# Quick UK grammar question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 20, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728 "2008-08-20T22:03:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/1 "2008-08-20T22:03:19Z")
In Queen’s English, would the following sentence be grammatically correct? “Stacy was born in hospital.” ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/2 "2008-08-20T22:05:00Z")
Sounds reet proper to me like! ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/3 "2008-08-20T22:27:02Z")
So what is it about the word hospital that’s so special. You wouldn’t say that someone was “in house” or “in factory”. Shouldn’t it be in the hospital? Does that sound wrong to UK folk? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/4 "2008-08-20T22:32:31Z")
[QUOTE=dolphinboy] So what is it about the word hospital that’s so special. You wouldn’t say that someone was “in house” or “in factory”. Shouldn’t it be in the hospital? Does that sound wrong to UK folk? [/QUOTE] A patient is “in hopistal”: a member of staff works “in the hospital” (or “for the hospital”), and a visitor may be “in the hospital” seeing a friend. It’s not just physical location: it’s status, just as students are “at school” or “at university”, while their teachers are not. ---
**Author:** ![Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lo-Slung_Denim)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/5 "2008-08-20T22:33:09Z")
Sounds good. That is how I would say or write that statement. Can’t find a cite to prove it, but I do have English GCSE _and_ A Level 😉 UK folk tend to miss out ‘the’ or ‘a’ in such sentences. E.g. ‘I had the measles when I was four’ vs ‘I had measles when I was four’. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/6 "2008-08-20T22:55:50Z")
[QUOTE=dolphinboy] So what is it about the word hospital that’s so special. You wouldn’t say that someone was “in house” or “in factory”. Shouldn’t it be in the hospital? Does that sound wrong to UK folk? [/QUOTE] Actually, you would, in certain contexts. I work in software quality assurance for educational software (which, incidentally, is why I’m asking the question: it’s come up in the game I’m working on as being a wrong answer to a grammar question.) Some of our games are contracted out to independent companies, and some of our games are done “in house.” ---
**Author:** ![mutantmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@mutantmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mutantmoose)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/7 "2008-08-20T22:58:29Z")
Or you may be sent to prison. Whereas if you were visiting someone there, you would be going to the prison. ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/8 "2008-08-20T23:02:11Z")
When I was 19, I was at university. That meant that each day, hangover permitting, I’d go to lectures at _the_ university. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/9 "2008-08-21T13:53:34Z")
“Born in the hospital” is not wrong in British English, but it would tend to be used if you were indicating a specific hospital, e.g. “I hear Stacy’s mother went into labour on the way to the hotel. Did she give birth in the car?” “No, Stacy was born in the hospital”, as opposed to “Did Stacy’s mother have a home birth?” “No, the baby was born in hospital”. On re-reading, that seems a rather fine distinction, but I believe it does exist (although “in hospital” could probably be used in the first case as well as the second). Whether it helps you is another matter! ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/10 "2008-08-21T14:03:49Z")
‘Stacy was born in the hospital’ implies that there is only one hospital, or at any rate a specific hospital. English English would normally omit the definite article in this case. One the other hand, even Americans would say, “I went to school today”, not “I went to the school today”. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/11 "2008-08-21T14:09:54Z")
[QUOTE=Mk VII] One the other hand, even Americans would say, “I went to school today”, not “I went to the school today”. [/QUOTE] It depends on the meaning: “I went to school today” suggests that you are a student or teacher at the school. On the other hand, you might say. “I live across the road from X High School, and **I went to the school today** to complain about the students’ behaviour leaving school.” ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/12 "2008-08-21T14:32:07Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] It depends on the meaning: “I went to school today” suggests that you are a student or teacher at the school. On the other hand, you might say. “I live across the road from X High School, and **I went to the school today** to complain about the students’ behaviour leaving school.” [/QUOTE] Yes, so why doesn’t American English make the same distinction with hospital? 🙂 “He was sick so he had to go to hospital.” “He went to visit his sick grandmother but there was nowhere to park at the hospital.” ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/13 "2008-08-21T14:55:33Z")
Didn’t we do this a couple of weeks ago? (or should I say, “a couple weeks” ;)) Ah yes, [Why do British English speakers omit the definite article? “Go to Hospital!”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=476290) ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/14 "2008-08-21T15:35:31Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Didn’t we do this a couple of weeks ago? (or should I say, “a couple weeks” ;)) Ah yes, [Why do British English speakers omit the definite article? “Go to Hospital!”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=476290) [/QUOTE] We’ve done it many times over the years. As ever, these Commonwealth English versus US English threads, the black and white tends to dissolve as more folks come in with more examples. It’s not that Commonwealth speakers omit the “the” and American ones keep it. It’s just that we Commonwealth types omit it in slightly more examples. But neither side keeps entirely to one rule. Americans don’t make the _I’m going to hospital/I’m going to THE hospital_ distinction, but they still do it with “school”. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/15 "2008-08-21T17:52:27Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Cat] On re-reading, that seems a rather fine distinction, but I believe it does exist (although “in hospital” could probably be used in the first case as well as the second). Whether it helps you is another matter! [/QUOTE] It does indeed! I’m working on an educational video game, and one of the questions is, “Stacy was born in \_\_\_\_\_.” The player is given a list of possible words to fill in the blank. “May” is considered a correct answer, but “hospital” is also a possible choice. Since the game is being released in both the US and the UK, the answers have to be correct for both kinds of English. So we’re going to replace “hospital” with “apples,” to avoid confusion. Thanks for everyone’s help with this! ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-uk-grammar-question/460728/16 "2008-08-21T23:31:31Z")
Or “Stacy was born in confusion”. 🙂