Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <meaning><word-difference>
Title: What is the difference between 'go camping' and 'go to camp'?
Question: I go camping weekends.  I go to camp.   What is the difference between 'go camping' and 'go to camp'?

Answers:
sents: text: To go camping means to go to the wilderness (or semi-wilderness) for a few days or a week or so, alone or in a small group, sleeping under the stars or in a tent.
text: You might cook meals over a fire.
text: To go to camp means to go a compound that has been built in a wilderness area, with cabins, a cafeteria, sports facilities, a pond or lake perhaps with canoes, or a swimming pool.
text: There will be dozens or perhaps hundreds of other campers there.
text: They will usually be grouped by age, and they will typically be children, or young teens, not adults.
text: There will be organized activities in which the campers are expected to participate.
text: There are other kinds of camps that do not involve wilderness, but they would not be relevant here, since you have asked in the context of "go camping".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/10264/Tᴚoɯɐuo
score: 13
sents: text: I go to camp explains your reason for going.
text: Why do people go to the park on weekends?
text: Some go to watch birds, others go to fish.
text: I go to camp.
text: I go camping simply tells of an activity you like to do.
text: Jane goes birdwatching most weekends in the summer.
text: John likes to go fishing.
text: Me?
text: I go camping on weekends.
text: Both sentences are grammatical, but they are used in different situations.
text: As a footnote, TRomano has given a different interpretation from mine, but neither answer is wrong.
text: He is using camp as a noun , which is another way your very brief sentence could be interpreted.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/113/J.R.
score: 6
sents: text: "go to camp" means going to a place called "camp" "camp" generally reffers to a place where someone has set up and organised activity (maybe for pleasure, maybe for training), typically (though not always) involving staying overnight and living in close proximity with the rest of the people doing the activity.
text: It may involve actual camping (staying in tents) or there may be some kind of fixed accomodation.
text: "go camping" means to go and perform the activity known as camping (likely in combination with other things).
text: Camping means going to stay in a tent or similar.
text: Possiblly in the wilderness, possiblly on a campsite.
text: Possiblly as part of an organised group, possiblly not.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/25212/Peter Green
score: 2
sents: text: Camping is an activity.
text: Camp is a place.
text: To "go to camp" generally implies going to a particular camp, which encompasses certain types of activities, thus implying that such activities will be engaged in at camp.
text: However; going to camp does not necessarily imply actual camping, in the sense that there are football camps, baseball camps, basketball camps and so on in addition to organized summer camps, and all of which imply something different from going to a campground (or not) for a night or a week, whether in the backcountry or in a paved spot with water, electrical and sewer hookups at your local KOA campground.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/30592/Craig
score: 2
sents: text: Activity vs.
text: Intent/Purpose
text: I go camping weekends.
text: I go to camp.
text: What is the difference between 'go camping' and 'go to camp'?
text: From a colloquial standpoint, the first sentence is pretty unambiguous, but is missing some connecting words.
text: It sounds more natural to say "I go camping on weekends", implying that you go every weekend as "on weekends" denotes "on each weekend".
text: In very informal speech you might elide "on", but it sounds sloppy to the native ear.
text: The sentence would be much stronger if you added a descriptive phrase to indicate how often you go, or why you are going.
text: For example: "I go camping each weekend in the summer, and once a month in the winter."
text: On the other hand, "I go to camp" is pretty ambiguous, and depends a great deal on context.
text: For example, it might mean: I go to summer camp.
text: (A place children often go for recreation and supervision in the summer.)
text: I go to base camp after each climb.
text: (Something you might do if you're attempting to scale Mt. Everest.)
text: I go back to the camp after hiking the trail for a few hours.
text: (A reasonable answer to what your activity schedule looks like.)
text: I go to camp.
text: (A potentially reasonable answer to a question like "Why do you go to a national park every other weekend?")
text: I am going back to camp.
text: (A reasonable answer to "Where are you going now?") Other answers will doubtless address parts of speech and grammatical construction, but idiomatically or colloquially you should generally use the first form unless you're trying to communicate something rather specific about your activities.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/25285/CodeGnome
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
Both sentences are grammatical, but they are used in different situations.  To go camping  means to go to the wilderness (or semi-wilderness) for a few days or a week or so, alone or in a small group, sleeping under the stars or in a tent.  To  go to camp  means to go a compound that has been built in a wilderness area, with organized activities, cabins, a cafeteria, sports facilities, a pond or lake perhaps with canoes, or a swimming pool.
Camping is an activity, camp is a place.