“He went the other way” or “He went to the other way”

Although it may be obvious which one is correct for a native speaker of English, it may be difficult for those whose first language is not English.

Here, a preposition is not necessary with the word way in this situation. Way is a general direction or method, not a specific location or destination. Therefore, you do not need the preposition to in this sentence.

If you replace way with a physical location, the sentence would be correct with the preposition to:

He went to the other side.
He went to the other building.

An easy way to tell whether way or any other word in question is a general direction or specific location is by asking: Can I be located or standing at ____?

You can be located at the other side.
You can be located at the other building.
You cannot be located at the other way.

Here are some similar prepositional mistakes made by ESL writers:

He walked toward to the library. → He walked toward the library.
- Putting the preposition to in between toward and library is incorrect. You do not need to put a preposition between toward and the destination in the sentence.
We took the ropes and walked toward to the base of the mountain. → We took the ropes and walked toward the base of the mountain.
- A side note: Toward is the preferred spelling in American English, while towards (with an s) is the preferred in British English.
She reached to the concert hall by noon. → She reached the concert hall by noon.
- Reach is another word that does not a preposition between it and the destination that follows. The same goes with approach:
The office is near to Central Park. → The office is near Central Park.
- Near denotes a relative location and like toward, reach, and approach, does not require a preposition between it and the specific location:
Don’t run toward to the radiator. → Don’t run toward the radiator.

Arrived is a slightly different case. Instead of taking out an unnecessary preposition, if the preposition is to followed by a specific location, it has to be changed to at or in: