Leaving For or Leaving To

You would have heard your friends or colleagues at the end of a day saying, I am leaving to my house, I am leaving to Bengaluru tomorrow, etc. While you do end up understanding that your friend is going to his house or Bengaluru, you don't realize that 'to' is a preposition that should never be used with the word 'leaving'. If 'leaving for' or 'leaving to' are two phrases that you interchange a lot, remember that leaving to is a blunder. The simple explanation that you find below will let you know whether leaving for or leaving to has to be used hereafter.

Leaving for or leaving to:

What does leaving mean?

1. going away from a place.

2. making things remain as they are, things are left without any changes, etc.

Here, we are going to discuss just the first meaning of leaving. When you say, 'leaving to', it is almost like 'going to' where you use the preposition 'to' to indicate where your destination is. On the other hand, leaving doesn't indicate that you are travelling, it just means that you are leaving a place. You can only give a reason for leaving a particular place. Hence, for is used. The following examples will make you understand better why only 'leaving for' is used.

Examples:

3. I am leaving for America tomorrow.

4. The train will be leaving for Chennai soon.

5. I am leaving for my office.

Examples 3, 4 and 5 are classic and commonly-used ones to let you get a crystal-clear understanding of whether 'leaving for' or 'leaving to' is correct.

By example 3, a person actually means that he/she is leaving a particular place (let this place be India) to reach America. Hence, America is the reason why the person is leaving India. Example 3 can also be said like, I am leaving India to reach America tomorrow. But, everyone knows that the person is currently in India. Hence, India may not be included in the sentence. That is why, the reason alone is mentioned here. I am leaving India because I need to reach America tomorrow. Hence, America is the reason for leaving India. To highlight the reason and to come up with a simple sentence for this big explanation, example 3 is followed. I am leaving for America tomorrow. 

Similarly, examples 4 and 5 also have the preposition 'for' which indicates the reasons Chennai and office. That is, the train is leaving to reach Chennai. A person is leaving to reach his/her office.

I hope you now understand why only 'leaving for' has to be used. So, hereafter when someone asks you whether 'leaving for' or 'leaving to' is correct, let them know the correct phrase with an explanation that would make them never forget why.

Post your comments for further clarification, if required.