Use of articles before community names

Question

Do we use the before community names when they are referred to in a general sense? Would it be the Bhils or simply Bhils, the Eskimos or just Eskimos?

What are the general rules about the use of articles in this context?

Answer 1

When it comes to the names of other races or nationalities, some do need an article due to their naming convention. As a general rule, nationalities that end in ss, ch, ese, or sh have no plural form.

For example, "Americans" is plural, so you can say "Americans are from America", but when it comes to people from Britain, the nationality "British" cannot be used the same way as it has no plural form (the noun "Briton" can be plural but is very rarely used and more often associated with ancient tribes of Celtic Britons). You would therefore need to say either "British people" or "the British".

---

However, you may need to use the definite article with any nationality when referring to a specific group of them. For example, if you had spoken about a specific group of Eskimos, you might then refer to that group as "the Eskimos".