English — Articles with institutions and fixed phrases

With certain places, English drops the article when you mean the normal activity done there — go to bed, go to school — but uses the when you mean the physical building or a specific one.

How it works

✓ Rule

Say go to bed, go to school, go to church, go to work and be in hospital with zero article when you mean the purpose (sleeping, studying, worshipping). Add the — the school, the hospital — when you mean the building or a particular one: I walked past the school; They rebuilt the hospital.

Examples

Zero article (purpose) vs the (building), plus common fixed phrases
Phrase	Meaning / use
go to bed	to sleep — purpose, no article
go to school	to study (as a student) — purpose, no article
go to the school	to the building (e.g. as a visitor) — specific building, the
in hospital / in the hospital	in hospital = as a patient (BrE); in the hospital = at the building / AmE
have breakfast	meals take no article — breakfast, lunch, dinner
at home / by car	fixed phrases — no article after at home, by car, on foot

Good to know

⚠ Note

Don't add the by habit: at home is never at the home in this sense, and home even drops to after go — go home, not go to home. In American English in the hospital is normal even for a patient, unlike British in hospital.