Went to school

Question

Are there any differences among the three expressions?   (1) "Where did you go to school?"   (2) "What school did you go to?"   (3) "Which school did you go to?" paco

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

Hello Paco

I would say that all 3 can be used to mean 'tell me the name of the school you attended'. But also:

(1) "Where did you go to school?"
– 'i.e. in what area did you go to school?'

(2) "What school did you go to?"
– among BrE ex-public schoolboys: to be interpreted as meaning 'I suddenly have a horrible suspicion that you are not exactly of my social class'.*

(3) "Which school did you go to?"
– i.e. 'of these two/three/etc schools, which was yours?'

MrP

* NB On hearing the name of the school in question, the ex-PS will say (if his suspicions have been confirmed): 'Ah. Don't think we played you at cricket, did we?'.

Paco2004 · Answer

Hello Mr P

Thank you for the quick reply. So sounds like I can take the three as a same question in most cases.

"What school did you go to?" – among BrE ex-public schoolboys: to be interpreted as meaning 'I suddenly have a horrible suspicion that you are not exactly of my social class'.* On hearing the name of the school in question, the ex-PS will say (if his suspicions have been confirmed): 'Ah. Don't think we played you at cricket, did we?'.

Hurm...a very delicate society..

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Very helpful OK A bit prescriptivistic Unintelligible

Very helpful

paco

MrPedantic · Answer

You're welcome, Paco!

I should have added:

When the question means 'what is the name of the school you attended?', there are even then some distinctions:

1. Where did you go to school?

is more likely to be used for this meaning if the context ('naming schools', as opposed to 'naming areas') is already clear:

'And where did you go to school?'

– e.g. after one or two other people have already answered.

If you went to a famous school, you would answer with the school's name: 'Eton', etc. If not, you would probably specify the region anyway: 'MrP's Seminary for Select Young Ladies in Gloucestershire'.

2. What school did you go to?

seems the natural version, and would be perfectly polite if (say) you and I discovered that we had grown up in the same area. 'Really, Paco? You were born in EnglishForwardshire as well? What school did you go to?'

But as a general question, it might seem rather startling: as if your questioner were indeed trying to find out a little too much about you.

3. Which school did you go to?

On reflection, this seems the least likely to cause confusion or offence; 'which' often acts as a softened 'what', in BrE.

I don't know whether any of this means anything to an AmE-speaker, though! Probably not.

MrP

Paco2004 · Answer

Mr P

If you try to google three expressions, you will get results as follows;
mostly by Americans?
(1) "Where did/do you go to school?" 15500/7390
(2) "What school did/do you go to?" 8730/10100
(3) "Which school did/do you go to?" 668/1070

(1) "Where did/do you go to school?" 288/119
(2) "What school did/do you go to?" 1100/534
(3) "Which school did/do you go to?" 99/82.

British people are likely not to use (1) so often as Americans do.
I feel (1) is somehow weird grammatically as a question used to ask a school name,
though it may correspond to a predicative sentence of the type : "I went/go to school at School Name".

paco

Went to school

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