Proper Nouns with THE

We normally use "the" for country names that include "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc:

Statesthe United States of America/the USA
Kingdomthe United Kingdom/the UK
Republicthe French Republic

We normally use "the" for names of canals, rivers, seas and oceans:

canalsthe Suez Canal
riversthe River Nile, the Nile
seasthe Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean
oceansthe Pacific Ocean, the Pacific

We normally use "the" for plural names of people and places:

people (families, for example)the Clintons
countriesthe Philippines, the United States
island groupsthe Virgin Islands, the British Isles
mountain rangesthe Himalayas, the Alps

Look at these sentences:

  • I saw the Clintons today. It was Bill's birthday.
  • Trinidad is the largest island in the West Indies.
  • Mount Everest is in the Himalayas.

We normally use "the" with the following sorts of names:

hotels, restaurantsthe Ritz Hotel, the Peking Restaurant
banksthe National Westminster Bank
cinemas, theatresthe Royal Theatre, the ABC Cinema
museumsthe British Museum, the National Gallery
buildingsthe White House, the Crystal Palace
newspapersthe Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Post
organisationsthe United Nations, the BBC, the European Union

We normally use "the" for names made with "of":

  • the Tower of London
  • the Gulf of Siam
  • the Tropic of Cancer
  • the London School of Economics
  • the Bank of France
  • the Statue of Liberty