Chris BONDE wrote:
Simple:
"I live in United States of America." or "I live in United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland.", is not correct English. The
official name of the US IS "The United States of America" (as in, "We,
the people, of the United States of America ...). At least thus I was
taught way back in my earliest youth. (LONG time ago! ;-) ) I suspect
the same is true on the other side of the pond. -Greg
We used to say "The Argentine", when I was a kid. I barely remember that. The
explanation was, that it is a left over from the concept that the names that have a
feminine gender in other languages are suppose to have an article before them,
hence the "the". Now if that is true I know not.
But I think in the case of the USA it is different as it is THE UNITED STATES of
(north) America, not THE UNITED STATES of (central) America. Further, we have
THE North West Territories of Canada and THE Yukon of Canada. BUT it is now
Yukon no THE. So in this case I think that if there is an adjective or modifier prior
to the main noun in a compound name then it is correct to use "THE".
But more experinced grammarians should comment.
Chris
Makes me feel like shouting, "No! I'm sorry we didn't know that South
America would be so sensitive about it 200 years after we named
ourselves 'The United States of America'!" ;-)
And wasn't it "the Yukon Territories" way back then? "The" would make
sense then. If I recall correctly, I was looking at a Mercator
projection of the world thinking, "Wow! Those Canadian Territories are
HUGE!" :-)
-Greg
