Cinema

I would agree with you, Hotmale; they go to "the" cinema together, not "a".

Thanks, James.

One might say that John and Mary are going to a cinema if they are going there for some reason other than watching a film.

John and Mary are going to a cinema to apply for a job.
John and Mary drive a delivery truck for a popcorn company. They are going to a cinema to deliver a shipment of popcorn.

Just a note... in my part of the U.S., I don't think I've ever heard anyone call it "the cinema". You would most typically hear "theater" or "movie theater" or "the movies". "The cinema" would be understood by most people, I think, but it would not sound very natural.

Cinema sounds natural enough in Australia. No doubt though the word usage varies from place to place.

By the way, the use of 'a' and 'the' before cinema?

They went to a cinema (but I don't know which cinema)
They went to the cinema's ('the' cinema's usually implies you know which cinema's or that there is only one cinema/complex. But 'the' is often used in this instance when treating 'all cinemas' as a single entity)

So 'they went to the cinema's' is almost always used.

'A' in these sort of sentences implies a lack of knowledge, while 'the' implies a specific knowledge.

A good example is recently in Australia, we had to change the wording of a federal law due to the difference in meaning between 'a' and 'the'. It was in relation to the offence of 'planning the terrorist act', however, because 'the' implies a specific act (and police would always have difficulty proving beyond reasonable doubt what the specific terrorist act would be, until after the act anyway) they changed the wording to 'planning a terrorist act', which meant police no longer had to prove what the planned terrorist act would be, just that they were planning to carry out a terrorist act.

Two little words that can make a lot of difference 👁 Wink ;)

Vikorr said:

[...]
They went to the cinema's ('the' cinema's usually implies you know which cinema's or that there is only one cinema/complex. But 'the' is often used in this instance when treating 'all cinemas' as a single entity)

So 'they went to the cinema's' is almost always used.
[...]

👁 Confused :confused:
I don't understand the use of the apostrophe unless you are saying something like ...
They went to the cinema's ticket office. (possessive)

Come to think of it, I'm not sure the apostraphies are correct...they just seemed natural to me, but it could be wrong. Hmmm...I think it had something to do with treating 'cinemas' as a single entity...but as I said, I could be wrong.

Vikorr said:

Come to think of it, I'm not sure the apostrophes are correct...they just seemed natural to me, but it could be wrong. Hmmm...I think it had something to do with treating 'cinemas' as a single entity...but as I said, I could be wrong.

In the contexts you gave you referred to the plural of 'cinema', in other words 'cinemas'. The apostrophes are definitely incorrect. Cheers! 👁 Smile :)

JamesM said:

Just a note... in my part of the U.S., I don't think I've ever heard anyone call it "the cinema". You would most typically hear "theater" or "movie theater" or "the movies". "The cinema" would be understood by most people, I think, but it would not sound very natural.

Please take in consideration that the original poster is from Poland so I assume that he is studying British English. We all know James that in UK they say "Let's go to the cinema". Now, obviously we would understand that, but maybe we wouldn't say that in the States. 👁 Wink ;)
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Well, it's possible/probable that the poster is studying BE, but surely it doesn't hurt to make him/her aware that 'cinema' is a very British/Australian word!

roxcyn said:

Please take in consideration that the original poster is from Poland so I assume that he is studying British English. We all know James that in UK they say "Let's go to the cinema". Now, obviously we would understand that, but maybe we wouldn't say that in the States. 👁 Wink ;)
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I don't think it's our job to decide (or assume) which variant of English a poster is studying. I think the best thing I can do is be responsible for making it very clear that I am speaking about American English when I offer an opinion about the sound of a word or phrase.