What is the difference between 戻る and 帰る

[NemuiKitsune]

I was in the middle of reading ももたろう (or well, really just the first few lines ) and along with it are translations of some words. One of the things that お祖母さん in the story says is 「もどってきなされ」, with two little translation things:
もどる、もどります、もどって、戻る = return, come back
きなされ = dialect of きなさい command form of くる .
I was just wondering, is there any BIG difference between using 帰る and 戻る in a given situation?
Would I be able to say
たとえば：早く戻って来てなさい。
and 早く帰って来てなさい interchangebly?
I won't ask about saying something like もう帰るぞ (in a casual situation of course) because I'm used to saying 帰る to say "I'm going home."
Thanks in advance!

[thegooseking]

NemuiKitsuneさん、

My interpretation of it is that 戻る is a bit more negative than 帰る. 戻る seems to be more often used to mean returning or recovering from (or because of) something bad, while 帰る is more returning because that's what you intended to do anyway.

So I don't think 早く戻って来てなさい。 is a very good thing to say in general, because it seems to imply that you want them to have some negative experience to return from. But you might say it if you already know they are having a negative experience, and want them to return/recover from it quickly.

However, I should say that that's not an authoritative answer; that's just my impression.

小狼

[Teabag]

Hello all,
I found a page explaining the difference of ｢戻る｣と｢帰る｣.
What's more, it's in English! Take a look if you have time.

https://sites.google.com/site/studyjapa ... -no-chigai

Teabag

[NemuiKitsune]

ありがとうございました、 goosekingさん、 teabagさん。
I think I understand the difference better now. In the story, the old women says 「早う戻ってきなされ」 as the old man is going out to the mountain to cut wood.
According to what you said Goosekingさん, the way she is saying it is more carrying to the fact that it may be dangerous out in the mountains cutting wood.

[community.japanese]

NemuiKitsuneさん、子狼さん、Teabag さん、
seems I'm a bit late for the party...

If I could add a bit, the main difference between 戻る and 帰る is that you can 戻る to anywhere,
but you can only 帰る to where you belong. If you 戻る to somewhere, you were there earlier and
you simply go back to where you were earlier, while you 帰る to where you belong (i.e. home,
family, your company, etc.) from anywhere you are.

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[NemuiKitsune]

Oh I see. So for example if a friend had to go do something on school campus (or well, literally just for example, none of my friends where I live speak Japanese[as far as I know]) I'd be able to say ”すぐに戻ってね？”

[community.japanese]

NemuiKitsune さん、
はい、そうです！
You mean "come back soon" (to where you are, as you'll be waiting for your friends to come back after
s/he's done everything at school campus, right?
We'd probably use more 戻って来てね with 来る included.
We often use 行く or 来る which are not reflected in English translation:
行って来る
買って来る
持って行く
帰って行く etc. etc.

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com