The country of which I am a citizen is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the largest of the British Isles and is home to England, Scotland and Wales. I was born in England and, apart from several extended periods abroad, have lived my life in England. That makes me ethnically English and politically British. Although Great Britain is a geographical term, British describes nationals of the whole of the United Kingdom and Britain is sometimes used to mean the United Kingdom.
Things are often perceived differently abroad, and even by some of the British themselves. The whole political entity is frequently referred to as England, even though England is only a part of it. That doesn’t usually bother the English, but it might bother the Welsh, the Scots and the Northern Irish.
The best policy is to call the country the United Kingdom or, less formally, Britain. Call the people British, unless you know them to be English, Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish or something else.
EDIT:
The title ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ raises an interesting linguistic, as well as political, point. Syntactically, it’s ambiguous. Is it ‘(The United Kingdom) of (Great Britain and Northern Ireland’) or is it ‘(The United Kingdom of Great Britain) and (Northern Ireland)’?
In ‘The Isles: A History’, Norman Davies traces the various titles by which the isles have been known. From 1660 to 1707 it was ‘The Kingdom of England and Wales’. The union with Scotland in 1707 gave us ‘The united Kingdom of Great Britain’. Meanwhile, there was a Kingdom of Ireland from 1660 to 1800. In 1801, Ireland was included in ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland’. That state of affairs lasted until 1922 when Ireland divided, allowing the six northern Irish counties to become part of ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’.
The original ‘united kingdom’ of 1707 was so called because it united England (with Wales) and Scotland. The addition of ‘Ireland’ in 1801 and of ‘Northern Ireland’ in 1922 can therefore be seen as mere accretions to an already united kingdom. However, the grammatical ambiguity allows the alternative interpretation of all components of the State being united under a single crown. A good example, perhaps, of Engli-, sorry, British, compromise.
AmEng speakers do NOT use definite articles all the time; whether we do or not depends on what we want to say, and how we want to sound saying it. In particular, the use of the definite article with the present tense of the verb "to be" depends (in the words of a famous American) on what your definition of "is" is. Several of your example sentences sound distinctly unnatural to my USAite ear. Here are my suggestions based on my own usage:
School:
- He is in school. - He is a student; specific time does not matter. Perhaps it's Friday night and he's partying right now.
- He is in the school. - This does not sound natural at all to an American ear.
- He is enrolled in the school. - He is a student.
- He is at school. - He might be a student OR a teacher, but he is on the premises at this moment.
- He is at the school. - "The school" is a local landmark, and he's there right now.
Hospital:
He is in hospital. - He's an inpatient. This is valid, but not usual American usage. Anglophiles (Americans who like to drop Briticisms into their speech to appear more sophisticated) will sometimes use this.
He is in the hospital. - He's an inpatient.
He is at hospital. - We don't say this.
He is at the hospital. - He might be an outpatient, or he might work there; either way, he's there right now.
Church:
He is in church. - Services are in progress right now, and he's there.
He is at church. - Interchangeable with "in church".
He is in the church. - He's inside the building; no information is conveyed about what he's doing there (he might be polishing the floor, for example.)
He is at the church. - He's on the church grounds, not necessarily inside the sanctuary.
University/ College:
He is in university. - Americans don't usually say "in university"; "in college", however, means that he's a student.
He is enrolled in university. - He's a student.
He is at university. - He's a student. This is much more common than "in university", for some reason.
He is in the university. - Again, we don't say this.
He is at the university. - The university is a local landmark and he's there now. (Who is he - student, professor, tourist? Not enough information.)
Prison:
He is in prison. - He's a prisoner.
He is at prison. - We don't say this.
He is in the prison. - He's inside the building. He might be a prisoner, a warden, a visitor...
He is at the prison. - He's on the grounds, not necessarily inside the building - he might be waiting in the car while his wife visits her brother.
Best Answer
In the UK a cookie is a particular type of biscuit with a high butter and sugar content so the dough melts during cooking giving a crispy edge with a softer centre. Biscuit covers a wide range of recipes from sweet, semi-sweet, to savoury e.g. "biscuit for cheese" with a wide range a textures, shape thickness. Basically a baked good with aa element of crispy A cookie is a biscuit, not all biscuits are cookies