Grammar is the greatest joy in life, don’t you find?
If you asked students of English what posed the biggest problem to them when learning English grammar they would probably come up with the same answer: the usage of the articles. Here is the principle difference between the two: we use a (the indefinite article) to speak generally and the (the definite article) when we need to be specific. However, it can be quite demanding to determine when something is specific and when not. Fortunately, certain usages of the articles are well described. One of these is the usage of the definite article with various institutions. The overall rule is pretty simple; when we are talking about the normal purpose of an institution (e. g. of school, prison, hospital) we use these nouns without the definite article (e. g. My daughter goes to school in Dubrava.; The criminals were sent to prison.; She was taken to hospital because he felt sick.) On the other hand when we use these nouns in order to refer to a specific building we use the (e. g. Last month they went to see the school built by Le Corbusier.; He often visits the prison where his friend works.; We heard that the hospital was to be built next to our building.) This is rather logical when we come to think of the general rules for the usage of the articles. The most common examples are those of nouns like school/collage/university, church, court, hospital, prison. We can extend the rule to a number of similar nouns like bed, home, work, sea. When these are used or visited for their primary purpose, the is not used. However, when these places are visited or used for other reasons, the is necessary. Notice the difference between these two usages:
