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Question for British Yahoo Users...?
Can someone explain to me (an American) why Britons say that they're "in hospital" rather than "in THE hospital"? I could understand leaving out the word "the" when you're talking about something that's more of a procedure or an abstract state of mind -- e.g.; "on vacation", or "in rehab", or "in school". But when you're talking about a distinct, bricks-and-mortar building, why wouldn't you the word "the" to indicate as much?
This is something that's always puzzled me; hopefully someone here can explain to me the logic behind this quirk of Oxford English...
EDIT: I understand what you mean, Jimmy C; but it still seems like there's a qualitative difference. A person can be "in school" for a number of years, but he flows seamlessly from grammar school to high school to a university; and a person is still "in rehab" whether he's checked into a hospital, attending AA meetings, or off at a Betty Ford clinic. It's more of a procedure or a routine, that can change fluidly from one discreet location to another. Whereas a hospital would seem to be much more rigidly defined as within the confines of those four walls and a roof with the big red plus-sign on it. And I guess the flip side of it should be asked as well -- do Britons think it odd when they say they're going to THE hospital?
8 Answers
- Jimmy CLv 710 years agoFavorite Answer
Hospital is an institution, like school and rehab.
People spend a few years in school where they ingest strange chemicals, then spend a few days in hospital, followed by a few weeks in rehab.
- 10 years ago
If I may interject at this point, 1) we don't use the expression rehab, it is totally an American expression, 2) we don't use the expression in school, it is 'at school', on holiday, not vacation, and it is definitely 'in hospital'. You may find the complexities of the spoken English language ( as spoken by the British) as somewhat bizarre, however, nothing is more bizarre than the written American English, honor, and other words where the vowel 'u' is omitted. Or indeed some of the spoken language such as 'Highran and Highraq', most peculiar, still when we take back the colonies you will fall in line with the rest of the world and drop gas for petrol and litre instead of liter.
p.s. we don't have a red cross on our hospitals or Betty Ford clinics.
- Lt KijeLv 610 years ago
"Laziness" has very little to do with it. It is a societal norm and we nearly all follow such norms unless we want to denounce others - a fairly common occurrence. I don't think it gets anyone anywhere. English born and bred and I think I speak the language fairly well.
Source(s): I once saw a poster in a bar in Belgium "Ici on parle Francaise, et nous comprenon les Quebecoise. (Pardon my french) - ?Lv 610 years ago
To say THE would be saying that we are in the best hospital in the country ALREADY!
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- 10 years ago
Many languages in the world eliminate words that do not disturb the meaning of the sentence....makes the sentence more efficient....
- Anonymous10 years ago
Canadians say "Hockey" and Americans say "Ice Hockey".
Idk... But I love the differences from country to country =)
- Anonymous10 years ago
They're too lazy to say the word "the"....which is interesting, because they're so industrious when distinguishing between their t's and d's, which we Americans often don't.
Yeah. I'm going with laziness.
