🚀 go-pugleaf

> I'm not sure of the reason for the "buildings" phenomen, but
> I've noticed that in British usage, they also tend to say
> "...in hospital" (instead of "in the hospitall.)  But I've also
> noticed that British usage tends to insert a "the" where
> Americans don't use one in with numbered highways  (Brits drive
> on the M-5 (or whatever, I'm not sure if there's a hyphen!)  I
> have an English friend in Washington who says he took "the
> I-95."  Well, vive la difference!
>
This is one of these points of usage that's so subtle you don't
realize it's there until someone points it out. Yes, you are quite
right - we do drive on the M5 (no hyphen) - assuming its not closed
for emergency repairs of jammed nose to tail with holiday traffic.
Generally, I think we'd say "I was walking/driving along _the_
Bayswater Road" but "along Oxford Street" or "along Shaftesbury
Avenue", and the usage has been transferred to motorways.

I think I see distinctions between

"she is in hospital"

= she is in some hospital somewhere, as a patient

"she is in the hospital"

= she is in this specific hospital we are of speaking now, rather
than being somewhere else - just located here, not necessarily as a
patient.

Also, in British English we normally say "I have measles", not "the
measles", except in some dialect usage (like the Scots I was brought
up with). I think this is a genteelism, and a relatively recent
change. Perhaps the other examples are too.

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Kathleen M. Lyle

Technical Editor, Applied Probability Trust, Hicks Building,
The University, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK

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