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South Korea flagkim seung yeon
It's too difficult to tell the and a in these sentences I want to go to the school / I go to school I go to church/ go to the church what's the differnce? I play the piano Why do you use the in front of a piano?? I play soccer? or the soccer? I go to jungle or go to a jungle you go to hell or go to the hell? Which one is right? and why??

Corrections · 6

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It's too difficult to tell the and a in these sentences

I want to go to the school / I go to school

Using "the" usually means a specifc school.  Without the "the", it is more like the concept of school, not a specific school. 

I go to church/ go to the church Same here. Saying "to church" is as if you were describing a habit. To say "go to the church" is as if you were describing a specific event. 

what's the differnce?

I play the piano 

Why do you use the in front of a piano?? You don't have to use "the".  You can say "I play piano".  As an example, you could say "I play piano in a band".  
I play soccer? or the soccer? In American English, you would not use "the" with a sport. You could say "I play the game of soccer", but if you are shortening it, you would say "I play soccer". 

With the verb "to play", it seems like we (in English) don't take the name of the sport as the object of "to play" very often. It is almost as if we construct a new verb "to play soccer" and then use it in that way. I play soccer, you play soccer, we play soccer.  


With instruments, the usage could go either way. I play the piano. I play piano. It is almost as if the object is plural without using a plural form. I paint the wall. I paint walls. I play the piano. I play piano(s). But you would not ever say the plural instrument in this case.  I hope this helps. 


I go to jungle or go to a jungle

I go to the jungle. The destination in this case needs the article. 
you go to hell or go to the hell?

You say "go to Hell". You don't say "the Hell".  Things seem a little inconsistant. Here are some examples:  Go upstairs! Go to Hell! Go to bed! Go to the kitchen! 

Which one is right? and why??

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for the situations with school or church, the difference is the following: - if you don't use THE before church or school -- it is your usual activity description, as Bella said, just giving a piece of information about yourself. - if you use THE before school or church, it means that you are speaking about a particular place that your conversation partner understands. so it is not the activity, but the place in this case. but I think even in such case you may use it without the for the sports and musical instruments, this is just smth you need to remember: always THE before musical instruments and never the before sports. in both cases this is also an activity description, but its a standard rule to memorise.
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Thank you Bella~
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It depends what you mean...if you say "I want to go to the school" it can be correct English, but it sounds a little bit awkward when you say it. Usually people say "I want to go to school". If you say "I go to school" then you are telling something about yourself! You can say "I play the piano" and "I play piano"...it's the same thing if you use "the" in front of it or not. BUT you cannot use it for soccer. You say "I play soccer" or "we played soccer" .... Not "I play the soccer" or "we play the soccer". I don't know why it's like this...for some words you can use "the" before it, and other words you cannot because it sounds strange. It's very confusing!!! Kk. But I hope I explained it OK so I can try to help you :)

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