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The U.K. / the U.K.

Matthew@ELSP

The U.K. / the U.K.

I have found conflicting answers regarding this question and so I �d appreciate opinions, thanks.

In a worksheet I made for a class, I used the term "The U.S.A." (no speech marks on the worksheet).

Another teacher asked whether I had meant to capitalise "The".

I said yes, as although "the" is an article, it is an integral part of the title.

Any country or region name beginning with "United", has "The".

Example.

The United States.

The United Kingdom.

The United Arab Emirates.

The Hague.

In the (American English) textbooks here in Japanese junior high school, it is written as "the U.S.A.".

I feel that it is correct (at least equally correct) to use upper case for "The" in the title "The U.S.A.".

Opinions please.

Reference: Wikipedia.

Only capitalize "the" if it is part of the (short-form) formal place name (The Hague vs. the Netherlands, the Sudan, and the Philippines)

The U.K. / the U.K.

The U.S.A. / the U.S.A.

These final two do not appear.

The Economist (newspaper) also says "The" should be upper case.

Thanks a lot.

15 Nov 2016

almaz

I have a feeling this was discussed a few years ago, and as far as I recall, the general consensus was that capitalisation of the article is unnecessary when referring to the UK or the US. Try googling a phrase which includes both the article and the name of the country, such as "Prime Minister of the United Kingdom" (restrict the results to reliable and authoritative sources, of course), and I think you�ll find that the article in lower case is almost universally preferred.

Incidentally, I think you�ll also find that The Economist style guide consistently uses the lower case article with United Kingdom and United States (as it also does with United Nations). Unless you were just referring to the title of the magazine Smile

But I hope this helps, anyway.

Alex

15 Nov 2016

douglas

Personally, my first thoughts were automatically to not captalize "the" in the United States, but I would probably captilize it in "The Hague"--no reason, it just feels right. So I now understand your conundrum and can �t give you a "black and white" answer.

I would not capitalize "the" and as I look around the web, this seems to be the most common choice. I did find tghis "rule" somewhere, but it isn �t really too helpful either:

Rule 8. In general, do not capitalize the word the before proper nouns.

Examples:
We visited the Grand Canyon.
They �re fans of the Grateful Dead.

In special cases, if the word the is an inseparable part of something �s official title, it may be capitalized.

Example: We visited The Hague.

So as I see it, "common use" is to not capitalize it.

Cheers,

Douglas

15 Nov 2016

redcamarocruiser

Q. I would like additional clarification regarding a recent Q&A. You stated that a word that is part of a proper name should not be capitalized if such word is being used as an article in the sentence. The example given was “We evaluated the University of Texas’s enrollment data.” You stated that this was correct even if the proper name of this school is “The University of Texas.” I thought that the goal of good editing was to produce clear, accurate, and comprehensible text. If “The” as part of a proper name is not capitalized, the reader will be led to believe that it is not part of the name. Why create confusion, to say nothing of the insult that may be given in certain cultures and communities where a name may have great significance?

A. Chicago’s style is to lowercase, probably because it’s not practical for editors to research the capitalization of “the” in every organization name in a manuscript. Even quick Internet searches leave questions, since Web sites often show inconsistencies in spelling and capitalization. That’s the idea behind having a style manual in the first place: to make arbitrary decisions (which we would not call “correct,” since there are many acceptable styles) that an editor can impose efficiently within a document for the sake of consistency. Readers are not likely to be insulted if the name of their organization is treated the same as that of every other organization in a document.

https://www.usa.gov/style-guide/style-guidance

https://www.usa.gov/style-guide/style-guidance has a chat option where one can ask questions about writing styles.

Do you need help?

Ask us any question about the U.S. government for free. We �ll get you the answer, or we �ll tell you where to find it.

they say, "Generally, we follow the United States Government Publishing Office Style Manual spelling guidance" where they did not capitalize the �the � in �the United States � .

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Definite article in proper place names 3.11.

To achieve greater distinction or to adhere to the authorized form, the word the (or its equivalent in a foreign language) is capitalized when used as a part of an official name or title. When such name or title is used adjectively, the is not capitalized, nor is the supplied at any time when not in copy.

British Consul v. Th e Mermaid (title of legal case)

The Dalles (OR); Th e Weirs (NH); but the Dalles region; the Weirs streets

Th e Hague; but the Hague Court; the Second Hague Conference El Salvador; Las Cruces; L’Esterel The National Mall; The Mall (Washington, DC only) The Gambia but the Congo, the Sudan, the Netherlands

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2008/pdf/GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2008-5.pdf

15 Nov 2016

redcamarocruiser

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-proper-the.htm shows the United States with �the �not capitalized.

Proper Nouns with THE

We normally use "the" for country names that include "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc:

States	the United States of America/the USA
Kingdom	the United Kingdom/the UK
Republic	the French Republic

15 Nov 2016

FrauSue

I agree - capitalise for "The Hague" but not in any of the other placenames.

15 Nov 2016

cunliffe

Bad luck, Matthew

Tomorrow is another day!

15 Nov 2016

Matthew@ELSP

Thanks, everyone.

In the end, I told the colleague I �d keep �the � as lowercase until I was more confident of my assertion.

It seems I was I was... less correct than I otherwise would have been, had I been more correct than I was.... ahem :)

Oh, wait, there �s a word for that: wrong

18 Nov 2016