# The use of "the" in place names. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 8, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910 "2004-08-08T19:25:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/21 "2004-08-09T05:58:04Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > **Otto** , I’ve never heard the Great Salt Lake referred to without the article. Just saying it out loud without it sounds totally foreign to me. Well, for example, the US Geological Survey [page](http://ut.water.usgs.gov/greatsaltlake/) on the lake skips the article. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/22 "2004-08-09T10:19:27Z")
There’s also (The) Krajina region in Croatia. And **Jomo Mojo** , in this part of the world “The Lebanon” is still standard usage. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/23 "2004-08-09T10:34:54Z")
" The Gambia " ( that is the country as apposed to the river ) and “The Czech Republic” are still widely used here. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/24 "2004-08-09T10:49:17Z")
“The Gambia” as a country name uses the “the” because it refers to the Gambia River. (As already established, river names use the “the” consistently.) **ruadh** , do people where you are make a distinction between “Lebanon” the country and “the Lebanon”, referring to the highland area also known as Mount Lebanon? They are not the same. I can see how there might be a confusion between them, though. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/25 "2004-08-09T10:50:22Z")
Nope, it’s all “The Lebanon”. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/26 "2004-08-09T10:52:34Z")
Do you still say “the Argentine” too? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/27 "2004-08-09T11:03:20Z")
> [@ruadh and also Jomo Mojo too](#): > > “The Lebanon” O.K. now this is freaking driving me nuts!: What new wave band had a song called “The Lebanon”? It’s going through my head now, thanks to this Thread, and I can’t think of who it was! ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/28 "2004-08-09T11:04:20Z")
**Jomo:** Never heard that one before! **bienville** : The Human League. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/29 "2004-08-09T11:09:35Z")
> [@ruadh](#): > > The Human League. Not “Human League”? 😃 Thanks **ruadh** you helped to make my brain stop hurting! Bless you! ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/30 "2004-08-09T14:18:54Z")
> [@Rayne Man](#): > > " The Gambia " ( that is the country as apposed to the river ) and “The Czech Republic” are still widely used here. I think The Gambia is one of a very few that still uses the article along with a simple country name (also, the “The” is capitalized.) We say “the Czech Republic” because it has the name of a political system in it, just like “the United Kingdom” or “the French Republic” (with the “the” not capitalized). ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/31 "2004-08-09T14:45:56Z")
The Colony, Texas was first settled in the late 19th century. Official proclamations from city hall identify it as “The City of The Colony, TX”. It’s a suburb of Dallas. ---
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/32 "2004-08-09T14:47:30Z")
The town were I grew up has a Hall Road , but everyone I know calls it The Hall Road. I’m not aware of any Hall family that lived on it , which would lead to “the Hall Road” being a shortening of “The Hall Family Road” , nor am I aware of any hall-like structure on that road that the road would be named after. (Other roads in that town that _are_ named after families don’t get the article in their names.) ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/33 "2004-08-09T14:56:20Z")
Again, in this part of the world it’s common to precede Road names by “the”. Although this only seems to apply to things called \_\_\_\_ Road; you don’t hear “the \_\_\_ Street” or “the \_\_\_\_ Avenue”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/34 "2004-08-09T16:07:04Z")
> [@Jomo Mojo](#): > > The same thing happened with Sudan’s name in 1992: they officially went from being “the Sudan” in English to just plain “Sudan.” The weird thing about this is that the country’s name in Arabic still uses the definite article: al-Sûdân. They only dropped it in English, not in Arabic. Why this selective deletion? In Arabic, all nouns are always preceded by the article, even personal names. In English, I suppose their reasoning is similar to that in the Ukraine situation. Actually, “the Sudan” or “the Soudan” can refer to the entire stretch of fertile territory bordering the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The countries of Mali, Niger, and Chad were once “the French Soudan” and Sudan was once “Anglo-Aegyptian Sudan.” It seems likely that the Sudanese were trying to disassociate themselves from the more general meaning of the terms as well as from the colonial past. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/35 "2004-08-09T16:37:19Z")
This Arab influence shows itself in the place names of southern Iberia , from the Moorish occupation. Thus you have such places as Algarve , Albufeira and Alvor , all containing the Arab definite article " Al " ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/36 "2004-08-09T16:59:37Z")
One useful though incomplete guide is that when a given entity is seen as unique, it will take a “the” – The Bosporus, the Dardanelles, the English Channel (_la Manche_), etc. However, this does not give a comprehensive usage for when “the” is prepended – notably, the six-story structure in downtown Watertown NY is “the Woolworth Building” since it was built by Frank W. Woolworth to house his store on the site of his first 5-and-10 counter, though outside Jefferson County, “the Woolworth Building” refers exclusively to the old New York City skyscraper which he also had built. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910/37 "2004-08-09T20:34:58Z")
BTW, as with other place names, it’s now becoming more common to call the Yukon Territory “Yukon” instead of “the Yukon.” Omitting the article seems to be government style. (Of course, it’s still “the Northwest Territories,” since it includes the name of the form of government. I note, though, that when it’s a _proper noun_ followed by the form of government, the article is usually omitted: Washington State, New York City.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-the-in-place-names/258910.md?page=1)