You don't say the Canada, the Ireland, the Iraq, the Japan, etc...

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 9 points 6 days ago (1 child)

The United States of America, The Soviet Union, The Maldives,

I'm sure there are others

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 3 points 6 days ago

    "The" in those names is referring to the structure of the state, rather than the name; "The United States", "The Union" (Maldives is actually "The Republic of the Maldives").

    From wikipedia:

    In the English-speaking world during most of the 20th century, Ukraine (whether independent or not) was referred to as "the Ukraine".[19] This is because in Russian, the word ukraina means 'borderland' so the definite article would be natural in the English language; this is similar to Nederlanden, which means 'low lands' and is rendered in English as 'the Netherlands'.

  • source
  • parent