Use of “THE” for proper noun.
The article “the” is used before some proper nouns. Here are some
rules for the use of article “the” before proper nouns.
- Article “the” is not used before the name of countries, cities, for example New York, Mexico, Canada, Toronto, London, Paris, and America. But if the name of country or city or place expresses group of places or lands or states, then article “the” will be used before it. For example, the Philippines, the Netherlands, the United States
- Article “the” is not used before the name of universities, for example Oxford University, Yale University, or Columbia University. But if the name of university is written in a order that it includes the word “of” then article “the” will be used before it, for example, the University of British Colombia, the university of Oxford, the University of Toronto.
- Article “the” is used before names composed of both common noun and proper noun, for example the New York City, the Dominion of Canada, the River Nile.
- “The” is used before the names of laws, principles, theories or devices, for example, the Pythagorean Theorem, the Fahrenheit Scale, the Law of Newton, the Allais effect. But if the proper noun is used in possessive form, no article will be used, for example Newton’s Laws of Motion, Hooke’s Law of Elasticity, and Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures.
- “The” used by the name of ocean, sea, river, dessert or forest (except lakes and fall) for example the Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Sahara, and the Black Forests.
- “The” is used before the names of buildings, hotels, libraries having particular names, for example the Brunel Hotel, the Lahore Museum, the Library of Congress.
- “The” is used before the name of a geographical region and points on globe, for example the Middle East, the West, the Equator, the North Pole.
- “The” is usually used before the names of organizations for example, the Association of Chartered Accountants, the World Health Organization.