When do I use 'of' before a name of a town, commune, river etc. ?
I'm lookin for American English if that makes a difference.
I don't find the rule and I am unsure about the following cases:
- The river receives treated wastewater from the town [of?] Villeneuve-de-Berg.
- The study area encompasses the communes [of?] Mirabel and Berzème.
I wouldn't put 'of' before the name in the following sentence, although in theory it seems to be the same construction:
The river 'of' Thames flows through London.
Is there any general rule?
Best Answer
Villeneuve-de-Berg, Mirabel and Berzème are all settlement place names. If you want to refer to settlements as communities, towns, etc. before the name, then you use "the X of".
The Thames, however, is a river, and if you want to put the word "river" in front of river names, there's no "of": The River Thames.
Most types of places take "of" before the place name, but there's an arbitrary list of types of places that don't. Here's a probably incomplete list with examples:
rivers (the River Thames)
lakes (Lake Titicaca)
mountains (Mount Everest)
Most other types of places take "of" before the place name:
The City of Toronto
The Bay of Fundy
The Republic of Korea