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When it comes to churches and so on, which one is correct?

  1. Our hotel is near St. John's church.
  2. Our hotel is near the St. John's church.
  3. Our hotel is near the St. John church.
RegDwigнt
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Casper
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    Ooh. This could be more interesting if we include things like "near the Frauenkirche", "near Guildford Cathedral", "near the London Eye". – Andrew Leach May 02 '13 at 11:27
  • If it is near St. John's church, it sounds like the Church is owned by a person called St. John. – mplungjan May 02 '13 at 11:49
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    see: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/59271/why-there-is-the-before-some-names-but-not-others and more. – MetaEd May 02 '13 at 11:49

1 Answers1

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Your first answer is correct.

In my area we have a hotel near St. Andrew's Church. It is also near the Fulwell Methodist Church.

and

I visited the Freeman Hospital. I didn't find it as nice as St. Cuthbert's Hospital.

and

I did have a nice day out at St. Peter's Cathedral but the weather wasn't as nice as when I visited Durham Cathedral.

Note: you could say "the Durham Cathedral" as I did with "the Freeman Hospital" but places, especially buildings have no set rules around this. In short, use "the" if it sounds correct but definitely not if the building name is possessive as in the case of "St. Paul's", etc.

Ste
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    So if mr. St. John bought St. Andrew's church and you wanted to give directions to it to the friends of St. John - it would still be St. John's church :| – mplungjan May 02 '13 at 12:23
  • An interesting point: St John's is the Anglican church in this area; the Baptist chapel is in Station Road, next to a Catholic oratory named Our Lady of Succour. – Tim Lymington May 02 '13 at 12:50
  • But it is mr. St. John's house right next to the church he owns – mplungjan May 02 '13 at 12:57
  • @mplungjan, If David St John bought St. Andrew's Church I doubt he, as fictional as he may be, would have the inclination to change the name. If I did want to refer to Mr. St. John's church it is fine to say that it is "Mr St.John's Church" or even "St. John's Church". – Ste May 02 '13 at 13:01
  • also consider; "I went to Steven's Mechanics" versus "I went to the Steven's Mechanics". The latter does not make sense in English because of the points made. – Ste May 02 '13 at 13:03
  • I do not seem to make myself clear... The St. Andrews owned by St. John is St. John's church in my example – mplungjan May 02 '13 at 14:23
  • So if we are talking about a group of St. Andrew's churches, one of which is owned by St. John... Yes, we can say "The St. Andrew's Church owned by St. John" but, in this case, we are using the word "the" as the definition of a singular item. – Ste May 02 '13 at 14:32
  • It's doesn't matter who the owner is; you always omit the word "the" if a possession is defined in the name. If John owns a church then you can say the hotel is near John's church. – Ste May 02 '13 at 14:39
  • @Ste: But if you say near St John's church you must mean 'the church dedicated to St John', because that is its actual name. Smith's church would be ambiguous between 'the one owned by Smith' and 'the one Smith goes to on Sundays'; in OPs actual question the ambiguity has been removed. – Tim Lymington May 02 '13 at 21:02
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    If they knock down the oratory ... so long, Succour. – MetaEd May 03 '13 at 03:42