English Vocabulary Lesson – Learn The Difference Between Visit vs. Go

Building up your vocabulary is essential when you are learning a second language. In this English lesson, let’s look at the difference between Visit and Go. This will help you in your everyday English conversations, as well as on English tests such as the TOEIC exam.

A lot of tourists visit New York City every year. Have you been here? I recommend you visit the Statue of Liberty and Central Park. Of course, you are always welcome to visit me! My friend Fraser came to visit me last month and we had a great time visiting the Top of the Rock. We went to Lombardi’s to eat pizza after that.

Some of my students have trouble deciding whether to use visit or go, so today, I’m going to show you how to use visit.

First of all, as a verb, visit means to go and see a person for social or official reasons. When you talk about one person going to see another person, it is also possible to use visit with:

I visited my aunt last weekend.
Fraser visited me on his way back to his hometown.
The accounting manager is visiting with the marketing manager this afternoon.
Jenny visits with her grandparents every Sunday.

We also use visit with the meaning of go and see a place for official reasons:

The CEO is visiting our office tomorrow.
The health department sends inspectors to visit restaurants at least once a year.

When you talk about one person going to see another person, it is also possible to use visit with

Also as a verb, we use visit to mean go and see a tourist attraction or sightseeing place:

Many people visit Times Square each day.
I’d like to visit Niagara Falls one day.

In most other situations of moving from one place to the other, like a building, we use go:

I usually go to the coffee shop in the morning. Not, I usually visit the coffee shop.
I want to go to Yankee stadium this weekend.

In some cases, a place or building can also be a tourist attraction and you can use either go or visit:

Let’s go to the museum (or) lets visit the museum.
I went to Las Vegas last week (or) I visited Las Vegas last week.

We also use visit as a noun:

I had a nice visit with grandma last weekend.
The CEO said his visit to the factory was productive.

Finally, you can use the idiom pay [someone] a visit which means to go and see a person for social or official reasons:

I paid my aunt a visit last weekend.
The CEO is paying our office a visit tomorrow.

Have you visited someone recently? Has anyone paid you a visit? Leave a comment below and practice using visit.

If you know anyone who might be interested in this English language point, why not help them out! Just share this lesson with them. Thanks for studying today!

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