Quote Originally Posted by paulb
Quote Originally Posted by Pon4ik
Thank you very much. By the way, do you know other mysteries of English?
Sure:

1 I'm going to school.
2 I'm going to the bank.
3 I'm going to the store.
4 I'm going to church.

Why do we use "the" in 2 and 3, but not 1 and 4? Nobody knows.
In British English, the distinction is that we use 'the' when we are talking about a specific building, and don't use it when we are talking about an activity associated with a building.

For example:

If someone is ill and needs hospital treatment, we would say "he is going to hospital", without an article. If, on the other hand, you are talking about a doctor going to work, we would say "he is going to the hospital".

A child "goes to school", but a parent "goes to the school" for a parent-teacher conference.

"Going to church" implies attending a service for worship etc, wheras "going to the church" implies some other business there, such as visting the priest or delivering something.