Articles with geographic names

The following geographical names are used without any article:

1. Names of continents: Africa, America, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe.

Note: The Arctic and the Antarctic are used with the definite article as they denote the regions round the north and south poles.

2. Names of countries, counties, provinces, states: France, Devonshire, Scotland, Texas.

Note 1: Some names can be used with or without the article: (the) Congo, (the) Lebanon, (the) Senegal, the Ruhr, the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Argentine (but: Argentina), (the) Ukraine.

Note 2: Names of countries consisting of word groups are used with the definite article: the United States of America (the USA), the Russian Federation, the CIS, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, etc.

3. Names of cities, towns, or villages: London, New York, Moscow.

Note: the exception is the Hague.

4. Names of mountain peaks and single islands : Snowdon, Elbrus, Ben Nevis, Etna; Cyprus, Man, Madagascar.

5. Names of lakes, waterfalls, and bays: Lake Michigan, Lake Baikal, Onega Lake; Victoria Falls, Niagara Falls; Hudson Bay.

Note: If the word lake is not used, the name of the lake is preceded by the definite article.

6. Names of peninsulas and capes: Hindustan, Cape Horn.

Note: If the word 'peninsula ' is added, the definite article is used: the Hindustan Peninsula, the Balkan Peninsula.

The following geographic names are used with the definite article:

1. Names of the cardinal points: the North, the South, the East, the West

2. Names of seas, oceans, rivers, straits, canals: the Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Thames, the Suez Canal, the English Channel.

3. Names of mountain chains and groups of islands: the Alps, the Urals, the Rocky Mountains; the Hawaii.

4. Names of deserts: the Sahara, the Gobi.

5. Geographic names having the plural form: the Midlands, the Netherlands.

Note: Geographic names that are used without article may take the definite and the indefinite article in the following cases:

- a geographic name used with a limiting attribute takes the definite article:

At last he saw the England of his youth.

- a geographic name used with a descriptive attribute takes the indefinite article:

He came to a different London and didn't recognize it.

- the definite article is used in phrases with the preposition of:

the City of New York, the Isle of Man, the Gulf of Mexico, the Strait of Dover.