Can some please explain the deference between these two ?
I assume that 帰る has the meaning of returning to the place were you live in (could it also be used with a place where you staying for a limited time, like a hotel?).
So 戻る probably means to return anywhere, can it also be used return home, like 帰る ?
Are these two interchangeable?

帰る does mean 'return home'. It can only be used for a place you feel you really belong, and that's usually just your home.

戻る is more like 'go back'. It can be used for anywhere, but I don't think I've ever heard it refer to going home, since you'd use 帰る for that.

I had a feeling about that, however didn't want to assume wrongly.
Thank you.

I am by far in no position to give advice on japanese (because I'm a noob), but in my experience, here's my thoughts. Usually everywhere I've ever seen 帰る it's referring to something or someone going back to a place they refer to as "home."
Also this sentence I recently saw in KO2001 is similar I think:

これは月の石だ。１９６９年アポロ１１号が持ち帰った。
This is a stone from the moon. In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission brought it back.

It's just using 持ち帰る instead of 帰る, but I think the nuance is similar between the two.

I'm probably wrong on 戻る as I've seen it hundreds of times, but only in a few places (I've never actually looked up it's complete usage before). Video games and internet websites are the 2 places I've seen it used very often. I see it over and over in both places, usually meaning to "return" to the last screen, or simply "go back." I've also seen 戻る used on FF13 when asking to teleport to a previous location.

Those are just my thoughts and assumptions based off what I've seen in my studies. Take it with a grain of salt, I'm a beginner Hopefully one of the forum's more advanced members can clear it up, or correct anything I'm wrong with!

It's actually interesting that you mentioned videogames, because I always see it in games too for example in menus there is always one button with the 戻る label.
I never really thought about it until I saw it was used at the beginning of Final Fantasy 4, first time you speak with Cid, he says something like "you returned", thats when I decided that I have to know exact meaning of 戻る.

.

loverkanji Wrote:I assume that 帰る has the meaning of returning to the place were you live in (could it also be used with a place where you staying for a limited time, like a hotel?).

So if you google for "ホテルに帰った" google claims a huge number of hits, which suggests that the answer here is "yes". I guess if you're in a strange place then your hotel is kind of like a 'home base' while you're there...

You can also 帰る to your workplace in some contexts (for instance, I believe when you go out to lunch, you can then 帰る to your office). It's all about returning to some "home base" relative to where you are going.

.

yudantaiteki Wrote:You can also 帰る to your workplace in some contexts (for instance, I believe when you go out to lunch, you can then 帰る to your office). It's all about returning to some "home base" relative to where you are going.

hmm interesting. I would think you use 戻る for returning to the office. If I do recall a core 2000 sentence says something along the lines of.

今、会社に戻ります

However what you say makes sense, and your Japanese is Lightyears ahead of mine. It just seems like　戻る would be more common when returning to an office or the like. However maybe both are acceptable?

It might help to understand the nuance a little that 戻す means 'to return <something>' like return a book to the library.

I just ask the hubs and he said that to him 戻る is used for shorter periods of time and 帰る is used for longer periods of time. Like if you are heading out and you suddenly realized you forgot something, you would say, 一回戻るね。You're just going to go back real quick and grab the thing and then you'll leave again right away. Whereas 帰る is more common if you've been away for awhile. He said if you went out to lunch and needed to head back to the office you'd say 会社に戻ろう。But, if, for example, you've spent the day in Tokyo and needed to go back to the office, 会社に帰ろう would be more natural.

You can use 帰る for the office. It's pretty normal too.

I use 戻る though because I'm dispatched from a town 教育委員会 to various schools. So when I'm at a school and need to go to the bank I would say 行って戻る but a teacher from that school would say 行って帰る。