She's got "the" cancer ...

[BwanaBob]

@Cat Jones

Mind you they’re tricky little beasties these articles. Take your hospital example, for a Brit there is a difference in meaning if you use an article or not …

They’ve taken her to X hospital = she needs treatment
He’s gone to the hospital = to visit someone / to work etc.

It works the same way with places like school, university & church.

She goes to ** X** church every Sunday = to pray / take part in the service
She goes to the church every Sunday = to arrange the flowers / polish the silver / chat to the vicar

Is there anything like this in American ?

Interesting, as an American I would always “the” in both hospital examples, yet I would use “the” in the church example exactly as Cat Jones does.

Funny that university is mentioned. We tend to use college/university interchangeably.

But I would say

I go to college (meaning I spend 10 months of my year persuing a degree at an unnamed institute of higher learning, which may indeed be a university or a college)

but…
I go to the college (to have a beer in their pub; it’s cheaper there).

However…

I go to the university

would be context dependent; say I live in Syracuse NY which has a reknowned university, then saying this implies I go to that university to persue a degree. However I could also use this form in the beer/pub example. I would never ever say “I go to university”.

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

@SNenc

Actually, Cecil’s
As for “the cancer”, I and other people my age (early to mid-20s) often use an unnecessary “the” in sort of an ironic way. I know I started using it around when I heard that Tiny Tim once recorded a song called, “Santa Claus Has The AIDS This Year.” My buddies and I also say “the sex” frequently, but I’m not sure when we started that or where we picked it up from. I just know it makes things funny.

I was at a jazz club in DC earlier this spring and the bandleader got the whole crowd laughing when he thanked his family for coming. He said “They came all the way from the Florida to hear their boy play the jazz music!” And it was the “the” that made the remark so funny.

[tracer]

@SNenc

My buddies and I also say “the sex” frequently, but I’m not sure when we started that or where we picked it up from. I just know it makes things funny.

Probably from Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode “The Starfighters” (I think) :

CHARACTER: “I’ve got to get home to the wife.”
TOM SERVO: “Boy, the wife is sure going to be glad to see the me! We’re going to have the sex.”

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

Apparently it’s also possible to get ‘the gay’.

[alimarx]

IIRC, Kirk would refer to “the Enterprise”. Archer, however, simply calls his ship “Enterprise”.

[chorpler]

@pestie

This is making its way into popular culture. I believe there was an episode of Friends where reference was made to “the sex,” as in, “We’re going to have the sex.”

I believe that was “The One Where Everybody Finds Out,” where Phoebe was hitting on Chandler as a joke because she knew he was in a secret relationship with Monica, and he was hitting on her because Monica didn’t want “her team” to be the one to cave in first. One of the things Chandler said to Phoebe, as best I can recall without cracking open the DVDs and verifying the exact phrasing, was “I’m very happy we’re going to be having all the sex.”

It was hysterical – made me get the laughter right quick, it did.

[Fish]

@Cat Jones

They’ve taken her to X hospital = she needs treatment
He’s gone to the hospital = to visit someone / to work etc.

It works the same way with places like school, university & church.

She goes to ** X** church every Sunday = to pray / take part in the service
She goes to the church every Sunday = to arrange the flowers / polish the silver / chat to the vicar

Is there anything like this in American ?

To continue the hijack, I agree with BwanaBob.

In my version of American English:
I go to the hospital = I am traveling to that destination for purposes unspecified.
I go to hospital = not used

I go to college = I attend that facility for educational purposes
I go to the college = I am traveling to that institution

Further clarification about hospital visits is with the prepositions at and in:
she is in the hospital = almost always means that she has an ailment requiring treatment
she is in hospital = not used
she is at the hospital = that is her present location, but she is not a patient