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I've been learning about particles lately. As I'm still new to the language, I can't tell the difference between these two particles when used for locations for example:

街を歩く

Does this mean walk through town?

街に歩く

Does this mean walk to town?

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「街を歩く」means that people walks around a town and they must be inside of town. Here is another particle 「へ」, which is more familiar than 「に」 in this context. If people said that「街へ歩く」, this means that people head to a town and they probably are on their way to visit and must be outside of town. 「街に歩く」isn't a correct exression to use particle 「に」. To make it more sense with 「に」, I'd say 「街に向かって歩く」, which means almost the same as「街へ歩く」.

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    thanks for the reply but can you explain why 街に歩く　is wrong. isn’t it stating that im going directly to the town unlike the へ particle？
    – Hamzeh
    Jun 5, 2017 at 9:58
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    Yes, it means that people are going directly to the town. Still, it sounds a little weird. One of that reasons is that the noun 「街」 is vague and not specified place. If you say, 「海(山、学校、協会) に行く」, it sounds natural because I know a purpose of you going there w/o mention.
    – Mat Watershed
    Jun 5, 2017 at 22:28
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    The に used for location strongly implies a definite purpose, so 街に歩くsounds strange because you're saying something that sounds like "I go for the purpose of reaching the town", which is rather puzzling under normal circumstances.
    – Philippe
    Jul 5, 2017 at 11:58

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