Re: Countries with needless definite article.

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

mje@xxxxxxxx wrote:
> [Matt Gumm:]
> > Michael: do Australians go "in the hospital," like Americans, or do
> > they go "in hospital," like the English?
>
>    They go "to hospital".
>    I've never heard of the others, not even in American or British
> novels I've read from time to time.
What I've seen in British novels is "So and so is in hospital."
But I think the distinction between "to" for Latin in with the
accusative and "in" for Latin in with the ablative holds in both
versions of English. So Brits and Americans go "to": Brits to
hospital, Americans to the hospital. And Brits are in hospital,
Americans in the hospital.
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx