why do we use "go to school" but "go to THE cinema"?

Question

is there any specific rules as to when to add the "the" before the places? I found that this is also common in other languages: in Italian, they also use "go to school" (vado a scuola) but "go to THE cinema" (vado al cinema)

Answer 1

School comes from the Greek word for "leisure" or "that in which leisure is employed". In English it started as "students attending a school", c. 1300, and only came to mean "school building" much later. It was therefore a collective noun - and still is if you think of a school of fish or a school of thought. This plurality means it is termed an "uncountable noun" and it is not associated with the indefinite article (a or an) - or consequently "the". Another example would be "information" e.g. in "i have information which...". Again we would only use "the" when referring to a specific piece of information, as we would only use "the" when referring to a particular school.



Cinema, on the other hand, comes from cinématographe - it is a place to see cinématographe. It is therefore a countable noun, that is one which is associated with the indefinite article and so we use "the" to precede it.



"Grandma's house" on the other hand is possessive. "House" is still a countable noun but "the" is superfluous as "Grandma's house" already implies "My Grandma's house".

Answer 2

I am just guessing here, but I think it is when you have ownership. It is YOUR school not THE school. We're going to Grandma's house. We're going to the neighbors house for dinner.

Answer 3

yeah! and why "go home"