de la casa or de casa
Hello, everyone!
I kept writing "de la casa" in my Spanish homework and my teacher kept correcting it and crossing out the "la". De casa doesn't (yet) sound natural to me, perhaps under the influence of French (de la maison) and Italian (della casa). I suppose I just have to accept that it is different in Spanish.
However, it did get me thinking where the rule of referring to a specific noun, one needs to use the definite article would apply here. So if I were to say I leave home at 8:00 in the mornings: I should say, "Salgo de casa a las 8 por la mañana.". But if I meant to say, I left the house, my house, not anyone else's, at 8:00, could I then say, "Salgo de la casa a las 8."?
As a by the by, I can't remember whether restaurants use especialidad de la casa or especialidad de casa, or platos del día, or platos de día. Perhaps I need to go to Spain again soon to verify, and before the strikes start ...!
TTFN !
4 Answers
Wow, not that is really surpring for me, Pibo.
Actually in Spain at least we often say: me voy a mi casa...ayer salí a las ocho de mi casa.
So my students often enough say: I left my house, I went to my house.... 
So, it should be, I left home, and I came home....
Really, it is the same in Spanish in this case.
me voy a casa: I am going home (no article in either sentence)
SAlgo de casa....I am leaving home
Hmmm, the difficulty lies in the use of the preposition in Spanish, but the article?? That should not be difficult to remember as we don't use an article in either language. 
Remember you can only use the article though, if you don't refer to somebody's home...just any house at all.
Me voy a casa.
Me voy a casa de Pepe.
Me voy de casa.
P E R O
Me voy a la casa de monedas.
me voy a la casa de la esquina.
Yeah, French, I don't like French
jeje
But if I meant to say, I left the house, my house, not anyone else's, at 8:00, could I then say, "Salgo de la casa a las 8."?
Well, no.
However, it is different to use any house at all.
El otro día entré en la casa de la esquina. Esa casa está deshabitada. Cuando salí de la casa era de noche.
Thanks, Heidi for the explanation. I'll just say de casa, de casa, de casa ... to myself until it becomes natural.
Hmmm, the difficulty lies in the use of the preposition in Spanish, but the article?? That should not be difficult to remember as we don't use an article in either language.
Yes, it is the same in both English and Spanish. However, having learned French for soooooo many years, and the fact that it is closer to Spanish than English is, I do "refer" to French more than I do for English. Of course, I accept that French and Spanish are not identical, though they do have a lot of similarities in terms of vocab and grammar. It all makes learning languages "fun"...
