493
1556
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answer