Learn English – Need for using the article “the” before “United States of America”?

articlesdefinite-articlesgrammaticality

Usually, we do not use the definite article, the, before names of countries but we use the before "United States of America".

Is there a specific reason for using the article before the country "United States of America"?

Best Answer

The is used in front of countries that have:

  • plural names:
    the Netherlands

  • a general geo-political noun of place, e.g. republic, emirate, kingdom, state:
    the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom.

On a related note, see this post on the capitalization of articles in names:

You only capitalize The when it is the first word in a title of book or a play. . . . In contrast, the word the is not normally capitalized in front of proper nouns that aren’t titles, like . . . the United States of America. . . .

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