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> Of course, in proper English it's "the Magna Carta." Nope. You don't say, "the Paris" now do you? There's no particular rule of when you use "the" before a n
by phaemon 11y ago
> Of course, in proper English it's "the Magna Carta."
Nope. You don't say, "the Paris" now do you? There's no particular rule of when you use "the" before a name.
As that notable academic, Tony Hancock, once asked, "Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?"
- javert 11y agoLegal documents are preceeded by "the" unless they are numbered. So: the Constitution, the Patriot Act, the Articles of Confederation, the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Register. But: HB 289, Title IX, Proposition 8. This is probably just a species of a more general rule dealing with articles and things that have given names.
- smegel 11y ago> Nope. You don't say, "the Paris" now do you? Or New York. Or London. > There's no particular rule of when you use "the" before a name. Well I don't know if the rules cover all cases, but one rule is you don't use "the" before place names. Or given names "the Barack Obama". Titles are OK "the President of the USA". Clearly the names of "things" like books require the use of "the". Like "the Bible". It's important to distinguish between the "name" of a book and it's title. We clearly don't say "I read the To Kill a Mockingbird".
- phaemon 11y agoBut you do say, "The Congo" and "The Sahara", while you used to say "The Ukraine" but not any more. Names of things: "He appeared on television", "He started in radio", "He went to hospital", "He went to school". It's unclear whether Magna Carta is used as the title of the document or not: it seems to depend.
- tragomaskhalos 11y agoChildren go to school, even though we mean a specific school, yet adults go to the pub, even when we have no particular pub in mind. If there are rules behind this I certainly can't see them, and I'm sure foreign learners would agree :)
- spacehome 11y ago> There's no particular rule of when you use "the" before a name. In fact there are rules about when proper nouns require articles. While there are a few exceptions, and the rules are sort of tedious, they do exist, as proved by the fact that you usually (90+% of the time) know whether to use the article on a novel proper noun. Native speakers don't even know that they know the rules. I only learned through ESL education. You can get started on the list of rules in a few places, this being one: http://usefulenglish.ru/grammar/part-8-articles-with-miscellaneous-proper-names http://usefulenglish.ru/grammar/part-8-articles-with-miscell...
- sambeau 11y ago"Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you?"… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNZosqiJISs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNZosqiJISs