Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dmbfan]

Can anyone give some advice on how to teach the difference between....



She is at the school................She is at school.


I'm stumped.


Thanks.

dmbfan

[drunkenfud]

The first implies a specific geograhpical location known to both the speaker and the listener, e.g. "she is at the local school". The second implies a more generic state, e.g. "She is at some school, somewhere."

[I'm no Picasso]

I would say the difference is that "at the school" is more of a location, whereas "at school" is more of an activity. If you say someone is "at school", more than likely they are a student or a teacher, and it is their job to be there -- you are saying what they are doing, more than where they are.

"At the school" implies that you are referring only to location. For example, if my child was attending regular daily classes, I would say, "she's at school". If my child was doing something unscheduled at school, or was using the playground, something to that effect, I would say, "she is at the school".

Sort of like the difference between saying, "she's at work" and "she's at the office".

It's not a perfect answer, but I hope it helps.

[Joe666]

dmbfan - Is this a trap! I'm nervous on this one. But here goes - The only difference I can see is in the interpretation.

She is at school = She is actually at her own school. Also, attending classes.

She is at the school = It may not be her school. She may also be doing something other than attending classes.

I have been teaching English a whopping 8 weeks! Oh, and did I mention I suck ass at it. Some things take time a guess!

I hope this helped!

[dmbfan]

Thanks guys................I think all of those answers will do. I'm having a hard time imagining how to get the points across to a group of low level adult students.


(No...not a trap............just one of the questions on my CELTA task sheet).

Thanks, again!

dmbfan

[Straphanger]

A/An/The:

Articles are adjectives. They are special kinds of adjectives that you can use to describe nouns.

a(n): used to describe a count of one of a countable noun that I don't know or don't care about. "He teaches at a public school in Jeolla." ("What Public School? I don't know."

The: used to describe nouns that I know or care about regardless of count. "We went to the E-mart in Gumi." ("Which E-mart?" "The one in Gumi.")

Uncountable: I drink water. ("What water?" "Whatever water, man.") I drink the tap water. ("What water?" "The tap water."

Warriner's is your friend.

[Jammer113]

I'm no picasso has it right. When you just have the place without any article in front of it, it refers to you being at the place and doing whatever action is most commonly done in that place.

Go to church (and have church services).
Go to school (and study).
Go to class (and sit in the desk and listen to the teacher)
Go to work (and work).
Go to bed (and sleep).

It only works with very specific places that have clear purposes. Some that don't work...

***Go to amusement park.
***Go to park.
***Go to fountain.
***Go to hagwon. (In theory, this should be allowed as there's only one thing you do at hagwons.. but I guess we don't have hagwons in our culture).
***Go to university. (Why is "go to school" allowed but not "go to university?")

Compare:

[LostinKSpace]

She is at school : Means that she is at a school but we don't necessarily know which one.

She is at the school. Here the definate article is used to talk about a specific school that the person is at and it also adds emphasis to the statement.

[blackjack]