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> 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
by 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 :)