Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[b7lake]

(1)Do not lie in bed all morning.
(2)I lay down on the bed.

Could you tell me when "the" should be put before the word "bed"?

Thank you very much.

[myprofe]

With certain words like bed, school, prison and church, the article is not used when referring to the action or activity commonly associated with the word.

Students go to school. They are students and they attend class. Their parents no longer go to school but sometimes they go to the school to speak with the teacher or attend an event.

A religious person goes to church to pray while a tourist might go to the church to take a picture of the building.

The same is true with the word bed. Without the article: go to bed, stay in bed, be in bed, we refer to the activity of sleeping or resting or that the person is ill. But when we say on the bed in the bed etc. we are referring to the location with respect to this piece of furniture.
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