Is Philippines, just "Philippines", or "The Philippines", does it have "The" in the front or not?

Question

coz, i have some filipino friends, and they said, its just "Philippines" no "The" in the front...

Answer 1

If you are FOB, then its Fhiliffines!

pilipino poods?

farty at the fark?

pree farking?

Answer 2

               THE  Philippines

Answer 3

"the republic of the Philippines"

Answer 4

its THE Philippines, because all countries ending in 's' show have the word 'the' before the country

ex. THE Bahamas

      THE United States

Answer 5

its THE PHILIPPINES..

Answer 6

The Philippines,, but newspapers and some people shortcut it "rp" meaning republic of the philippines..either of the two

Answer 7

English plurality rules.

Use "the" if the name of the country is plural or indicates a group (of states, islands, etc.)

Examples:

The Philippines (group of islands)

The United States (group of states)

The USSR (group of republics)

The Peoples Republic of China (plural)

China (singular, so you can't use "the")

Answer 8

used to be complete name is The Philippine Islands.  now Philippines is official name & thats the acceptable name

same as El Salvador.  now its ok to say "Salvador".

Answer 9

Very similar to "The Netherlands" and "The United States" we refer to the Philippines as "The Philippines".

But I guess the country is called Philippines, as the US is called United States.

To explain this someone referred to it as a plural count-noun. Or whatever that means but that is why it we use "The". So for this particular instance, it is better not to know the reason why, but just feel that using "The" to refer to these countries is more grammatically correct or pleasing to hear or better to understand.

Answer 10

Philippines is the appropriate word... Iam Filipino...  

Answer 11

I think "The" is included because its a republican country. That's what I always see whenever I look at the maps. =)

Answer 12

it's THE Republic of the Philippines. however, you may call Philippines plainly.

Answer 13

The Philippines

Answer 14

Having the article before the name sounds more correct and formal.

Does the sentence "I live in United States" sound awkward to you?

To say the same sentence in Tagalog referring to the islands is correct, i.e., "Nakatira ako sa Pilipinas" but tradition has it that in English, the article precedes the name of our Republic.   Some country names are correct without the article, e.g., " My brother lives in Australia." or "My nephew lives in Britain."   Yeah.  That's the best example.   The formal reference to that country is "The United Kingdom".

I really think the article is required because our islands were always known before as "Las Islas Filipinas", or "The Philippine Islands".  

Answer 15

I think either way is fine.