Korean Job Discussion Forums

wrago · Joined: 31 Mar 2004

I need some help explaining why no article is used when someone says ..... I'm going to school... I'm going to church...

The Grammar Book says the teacher must find a way to explain this. I've tried two explanations with the students and there is still confusion.

1. School and church act as proper nouns and don't need an article. (I'm going to Seoul National University... I'm going to St. Ann's Church.

2. The sentences focus on the activity so the noun acts a verb... (to school - to study... to church - to pray...)

any comments will be appreciated

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

home/school/church are exceptions to the usual rule. I think they became exceptions because we normally only have 1 home/school/church. They are special in that sense.

That's the best I can do.

mastrwik · Joined: 28 Apr 2005

There is an implied possessive adjective in those sentences:

I'm going to school ... I'm going to my school.
I'm going to church ... I'm going to my church.
I'm going home ... I'm going (to my) home.

This is a completely different idea than "I'm going to the school/a school," even though both of those sentences could be grammatically correct and make sense depending on the context. I think that really these are irregular situations (like Ya-ta Boy said) that don't normally fit into the grammatical rules of English. Since there's only a small number, I'd just try to present them like irregular verbs in the sense that they are exceptions to the rules.

"I'm going to work" is another one that is tough to explain, especially since "I'm going to job" and "I'm going to place of employment" are wrong. Er, hope this helps.

ajuma · Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Location: Anywere but Seoul!!

You CAN say I'm going to THE church and THE school, but if you're going there for something other than the "usual" reason. For example: I'm going to the school to play basketball. OR I'm going to the church to meet my friends.

If you ARE going for the "usual" reason, you say "I'm going to church (to pray)." "I'm going to school (to study)."

prosodic · Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Location: ��

If you say THE church, aren't you saying that there is only one church in the entire world? Same for school. It's ok if you say "the church that I attend" or "the church down the street," or if you live in a small town that really has only one church or school. Otherwise, the definite article doesn't make much sense.

ajuma · Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Location: Anywere but Seoul!!

You say "the church" when you and your listener know which church you're talking about. "The" is often used when everyone knows what you mean. For example: I joined THE army.

prosodic · Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Location: ��

I'll agree with that.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

ajuam has a good point.

I'm going to church.
I'm going to the church and mow the lawn.

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

Do you really need an explanation? There are so few uses of the articleless pattern that I've always found it easier and more effective to teach them as set phrases -

'to go home'
'to go to school'
'to go to work'
'to go to church'
'to go to university'

Since these are all phrases that should be mastered by elementary level I don't see that any grammatical explanation would be necessary or even practical to teach. If anything, excessive grammatical explanation, especially if inaccurate, can lead to more problems later when students misunderstand and misapply principles.

edit: I used to work with a Korean teacher who insisted on telling me that she was 'going to the home'. I always imagined her living in some kind of halfway house for rehabilitated crack addicts.

coolsage · Posted: Fri May 27, 2005 8:12 am Post subject:

To be fair, there no articles in Korean language, so it's understandable that Koreans will omit them where they belong, and insert them where they don't belong. For native speakers, it's an intuitive thing, and difficult to explain (God knows I've tried).

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

I'm with gang ah jee on this: simply teach the handful of exceptions & keep correcting till its automatic.

"To go home" is a bit different though & does have an easy grammatical explanation -- "home" here is an adverb. "Downtown" works the same way.

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

matthewwoodford · Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Location: Location, location, location.

My experience is that they overgeneralize the 'going to the' rule so make errors like "I'm going to the house" or "I'm going to the ski" (since they also have trouble with verbs with 'go').

The apparent exceptions are...

'go to school/university/college'
'go to prison'

..and, outside of America,

'go to hospital'.

The rule is you drop the article when talking about these places as institutions but include it when talking about particular buildings.

'go home'
'go there'
'go downtown'

...are different again because you are dealing with adverbs.

Then you've got all the compound verbs with 'go' such as...

'go skiing'
'go fishing'
'go jogging'

Probably each of these cases deserve separate lessons. Uses of 'here' and 'there' also need separate lessons, I think.

As for 'go to work' I don't know how you'd classify it. I guess the derivation differs depending on whether you mean 'go to the office' or 'start work'. Cop out and call it an idiom perhaps?

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

ajuma · Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Location: Anywere but Seoul!!

I think it all depends on what level you're teaching. When you teach higher-level students (those actively studying for the TOEIC or TOEFL test) you need to give them as many tools (or rules) as possible. For beginners, teaching the exceptions THEN the rule seems most realistic.

I'm going home.
I'm going downtown.
I'm going to X.
I'm going to the X.