Re: USAGE: Internetese deviancy - the definite article

On Tue, Jul 27, 2004 at 09:40:29AM -0700, Gary Shannon wrote:
> I still haven't figured out how the British decide to
> DROP "the" in so many odd places like "going to
> hospital" instead of "going to THE hospital."
Well, they *don't* drop it; we add it. :) It's all a question of
point of view; folks in the UK certainly don't think of it as a case
of "dropping the 'the'".

As I understand it, UK phrases like "in hospital" hospital" are exactly
analogous to US phrases like "in school", "on vacation", etc. - they
refer to a general state, as distinct from "in the school", "on a
vacation", or British "in the hospital", which refer to a specific
school, vacation, or hospital.

-Marcos