School/the school, prison/the prison

UNIT 71  School/the school, prison/the prison

A.    School         college        prison/jail               church
Compare these examples:

• Mrs. Kelly went to the school to meet her son's teachers.

• The children are going to school.

We say:

• a child goes to school. (as a student)

• a student goes to college. (to study)

• a criminal goes to prison or to jail. (as a prisoner)

• someone goes to church. (for a religious service)

We do not use the when we are thinking of the idea of these places and what they are used for:

• Mr. Kelly goes to church every Sunday. (not to the church)

• After I finish high school, I want to go to college.

• Ken's brother was sent to prison for robbing a bank.                       

We say: "be in or at school college'' (but "be in high school'') and ''be in prison/jail":

• What did you learn at (or in) school today?

• Ken's brother is in jail. (or in prison)

Now study these examples with the:

• Mrs. Kelly went to the school to meet her son's teachers. (she went there as a visitor, not as a pupil)

• Ken went to the prison to visit his brother (as a visitor, not as a prisoner; he went to the jail where his brother was)

• The workers went to the church to repair the roof. (they didn't go to a religious service)

B.   bed     work       home

We say:

''go to bed/be in bed'' (not the bed)

• It's time to go to bed now

• Is Tom still in bed?

go to work/be at work/start work/finish work," etc. (not the work):

• Why isn't Ann at work today? 

• What time do you finish work?

go home/come home/get home/arrive home (no preposition)

• Come on! Let's go home.

• What time did you get home.

be (at) home/stay (at) home'':

• Will you be (at) home tomorrow? 

• We stayed (at) home.