Some nouns have to have “the” before it but seems like not all of them need it, so any explanations would be helpful!
edit: wow, didn’t expect so much traction on this. Thank you for your explanations! Interestingly, I’m actually a native English speaker but don’t really know grammar terminology all that well. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
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Two different language conventions.
In the UK (or British English), you can say “I’m in hospital”, but in the United States (US English) you would say “I’m in the hospital”.
It’s pretty arbitrary, these conventions develop over time, with people talking to each-other, and one way or the other “catches on”. I don’t think there’s a lot to understand about it really, sorry.
Just that people start to talk different, and different things become normal in different places. It’s kinda like how flocks of birds separated across islands will develop different songs and different shaped beaks. (See: Charles Darwin’s writings.) People diverge over time, but the norms of the group they socialize in tend to stay self-consistent.
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