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Grammar detail: への

への  particle へ plus の combination
229 words
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への is a commonly encountered combination of two particles, the direction particle へ, and the nominalizer の.
When used alone, へ indicates direction - so for example it is commonly used to describe going somewhere:
もくようび
木曜日
にほん
日本
きます

I'm going to Japan on Thursday.
As we can see here, the へ is immediately followed by a verb: going (行きます) to (へ) Japan.
The addition of の after the へ turns the direction into a small noun phrase that can be used to modify a different part of speech, such as another noun. Let's look at an example:
ヒルさん
きのう
昨日
にほん
日本
りょこう
旅行
しゅっぱつ
出発
した

Mr Hill went on a journey to Japan yesterday.
As in the first example, we start with 日本へ (to Japan), but by following it with の, we now have a noun phrase which we can link to another noun,
りょこう
旅行
- 'trip to Japan'.
Since 日本 is a noun, we could technically link 日本 and 旅行 directly with の. Since 日本 is obviously a destination, this would be understandable in this situation, but the addition of the へ makes it much clearer that travel is involved.
への can also be used with verbs of 'giving'. Usually, when giving a present, we would use the particle に to indicate directly who we are giving the gift to:
われわれ
我々
はは
とけい
時計
プレゼントした
We gave our mother a watch.
However, the use of へ plus の (nominalizer) now gives us a noun phrase meaning 'the gift for ~' which can be used as part of a more complicated construction:
かれ
はは
おく
もの
だけ
かね
あつ
めた

They scraped up enough money to buy a gift for their mother.
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Kanji used in this grammar

コウ   ギョウ   アン   ゆ    い to go   おこな to take place   
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ニチ   ジツ   sun; day   ひ    -か    
ホン   book   もと origin   
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リョ   たび trip   
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モク   ボク   き    こ- tree   
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ヨウ    day of the week   
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サク    yesterday   
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シュツ   スイ   だ to take out, to put out   で to go out, to exit   
ハツ   ホツ    emission, discharge   
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ガ   I; myself   われ    わが-    
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(kanji repetition symbol)   
ボ   はは mother   
ジ   とき time, occasion   
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ケイ   はからう to arrange   はか to measure, compute   
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ヒ   かれ he   
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ゾウ   おく to present, to give   
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ブツ   モツ   もの thing   
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バイ   か to buy   
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キン   コン   かね gold; money   
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キ   よ to draw near   よせる to bring near   
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シュウ   あつめる to gather   あつまる    つど to assemble   
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