A few days ago
bob

Why is it that we can put the word ‘the’ in front the names of some countries?

Eg. the Bahamas, the Lebanon, the Congo, the Cameroons etc.

Top 2 Answers
A few days ago
David F

Favorite Answer

You ‘can’, but in the case of Lebanon, and Cameroon, I wouldn’t recommend it, grammatically.

It’s probably a carry over from the full title of the country. For example, Canada can also be referred to as “The Dominion of Canada”; China is “The people’s republic of China”, so while not grammatically correct, one could speak of ‘the Canada’ or ‘the China’

Hence, ‘the Commonwealth of the Bahamas’, ‘The Lebanese Republic’

‘Congo commonly refers to either one of the two neighbouring countries in Central Africa drained by the river from which they get their name. “The Congos” is used to refer collectively to both countries…’

‘Republic of Cameroon’

0

A few days ago
abinavvenket
A sign of respect maybe………..
0