Britpick Question

[amberfocus]

 I know that some of the smaller words like a and the are often not used in some of your speech.  For example you use "go on holiday" as opposed to "go on a holiday" or "went down the pub" instead of "went down to the pub."  Here in the states when referring to our freeways by name, we would say something like "get on I-5" or "get on the freeway."  For your motorways do you say "get on M4" or "get on the M4?"  Also would "get on the motorway" be correct? 

Comments

[aniguise42.livejournal.com]

Everyone I know says "take the M4" or "go on the M4".

[feerocious.livejournal.com]

We would say"get on the M4" and "get on the motorway" :)

[editrx.livejournal.com]

It's interesting, because in certain parts of the US, the articles (a, an, the) are dropped for some colloquial phrases, similar to what happens in the UK (bear in mind, those examples you have are not used everywhere by everyone, but are indeed common colloquialisms).

For instance, my mother, who was raised near New York City, used to say, "Want to go with?" when referring to my desire to go "with her" somewhere. To this day, I use the same phrase.

[amanda-shatirah.livejournal.com]

"Get on *the* motorway" or "*the* M4".

FWIW, I find that omissions are usually either a regional/class thing, or for a limited set of phrases, not universally applicable. In Cardiff people are as likely to say "Go to the shops" or "Go down the shops" or "Go down to the shops"...

[galadriella1.livejournal.com]

Well, it depends, personally, when I give directions I would say something like this-

Get on the A303 at Andover, get off at the junction for the A34 heading towards Winchester then get on the M3 heading south...etc (that's half the directions between my house and my mum)

But my aunt would tell me to 'Go on the M1)...etc.... Northern Monkey,

[wildwinterwitch.livejournal.com]

If you want the opinion of someone with English as their second language, I'd say you'd need the article in both cases because you're referring to something specific. "Get on motorway*" feels very wrong to me.