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Good point. It can be a tough habit to break, because it seems to occupy the same part of my brain as "the UK".
by jbay808 5y ago
Good point. It can be a tough habit to break, because it seems to occupy the same part of my brain as "the UK".
- mckirk 5y agoI thought about it previously and found it kinda odd that it seems so natural to say 'the Ukraine' when usually that is only the case for 'acronym countries'. It sounds pretty ridiculous for example to say 'the Italy', and yet with Ukraine it's hard not to.
- native_samples 5y agoIt's because Ukraine means borderlands. So it's literally "the borderlands" which makes sense. This appears in lots of languages. In Germany Iran is "the Iran".
- jbay808 5y agoOh interesting. Like the Netherlands.