Why are some diseases referred to using an article, and some not?

one of the millions of reasons why English is the most impossible language to learn – just because, and that’s the way it’ll be forever.

I think it’s where the commonplace name for a given disease derives from. I don’t really understand the nuts and bolts of what I think I mean lol. Just a theory I can’t back up, I guess. not very helpful, I know

Weird things about the English language

@iam2smart99037 A very definative answer, in a way, I think. I guess. I don’t know.

I guess the same reason we say, he lives in THE Bronx, but then will say she lives in Brooklyn.

It’s not just diseases. Idiomatic English uses articles inconsistently with many nouns that appear to be in the same category, and American English also differs from British English in some of these ways. For example, in the U.S. we say that someone is in school or in prison but in the hospital. We say we are spending the day in town, but in the city. We read novels, but we study the novel; we read plays, but we study drama; we read poetry, and we study poetry.

However, English is not so impossible to learn, Many people do it very nicely. I wish we didn’t feel that we ought to congratulate ourselves on the complexity of English, which is due mostly to the fact that it is derived from so many different sources.

Measles and mumps have plural, perceptable physical manifestations so I would assume that is why one gets “the measles”, etc; although thinking about it, one doesn’t get “the chickenpox.” I think “the flu’ is usually a specific variant of what flu is going around this year, while a cold has many forms and origins. Hell, I think I’m whistling in the dark here, I’ll wait and see what Jeruba has to say!

Mumps and measles are plural because they present with features that come with plural presentations of symptoms namely, swollen glands or spots. That’s why the is used. Although we can’t or do not usually specify the strain, we are infected with a specific strain of influenza so the specific article applies.
Cancer and diabetes are systemic diseases so no article is required. There is some logic to the phenomenon that is the English language.

@Dr_Lawrence Seems like we were on the same track, but as I note, the rule isn’t consistently applied.

@sevenfourteen What other languages have you learned?

I think you’re pressing a bit on this one. We always called it “mumps”, not “the mumps”. Same with “measles”. And people in some parts of the country (USA) do get “the cancer”. Also, people “catch cold” and “catch flu”, even if those usages aren’t as common.

Now shake the leg, and think of the better question.