Zero article for academic subjects and related topics

Art, Biology, Chemistry, Geography. History, Physics, etc.:

According to Henry Ford, History is bunk'

English is a difficult language to learn well.

Adjectival combinations: e.g. Renaissance Art American History

Other combinations with the zero article

3.28.1 Zero article for times of the day and night [> 8.11-13, App 48]
Combinations are common with at, by, after and before: at
dawn/daybreak, at sunrise/sunset/noon/midnight/dusk/night, by
day/night, before morning, at/by/before/after 4 o'clock.

We got up at dawn to climb to the summit

Zero article for meals

breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, supper.

Dinner is served Michael's at lunch Let's have breakfast The zero article is used after have [> App 42.1.1], but note the use of the where a meal is specified [> 3.20]:

The breakfast I ordered still hasn't arrived and the use of a when classifying:

That was a very nice dinner

Zero article for nouns like 'school', 'hospital', etc.

The following nouns are used with the zero article when we refer to their 'primary purpose', that is the activity associated with them: e.g. He's in bed (for the purpose of sleeping): bed, church, class, college, court, hospital, market prison, school, sea, town, university, work [> 10.9.7, 10.13 4 tor home ] They frequently combine with be in/at, have been/gone to [> Apps 21-23]: He was sent to prison for four years The children went to school early this morning But note the use of the when the item, etc. is specified:

Your bag is under the bed There's a meeting at the school at 6 Words such as cathedral, factory, mosgue, office, etc. are always used with a or the.