Oh I get it now . Yeah I guess I ' d forgo the the or a , mostly because they ' re superfluous . I think a similar thing when I hear Americans say Where are you at ? Over here we ' d just say Where are you ? No need to say at . Just different ways of saying things I suppose . As for things that drive me nuts , I ' d say when Americans say bring when they should say take . For example , imagine a kid is about to go to school and his mum says Don ' t forget to bring a packed lunch . If the mum were at home that would make no sense because she wants the kid to take the lunch with him from their current location , home , to another location , school . It would make more sense for her to say Don ' t forget to take a packed lunch . , as in take the lunch from his location to the school . If the mum was at the school on the phone to the kid who was at home she ' d be right to say Don ' t forget to bring a packed lunch . Because she ' s asking the child to bring a lunch from elsewhere to her current location . It always irks me slightly .