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As shown in this answer, English speakers will often drop the article when referring to using a place for its intended use. For example:

He went to school/work/church/(also in BrE: hospital).

However, I have never heard anyone say:

I am in bathroom/restroom/whatever local term you use.

It's always:

I am in the bathroom.

Why is that?

Community
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Scimonster
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  • The article does not support your claim that English speakers will often drop the article when referring to using a place for its intended use. _ To school / to work ... those are the exceptions (though admittedly commonly used). The dropping of the article in these special cases is what needs explaining. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 14 '15 at 10:04
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    Essentially duplicates 'Is there a reason the British omit the article when they “go to hospital”?' – Edwin Ashworth Dec 14 '15 at 10:07
  • I don't understand the question. You start with the premise that X often happens. From that you somehow conclude that X must always happen. But you withhold from us how exactly you arrive at that conclusion. Please do elaborate. Failing that, the answer is that different words behave differently because they are different words. And nobody ever says "I am in bathroom" because nobody ever says that. It is not English because it is not English. That's how languages generally work. – RegDwigнt Dec 14 '15 at 12:55
  • @RegDwigнt I never said it must always happen, but i am asking why it doesn't in this case. – Scimonster Dec 14 '15 at 13:00
  • Yes, and I am asking why you think it should. You yourself say that it must not always happen. So. Why does it need to happen in this case? – RegDwigнt Dec 14 '15 at 13:02
  • @RegDwigнt Idle curiosity as to some of the peculiarities of language. I suppose there's no real reason it should or shouldn't evolve that way. – Scimonster Dec 14 '15 at 13:03

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There's a difference between the two: "He went to school/work/church" denotes an activity, without offering any information about where this take place. It could be any school / work place / church and if the listener knows which one it is, it's only by inference.

You use the article when you specify an actual location, as in "I am in the bathroom."

However, English is full of exceptions and you have things like:

He went to the bathroom.

(for expressing the activity of relieving oneself, not of going somewhere)

or

Come join me, I'm in bed.

So there may not be a steadfast rule here, sorry.

Stephane
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  • Not satisfactory. It could be any bathroom also - the listener still has to infer which is "the bathroom". – Scimonster Dec 14 '15 at 10:27
  • Granted, although the usage predate mobile phones and the direction of the voice would probably give you enough information to find out which one :) But I agree that it also denotes an activity here to some extent ("I'm busy with a bathroom-related activity.") – Stephane Dec 14 '15 at 10:30
  • And that only works with first-person speech. "He is in the bathroom" doesn't give any clues about which one. – Scimonster Dec 14 '15 at 10:31
  • Hence the exception I noted above: if there's ambiguity as to the location of the bathroom, it's probably because the author refers to the activity, not the room. – Stephane Dec 14 '15 at 10:33
  • But by the same token, "at school" refers to the activity of learning at school. "At the school" only talks about the location. – Scimonster Dec 14 '15 at 10:36
  • Exactly. As in "I went to school in England" as opposed to "Don't forget to pick up the kids at the school." – Stephane Dec 14 '15 at 10:41
  • @Scimonster I don't think there is any hard and fast rule about how to use preposition and whether to put an article after it or not. "He is at table" and "He is at the table" might mean different things, but there is no rule. They are just idiomatic as all other idioms are. You have to learn it one by one. –  Dec 14 '15 at 10:42