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Hospital, university, college, jail


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One for the collective. From what I can gather from the BBC and other semi reliable sources, in the UK, one goes to hospital or to university. By contrast in the U.S., people go to the hospital or a hospital. Much the same with university, although "the" is usually associated with the name of a particular university. However, keeping in mind that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, we do go to college or jail (well, no, it's not actually either or).

 

Whereof this divergence? :P

Edited by nkped
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Hospital and university are more generic terms in English as opposed to American. eg "Fred had an accident and was taken to hospital where they patched him up." this does not identify which hospital, as opposed to "Fred was taken to the hospital" which infers there is only one to chose from. Another way of putting this situation " Fred went to St Georges Hospital" which identifies the particular palace of medical attention.

 

The same can be used with respect to university. "My son is enrolling in university next month." or "My son is enrolling in the University of Western Australia next month.". There are more than one universities in the the local area so the second sentence is more specific as it answers the next question, "Which university will he attend?"

 

As to which is correct I could not care less or is that I could care less?

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As to which is correct I could not care less or is that I could care less?

 

 

'Could not care less' means to me that logically you don't care at all......

 

'I could care less' suggests you care 'somewhat' already.

 

Whatever? I'm guessing you, 'don't give a toss'........or should that be, 'Don't give a fuck'?.......... :D

 

 

 

This could go on a long time.........nkped !

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Ooh lovely, a grammar and semantics thread, this should end up in Purgatory fairly quickly. I should warn nitpickers now that any attempt to censor me for e.g. ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put!

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Well, the British press always said Pattaya was full of pedants........................................ or was that perverts? :grin

 

This thread just goes to show, they're one and the same!!

 

 

KM

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Well, the British press always said Pattaya was full of pedants........................................ or was that perverts? :grin

 

This thread just goes to show, they're one and the same!!

 

 

KM

 

 

Pedants are important........

 

'Let's eat Hoy.'

 

'Let's eat, Hoy.'

 

Correct punctuation could save Hoy's life.

Edited by atlas2
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I've had a conversation re this topic with my mate from Edinburgh and we've never reached any conclusion, but here's a discussion from the Net regarding same.



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I've had a conversation re this topic with my mate from Edinburgh and we've never reached any conclusion, but here's a discussion from the Net regarding same.

 

It's one less thing for them to have to Google.

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