# Why do companies sometimes not use definite articles to refer to their products? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949 "2014-07-12T21:17:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/21 "2014-07-14T11:44:31Z")
Marketing wizards will often use grammatical quirks to draw attention to their product. I learned this, in part, by reading Straight Dope. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/22 "2014-07-14T12:05:06Z")
> [@cantcurecancer](#): > > It seems awkward and I notice it very much… It’s almost as if they wanted you to notice their ad. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/23 "2014-07-14T12:41:36Z")
Does the phrase “It takes on a life of its own” mean anything to you ? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/24 "2014-07-14T13:56:48Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > And when a “the” is appropriate, stop capitalizing it in the middle of a sentence. “Ringo Starr was the last member to join the Beatles,” not “Ringo Starr was the last member to join The Beatles.” Ugh. But the name of the band was The Beatles. “The” is part of the proper noun phrase and is properly capitalized. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/25 "2014-07-14T15:20:31Z")
There is nothing new about that. This ad from about 1930 uses no articles with the product name: [![](http://www.geaaonline.org/ESSEXad4.JPG) ](http://www.geaaonline.org/ESSEXad4.JPG) ---
**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:** [July 14, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/26 "2014-07-14T15:53:30Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > But the name of the band was The Beatles. “The” is part of the proper noun phrase and is properly capitalized. No, “The” is capitalized in a sentence as a part of a proper name only as part of a title of a work—that might appear in italics or within quotation marks—not as a part of a name of an entity. Even if the “the” always appears before “Beatles,” it is always lower case, unless it starts a sentence. Thus-- The name of the band was the Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/27 "2014-07-14T16:01:11Z")
The Hague. The Bronx. Among cretins, The Five/The Ten/The One-oh-One. Referring to products by a ‘proper name’ has been common for a long time. If you look, it’s often a collective noun rather than an individual one - “iPhone” to refer to the whole family and associated products, “Mustang” to refer to all models, etc. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/28 "2014-07-14T17:32:51Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > There’s something odd about the usage of “the” in English, at least in English as I see and hear and understand it. For example, in all discussions of the Higgs boson that I’ve ever read, it’s always called “the Higgs boson”. All that particle colliding they did wasn’t looking for “a Higgs boson”, they were always looking for “the Higgs boson”. In that context I’d say “the” Higgs boson is correct, because the definite article connotes the **generic class** “Higgs boson” – i.e.- the theory that it exists – more than it does the random instance of a particle. Just as if I was doing physics experiments involving photon detection, I might say I’ve detected “a photon”, but if we had no idea whether or not light was quantized and I was trying to prove the “photon theory of light”, on achieving success I could properly say that I had detected “the photon” – the generic class predicted by the theory. The generic class idea is not just in physics; consider that you would use the definite article when talking about a species: I would say “I saw a dog in the street” but also “the dog and the wolf are closely related”. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/29 "2014-07-14T18:52:07Z")
I’ve always wondered why this happens with Prom as well. Certainly it’s a proper noun, you wouldn’t say “the Homecoming”, but to me “I’m going to Prom” sounds incredibly awkward. I don’t know how/why/when it became acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/30 "2014-07-14T19:49:58Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I’ve always wondered why this happens with Prom as well. Certainly it’s a proper noun, you wouldn’t say “the Homecoming”, but to me “I’m going to Prom” sounds incredibly awkward. I don’t know how/why/when it became acceptable. They say that in America? Pretty much everywhere else in the world, they standardly use phrases like “I’m attending University”, or “My mom was in hospital”; but in American English, we would include “the” before those nouns. We Muricans do a whole lots of things differently than the rest of the world. We should make a list of them. (Has there been a thread on that yet?) Did you know that American carousels go round the opposite way (counter-clockwise, seen from above) than most carousels everywhere else in the world (clockwise, seen from above)? Carousel horses are painted and decorated much more elaborately on their show side than on their off side. When they are moved from an American carousel to any other, or visa-versa, they have to be repainted and redecorated. ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/31 "2014-07-14T20:08:11Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > The Hague. The Bronx. … > > … > [@Jragon](#): > > I’ve always wondered why this happens with Prom as well. Certainly it’s a proper noun, you wouldn’t say “the Homecoming”, but to me “I’m going to Prom” sounds incredibly awkward. I don’t know how/why/when it became acceptable. These are all abbreviations of a longer name. The Hague = The Count’s Woods, the Bronx = the Bronx River, the Prom = the Promenade Ball. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/32 "2014-07-14T20:20:30Z")
> [@runningdude](#): > > These are all abbreviations of a longer name. The Hague = The Count’s Woods, the Bronx = the Bronx River, the Prom = the Promenade Ball. The Bronx comes from “Jonas Bronck’s Land,” I believe. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/33 "2014-07-14T21:01:00Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > And when a “the” is appropriate, stop capitalizing it in the middle of a sentence. “Ringo Starr was the last member to join the Beatles,” not “Ringo Starr was the last member to join The Beatles.” Ugh. Thank you. That trend which has taken off in the last few years needs to be squelched before it continues any longer. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/34 "2014-07-15T03:48:46Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > No, “The” is capitalized in a sentence as a part of a proper name only as part of a title of a work—that might appear in italics or within quotation marks—not as a part of a name of an entity. > > Even if the “the” always appears before “Beatles,” it is always lower case, unless it starts a sentence. > > Thus-- The name of the band was the Beatles. Such a rule makes no sense and contradicts everything we are taught in English class. Not capitalizing it means it isn’t part of the name. Because of this stupid arbitrary convention that contradicts every other usage, I actually thought the band’s name was just “Beatles.” I draw the line at following grammatical rules that only serve to confuse and misinform. The name of the band is “The Beatles,” and that is what they should be called. Insisting on accuracy is not something that needs to be stopped, but encouraged. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/35 "2014-07-15T03:51:45Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I’ve always wondered why this happens with Prom as well. Certainly it’s a proper noun, you wouldn’t say “the Homecoming”, but to me “I’m going to Prom” sounds incredibly awkward. I don’t know how/why/when it became acceptable. How are they proper nouns? It’s not as if there is one prom or one homecoming for everyone. Sure, the Springfield High School Prom is a definite thing, but capitalizing just “prom” would be like capitalizing just “school.” I’ve also never heard either one with the definite article in front of it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/36 "2014-07-15T07:01:20Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Such a rule makes no sense and contradicts everything we are taught in English class. Not capitalizing it means it isn’t part of the name. Because of this stupid arbitrary convention that contradicts every other usage, I actually thought the band’s name was just “Beatles.” > > I draw the line at following grammatical rules that only serve to confuse and misinform. The name of the band is “The Beatles,” and that is what they should be called. > > Insisting on accuracy is not something that needs to be stopped, but encouraged. This band may be a better subject for the argument: > **[The The](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_The)** > > The The are an English rock band from London, formed in 1979 by singer-songwriter Matt Johnson. Johnson is the only constant, and often sole, band member. > The The achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK, with 15 chart singles, seven reaching the top 40. Their most successful studio album, Infected (1986), spent 30 weeks on the chart. They followed this with the top-ten studio albums Mind Bomb (1989) and Dusk (1993). ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/37 "2014-07-15T11:51:59Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > No, “The” is capitalized in a sentence as a part of a proper name only as part of a title of a work—that might appear in italics or within quotation marks—not as a part of a name of an entity. > > Even if the “the” always appears before “Beatles,” it is always lower case, unless it starts a sentence. > > Thus-- The name of the band was the Beatles. > [@Johanna](#): > > Thank you. That trend which has taken off in the last few years needs to be squelched before it continues any longer. Well argued. Oh, wait, that’s not really an argument, it’s an assertion. [The group themselves](http://www.thebeatles.com/) style their name with a capital T. Where can I find the rule that this is not allowed for an entity? ---
**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:** [July 15, 2014, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/38 "2014-07-15T11:54:06Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Such a rule makes no sense and contradicts everything we are taught in English class. Not capitalizing it means it isn’t part of the name. Because of this stupid arbitrary convention that contradicts every other usage, I actually thought the band’s name was just “Beatles.” > > I draw the line at following grammatical rules that only serve to confuse and misinform. The name of the band is “The Beatles,” and that is what they should be called. > > Insisting on accuracy is not something that needs to be stopped, but encouraged. English classes don’t teach you to capitalize “the” in ordinary references to names of things. And it’s not arbitrary. It’s the fact that—except in a title that is set off in quotes or italics—a definite article is always acting as an ordinary definite article, and that function overrides any notion that it is part of a proper name. When you have a definite article as part of a name, say a newspaper—_The New York Times_—even though the “The” is supposed to be part of the name, it is essentially separable from it. You keep it or discard it according to the grammatical needs of the sentence. That’s why it’s perfectly fine to say “A _New York Times_ article stated …” instead of “A _The New York Times_ article stated …” It’s stupid and ungrammatical, and it’s because even though we pretend that “The” is an integral part of the name, when you actually use the name in a sentence, “the” really is more important in its grammatical role as an article. So, not only can you drop the “The” but you can also put back in a “the” that’s not part of the name—“I asked the _New York Times_ reporter who wrote this story …” ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/39 "2014-07-15T13:18:45Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > They say that in America? Pretty much everywhere else in the world, they standardly use phrases like “I’m attending University”, or “My mom was in hospital”; but in American English, we would include “the” before those nouns. Interestingly enough, an American would typically say “I am going to college” or “I am going to school” without using an article for those generic terms. However, we do not use university or hospital that way. Both of those we do use an article. For some reason we genericized “college” and never adapted that to “university” the way British English did. We don’t say “I’m going to the university”, either, unless we’re specifying which university. We just use “college”. Also, I have heard “prom” and “the prom” used. “Prom is coming up. It’s Prom season. Are you ready for the prom?” ---
**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:** [July 15, 2014, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949/40 "2014-07-15T13:21:36Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > English classes don’t teach you to capitalize “the” in ordinary references to names of things. > > And it’s not arbitrary. It’s the fact that—except in a title that is set off in quotes or italics—a definite article is always acting as an ordinary definite article, and that function overrides any notion that it is part of a proper name. > > When you have a definite article as part of a name, say a newspaper—_The New York Times_—even though the “The” is supposed to be part of the name, it is essentially separable from it. You keep it or discard it according to the grammatical needs of the sentence. > > That’s why it’s perfectly fine to say “A _New York Times_ article stated …” instead of “A _The New York Times_ article stated …” It’s stupid and ungrammatical, and it’s because even though we pretend that “The” is an integral part of the name, when you actually use the name in a sentence, “the” really is more important in its grammatical role as an article. > > So, not only can you drop the “The” but you can also put back in a “the” that’s not part of the name—“I asked the _New York Times_ reporter who wrote this story …” Now _that_ really _is_ well argued. Thanks to you again! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-companies-sometimes-not-use-definite-articles-to-refer-to-their-products/692949.md?page=3)