# I will watch game tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 19, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746 "2013-01-19T21:56:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Jinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Captain\_Jinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Jinks)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/1 "2013-01-19T21:56:42Z")
Why don’t we “watch the television”? The article is used in other cases: we “listen to the radio”, “watch the game”, “read a book”. (“Listening to music” is the only other article-less audience activity I can call to mind.) ---
**Author:** ![KermitTheFrig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KermitTheFrig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KermitTheFrig)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/2 "2013-01-20T00:38:24Z")
My grandparents certainly did watch “the tele_VIS_ion,” but they reached maturity in the days before TV. And they often referred to it as “the set.” Usually I watch television, but turn off _the_ television. We listen to music, buy we also play a song and we watch a program. We often use the word television in the more general sense of broadcasting or programming. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/3 "2013-01-21T14:17:54Z")
> [@Captain\_Jinks](#): > > Why don’t we “watch the television”? The article is used in other cases: we “listen to the radio”, “watch the game”, “read a book”. (“Listening to music” is the only other article-less audience activity I can call to mind.) I’m pretty sure that in my position as a Brit I “watch the television”. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/4 "2013-01-21T14:31:38Z")
Yes, as a Kiwi I turn on the tv or watch the television. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/5 "2013-01-21T14:49:02Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > I’m pretty sure that in my position as a Brit I “watch the television”. Do you? If someone asked what you were doing at 9pm last night, would you say you were watching the television, not “I was watching television/TV”? Though you might well say the telly instead of just telly. Not sure why it happens, though. I thought perhaps it had something to do with the other phrases referring more obviously to the devices themselves, but I’m not sure that theory holds water. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/6 "2013-01-21T14:54:45Z")
We often omit the definite article when referring to an activity rather than the tangible thing itself. Regard: go to school, go to church, go to temple, go to work. In these cases we are referring to the activity of studying, worshipping and employment. I think the same reasoning applies to television. We’re referring to the activity of being entertained, informed or educated by a tv program, rather than sitting on the sofa and staring at the inanimate box of circuits and wires. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/7 "2013-01-21T14:59:45Z")
Watch the television: it has an exploding penguin on it. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/8 "2013-01-21T15:04:52Z")
> [@KermitTheFrig](#): > > My grandparents certainly did watch “the tele_VIS_ion,” but they reached maturity in the days before TV. And they often referred to it as “the set.” My husband’s grandmother used to ask if we wanted to “look at TV.” I think that was a fairly common phrase in her age group. I have long been fascinated by the generational difference in usage – “watching TV” seems to imply paying a lot more attention to the program than “looking at TV” does. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/9 "2013-01-21T16:12:08Z")
You might not be able to “read book” in the US, but you can “read literature” or “read science fiction”. Could “television” in the OP be a mass noun? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/10 "2013-01-21T16:51:43Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > Yes, as a Kiwi I turn on the tv or watch the television. Yeah, but when you’re sick you’re “in hospital” whereas we Yanks are “in the hospital”. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/11 "2013-01-21T18:05:58Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Do you? If someone asked what you were doing at 9pm last night, would you say you were watching the television, not “I was watching television/TV”? Though you might well say the telly instead of just telly. > > Not sure why it happens, though. I thought perhaps it had something to do with the other phrases referring more obviously to the devices themselves, but I’m not sure that theory holds water. Both “I was watching television” and “I was watching the television” wouldn’t sound odd in British English. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/12 "2013-01-21T18:27:35Z")
> [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > Both “I was watching television” and “I was watching the television” wouldn’t sound odd in British English. How about if you used “telly” instead? Would “I was watching telly” sound odd? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Jinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Captain\_Jinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Jinks)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/13 "2013-01-21T18:29:49Z")
A mass noun is one in which “any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete subsets”, according to the Wikipedia article. I see the distinction between “that television” (or “that brand of television”) vice “entertainment that I watch on my set”. The same distinction may be drawn between my church building and participation in “the church triumphant throughout the ages, terrible as an army with banners” (C. S. Lewis.) Linguistic use of mass nouns does vary between languages. British English speakers: my B. English is outdated, but my recollection is that one watched “the telly”. Is that not still the case? I will think of it as a mass noun. I will now go drink water. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/14 "2013-01-21T18:49:59Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > How about if you used “telly” instead? Would “I was watching telly” sound odd? Nope, completely normal. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/15 "2013-01-21T19:59:52Z")
> [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > Both “I was watching television” and “I was watching the television” wouldn’t sound odd in British English. I’m British too, and if someone said they were watching the television I’d wonder if they thought it was going to jump up and run around the room. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/16 "2013-01-22T10:35:15Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I’m British too, and if someone said they were watching the television I’d wonder if they thought it was going to jump up and run around the room. Maybe it’s regional. Both sound perfectly fine to me and I \*thinK I use it with the definite article usually. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/17 "2013-01-22T11:27:26Z")
[Roger Mellie, The Man on the Telly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Mellie) I also have a vague feeling that “the television” is a regional thing, or maybe an older person’s thing (no offence, **amanset** ). At least it sounds like something my older, northern relatives would say. Whether due to age or northernness, I am not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/18 "2013-01-22T13:03:23Z")
I’m Australian… to me “The Man on the Telly” means he’s a man that appears on television (or should that be on -the- television, I’m all confused now), but when his show was actually in progress, he would be “on telly” But as per amanset, neither would sound odd to me. As opposed to “being in the hospital” which would. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/19 "2013-01-22T13:49:58Z")
There was a (bad) joke that I found funny as a child: “Is there anything on the telly?” “Just the goldfish bowl, same as usual.” For me, an Irish person, “watching the television” or “watching television” are both okay. So when I read in the OP “Why don’t we watch the television?”, it sounded more like a suggestion than a question. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746/20 "2013-01-22T16:50:43Z")
However, he got game. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-will-watch-game-tonight/647746.md?page=2)