Geographical Names – more on the definite article

You will agree that 1. _ Paris is 2. _ City of Romance, while 3. _ Rome is 4. _ Eternal City. However, when geographical names are in plural form, they will be used with 5. _. For that reason we have examples such as 6. _ Croatia but 7. _ Netherlands, or 8. _ Mount Etna but 9. _ Alps.

It might be true that we could understand English quite well without this three-syllable word we wrote about in the previous lesson. This is even more so because we do not have articles in our language. Since they are so difficult for Croatian speakers to master, we will give you some more rules, so that you can use them with more confidence.

Generally, the definite article is used as the name itself says – to define a word or a concept. As we already mentioned we DO NOT use THE with names of towns/cities, countries, continents and mountains since they are already clearly defined by the proper noun itself.

We can cut ourselves some slack for making an occasional mistake in using the definite article, but in the following areas THE is inevitable. So, if you want to take the “water challenge”, you can say you would like to go cruising around the Mediterranean (or other oceans and seas), fishing in the Danube (and other rivers), sailing through the Suez Canal or the Straits of Magellan, or swimming across the Channel.

Once you hit the mainland, you will also hit the definite article again. As we established last time, you can take the M2 motorway, go to the National Theatre in the evening, stay at the Hyatt hotel and cheer for Obama at the White House. However, at Ø Buckingham Palace you will have to remember your manners. And not just there: you will run into British etiquette the minute you land at Ø Heathrow airport or start shopping in Ø Oxford street. And if you are planning on going abroad on holiday, you might be undecided between skiing in the North of Italy or sunbathing on a beautiful beach in the South of France. Remember that phrases in combination with of also require the definite article.

As you can see from the number of definite articles we have used in bold in this text, THE is (almost) inevitable. To cut the long story short, if we use THE with the names of canals and channels, deserts, famous buildings, hotels, mountain ranges in plural, museums, oceans, seas and rivers, theatres and cinemas and avoid using it with airports, castles and palaces, cities and towns, continents, countries, streets and squares, we will significantly reduce the number of our errors. In the area were rules are so rare, we could at least stick to those that exist.