Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Ukraine/Ukraine: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Ukraine/Ukraine  
Some country names are preceded by an article—like “The United States” and “La France”—but most are not. Sometimes it depends on what language you are speaking: in English we call the latter country simply “France,” and “La Republica Argentina” is just “Argentina” although in the 19th century the British often referred to it as “The Argentine.”

When the region formerly known as “The Ukraine” split off from the old Soviet Union, it declared its preference for dropping the article, and the country is now properly called simply “Ukraine.”

No comments:

Post a Comment