Gwine Ta

[youngwilliam]

The other day I watched a very short thing involving "Cyberman Coming Back From Pub" (no link; it wasn't all that great), which got me to wondering about Commonwealthy folks dropping the occasional "the" (as often heard when talking about "going to hospital"). About the only times I've heard it dropped in American English is in the phrase "going to

Comments

[jin_shei]

That is exactly how we'd use "go to hospital" - probably in an emergency, but visiting is "the hospital."

[youngwilliam]

I was surprised when I realized that Americans still use this, but only in the context of "going to church" (since if you're going there just to mow their lawn or something, you'd be "going to the church"). Just in reference to church.

Much like when I realized we still do the "day/month/year" thing when we refer to the Fourth of July, but it's "month/day/year" for every other case.

Does anyone ever use it in reference to rooms inside a house (EG: "Going to kitchen", when you're planning to make food. "Going to bathroom", when you're planning to... bathe?), or is it just external structures?

[jin_shei]

You go to bathe, but to the bathroom, or to have a bath. It seems to be functional external structures. Although it is also regional - up north, they might drop "the church" to "t'church" which might then again drop to "church".

[elvenforever]

Sounds like you found yourself in the middle of the next Stephen King novel. :)

[youngwilliam]

Sort of a combination of King's Insomnia and Lovecraft's From Beyond.

[elvenforever]

Hmmm, I'm not familiar with either of those, so I wouldn't know. :)