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I couldn’t find these explanation of exactly how the rules of articles apply in questions like this:

  • Why do people go to zoos?

  • Why do people go to zoo?

  • Why do people go to the zoo?

It’s not a question about a specific zoo, but about zoos in general.

The first variant sounds correct, but I’m not so sure about the second and third.

Are there scenarios in which both are acceptable, such as spoken English versus formal writing?

Ankush Jain
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    I'll leave the question about article rules to a non-native speaker or someone more experienced in the nuances of diction since my knowledge about when articles are and aren't used is basically 100% instinct and I've always been terrible at explaining it. However, I can tell you that the 2nd example is never used while the third example generally has the same meaning as the first. – pavja2 Jun 11 '14 at 16:43
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    Related: http://english.stackexchange.com/q/2031 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/19604 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/137476 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/113448 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/67036 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/140896 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/18268 – tchrist Jun 11 '14 at 17:27
  • This has nothing to do with questions. – tchrist Jun 11 '14 at 17:28
  • Wow, I'm sorry, but I'm still a bit confused. I am not entirely convinced my answer is there in those links. – Ankush Jain Jun 11 '14 at 17:39
  • If I prefix the phrases you added in my question statement with "I like" - I can see a similarity. But "I like going to the zoo" suggests a particular zoo and I'm not really sure if the "the" in "Why do people go to the zoo?" refers to a particular zoo or not. Can you clear that up? – Ankush Jain Jun 11 '14 at 17:45
  • @Ankush: Both current answers here are AmE native speakers - one seems to agree with your "logical" inference that children going to the zoo implies some particular zoo, the other doesn't. I think it's just that (some?) Americans tend towards more "stringent, literal" interpretations. Most Brits would class that usage alongside going to the cinema (where we don't really care which cinema it is, any more than we care which particular films are being referenced by going to the movies). – FumbleFingers Jun 11 '14 at 20:27
  • Hmm, that makes sense. Thanks!

    Also, 2 downvotes. I didn't realize the question was that useless.

     – Ankush Jain Jun 12 '14 at 07:28

2 Answers2

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The first and third options are correct in American English:

Why do people go to zoos?

Why do people go to the zoo?

The second is incorrect and should be avoided.

Community
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MrHen
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Why do people go to zoos is correct and would be my choice.

Why do people go to zoo is grammatically incorrect, because the singular "zoo" is missing an article.

Why do people go to the zoo is grammatically correct but a bit odd. Colloquially, the phrase "go to the zoo" does not imply any particular zoo; for example, the sentence "why does a person go to the zoo?" is perfectly correct. But with the plural subject "people", I think using "zoos" (plural) is more correct, unless you mean a group of people all going to the same zoo.

Caleb Stanford
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  • It's at least possible (though I don't actually know) that Americans are less keen on going to the zoo than Brits. But children go to the zoo more frequently than they go to Disneyland is fine by me, and was most likely penned by an AmE writer. – FumbleFingers Jun 11 '14 at 20:18
  • @FumbleFingers I'm american and we always used the phrase going to the zoo when I was growing up. I don't know about americans in general. – Caleb Stanford Jun 11 '14 at 22:57
  • "go to the zoo" is an extremely common phrase in AmE and is usually used in the form of a question: "Do you want to go to the zoo?" Ngram support. – MrHen Jun 14 '14 at 14:48
  • @MrHen Of course it is, but in your example ("Do you want to go to the zoo?") and in all the examples I can think of, it is a single person or a group of people going to the same zoo. In this case, I really doubt Why do people go to the zoo is completely acceptable, because you are talking about multiple zoos. – Caleb Stanford Jun 14 '14 at 20:42
  • I guess then, this variant is best avoided since there is an alternative people can agree is perfectly correct ( Why do people go to zoos? ) – Ankush Jain Jun 16 '14 at 08:32