[Grammar] Fixed Articles in Place Expressions

[toloue_man]

Hi!

I was reading a book a short while ago. In one of the units, the book introduces a few place expressions. Among these place expressions, some of them have an article in their structures and some of them do not. For e.g.:

Some of them have the article "a": at a club, at a restaurant,
Some of them have the article "the": at the mall, at the restaurant, at the park
Some of them do not have any article: at home

Now, I would like to know that are these expressions fixed in terms of article usage or it is the context that determines whether the sentence needs an article or not?

And my last question is that is the same rule applied to other nouns rather than place expressions such as the followings?:

• Drive a car
• Ride a bike
• Ride a motorcycle
• Take a taxi

And on the other side of the coin, we have the article "the"

• Take the bus
• Take the train
• Take the subway

To put my question in a nutshell:
In the above-mentioed phrases, is the article fixed or the article usage depends on the context?

 

[Barb_D]

The article depends on context.

If there is only one of the nouns that would apply to your situation, use "the." With public transportation, there are more than one, but you mean one of the buses that runs your route, one of the trains that goes to your destination, etc. when you use "the."

When my daughter wants to go to "the" mall, she means the one in the next town. But if you are not familiar with where you are, you might ask "Is there a mall nearby?" Any mall is fine.

 

[toloue_man]

Why "home" does not have any article?!

For e.g: I'm at home

 

[5jj]

If you are going to a building, pub, club, restaurant, etc, we use 'a/an' or 'the' depending on context, as Barb said. If you are thinking primarily of the activity, rather than the place, then we use 'the' for certain words:

go to the pub = go for a drink
go to the theatre = go to see a play/show
go to the bank = go to conduct financial transactions

Other such words, in British English are: post office, cinema, opera, ballet, zoo.

For certain institutions, we use no article at all if we think of the reason for going/being there rather than the building:

My father is in hospital = he is receiving medical treatment

Other such words, in British English are: prison, school, college, university, work, bed.

 

[Tdol]

To put my question in a nutshell:
In the above-mentioed phrases, is the article fixed or the article usage depends on the context?

They're not absolutes- in most contexts we will follow these patterns, but it's possible to think of contexts where we will not.