Eli5: Why is “The” used for some countries (The Netherlands, The UK, The USA, The Congo) while most every other country does not? (Kenya, Japan, Canada, etc)

Question

Grammatically the countries seem identical and baffled why these few countries have “the” especially since it’s not like there are many other Netherlands/USA/Congo out there which then demands an article to clarify we are taking about THE USA not just USA.

In: 5344

Answer 1

Simply put, it’s because the name isn’t “namey” enough. Just like you would say “I’m going to call **the** plumber”, versus, “I’m going to call Patricia” (not “the Patricia”). Some countries have names that are common nouns. E.g. if your country’s name starts with “republic”, then you are “The Republic of…” because English doesn’t allow sentences like “I’m going to travel to Republic of China” (say it out loud, you’ll sound like you’re a Russian-speaker or some other language that doesn’t use definite articles). Before a (singular) common noun, English demands an article. And it can’t be “a”, since you’re not just visiting *a* United Kingdom, but *the* United Kingdom (i.e. the specific country going by that name). And you’re not just traveling to any low-lying areas, but *the* Netherlands.

The other option is that your country is named after a geographical area or feature. Rivers, for instance, also get a “the”: *the* Nile, *the* Danube, *the* Ganges, and so on. The Congo is also a river, and the area around that river was historically also referred to as “the Congo” (shortened from the Congo Basin). Today, there are two countries that take their name from this river and/or area: the *Democratic Republic of* ***the*** *Congo* and the *Republic of* ***the*** *Congo*. And of course, since they each start with a common noun, we also put a “the” at (or before, depending on how you look at it) the start of their name.

Some countries used to historically be referred to with a definite article, but this is now deprecated, such as “the Sudan” or “the Lebanon”. The Sudan is a desert, and the Lebanon is a mountain range. But to refer to the associated countries that way sounds a bit colonial, since it implies you think of them as simply parts of the world rather than countries; unincorporated geography, so to speak, with no civilization or sovereignty. So these days “Sudan” and “Lebanon” are preferred. Similarly, we no longer refer to any country as “the Congo”. As I already mentioned, there are two Congo’s, and they are sometimes referred to as “Congo-Kinshasa” and “Congo-Brazzaville” (after their respective capital cities), but never with a definite article.