Nouns: Common English Grammatical Errors

Incorrect English: Is Ram still in the hospital?

Correct English: Is Ram still in hospital?

Incorrect English: We visit Ram in hospital.

Correct English: We visit Ram in the hospital.

Some nouns such as school, hospital, prison can refer to a particular place or a type of place. When they refer to a type of place, they are considered to be uncountable and do not need a determiner.

But when they refer to a particular place, they are countable and need a determiner if in the singular form.

In the first example mentioned above, the noun hospital is denoting a type of place; whereas in the second example, the noun hospital is denoting a particular place.

Some of these nouns are university, college, class, church, home, bed, hospital, jail, prison, sea, work.

Note: However, in American English, such type of nouns referring to a type of place use ‘the’ as a determiner.

E.g. Is Ram still in the hospital?