Doesn't it depend on why you are going? For example; a child might say, 'I am going to school to learn', a parent might say, 'I am going to the school for parents evening.

This suggests to me that there is a subject-object relationship proximity issue rather than a possession issue.

If you say "I'm going to hospital", you aren't specifying the hospital, but it is personally proximate - that is, you are associating yourself and the hospital (whichever) in a close relationship.

Same with a child saying "I'm going to school". It is an intimate part of the child's life and therefore the school, again whichever, is personally proximate to the child and the article is dropped.

However, if the child's parent is going to talk to the child's teacher and says "I'm going to the school to talk to x", you have a much lesser degree of personal proximity. The parent only goes there occasionally and so for him/her the object (the school) is more remote.

In lands other than the US, we would say "I'm going to college" - meaning high school - AND/OR "I'm going to university". Again, the personal proximity to the subject seems to determine whether or not the article is dropped. If you were talking about going to some other college or school and said "I'm going to THE college", you would be implying that you are not going there in an "ordinary" sense. The visit you refer to would have some other purpose (than learning).

Another example which I think applies in both US and non-US English is "I'm going to work", meaning "I'm going to my place of employment", not "I am going to perform some form of labour". Let's not get those two confused anyway!

Yet another example is "I'm going to town", although in this case if you said "I'm going to the town" you would cause confusion, and your interlocutor would probably ask which town you actually intended going to. But again, usually, you are referring to the centre of your current town, or if you live in the country you are referring to the nearest town, or at least the one you go to most often.

Again, it all seems to be down to personal proximity to the object in relation to the subject

But of course there will be exceptions to all of these rules, won't there? It is English, after all!


The idiot also known as Capfka ...