Why do some counties have a 'the' in front of the country name?

Question

Why do some countries have a 'the' in front of their names and others don't. I undertand country names like United Kingdom, United States, People's Republic of China which start with an adjective. But why do countries like Ukraine, Congo or Sudan need a 'the' in front of the name? Which other countries have this?

Answer 1

The Ukrainian word Ukrayina is from Old East Slavic ukraina "borderland", from u "by, at" and the Slavic root kraj "edge; region". In the Ukrainian language krayina simply means "country."

In English, the country is referred to without the definite article, conforming to the usual English grammar rules for names of countries. Before the country's independence in 1991, the country was often referred to as "The Ukraine."

The term 'Ukraine' rather than 'The Ukraine' is now predominant in diplomacy and journalism.

Answer 2

Take a look at miamiwings answer here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

It is technically accurate in regards to country names in general. To expand what she says, regions are pluralistic, so they have the article "the" in front of them.

There have been many reasons given for why people used "the" in front of Ukraine, but most of them are justifications for ignorance by non Soviets.

As to Sudan and Congo, the answer specifying that they were regions before is accurate. When adding "Republic of" in front, we English speakers often are required to add the article (but not always).

In general, remember that plural entities have "the", and singular (independent) ones do not.

Here are more resources for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukr...

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications...

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications...

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications...

Answer 3

This indicates that they're a region. For a long time, the Ukraine was a part of the USSR, the Sudan (or the Sudd) was a region in Africa governed as a British colony (the Sudd also referred to the huge swampy region in southern Sudan), and the Congo was also for a long time thought of as the region around the Congo river, not a country.

Now that these 3 are all autonomous nations, it's considered wrong to use the "the". Using "the" suggests that it is merely a region and not a true nation.

Answer 4

(I suspect the answer above is probably more accurate than mine, but it wasn't there when i started writing this)

Well, Sudan is technically "The Republic of Sudan" and Congo is "The Democratic Republic of Congo".

'The Congo' is also often used to talk about the area around the river Congo.