Is the article "the" required before a proper noun?

Question

When using a proper noun such as a place name in a sentence, do you use an article before it?

For example, I'm writing a story where magicians live in Mage Institutions. There are a number of Mage Institutions in the country, so when talking about a specific one such as "Primary Mage Institution", should I use "the" before it? (e.g. He was studying in the Secondary Mage Institution with the hopes of transferring to the Primary Mage Institution") Somehow I feel that not using "the" sounds very odd.

Answer 1

I don't know if you need to add a the before a proper noun, but in your example, the places you mentioned are specified and can be identified, thus you should add a the before them. Let's say there are many Mage Institutions and Linje Institutions. I feel you could say:

He was studying in a Mage Institution with the hopes of transferring to a Linje Institution.

He may study in any Mage Institution and want to transfer to any Linje Institution. The places are not specified and can't be identified, thus you can use 'a/an'.

Answer 2

I agree: use the word the in both cases.

Answer 3

There is a general rule in English, that "proper names" do not require an article (such as "the" or "a/an"), but normal nouns do. So, to change your fantasy institutions to real world institutions, we would say:

He was studying inat Ohio State University with the hopes of transferring to Yale.

We don't use the in this sentence, because the names of these universities are considered their "proper names". What would it look like if we didn't use the proper names?

He was studying at the state university in Ohio with the hopes of transferring to an Ivy League school.

Here, state is an adjective modifying the noun university, and is not a proper name, so an article is required.

Where it gets tricky is when the proper name could also be seen as an adjective/noun pair.

He was studying at [the?] Springfield Community College...

Here, it could be ambiguous whether or not to use "the". You could read Springfield Community College as meaning "the Community College that exists in the town of Springfield", in which case it's an adjective/noun pair and you must use an article. Or, you could read it as a proper name, just Springfield Community College, a proper name, where no article should be used. And in fact, as the writer, you could successfully choose either option, and be correct either way.

So as the author of your story, you can choose either form, and be correct. However, each form has a slightly different meaning. Without the "the", you are saying that this is the actual name of the magical institution. With the "the", you are saying that this is a description of the institution, but not its actual name.