24
votes
Why is it "the North Island" and not "North Island" in New Zealand?
It is not at all uncommon in English (and other languages) for established regions of countries to be prefixed with a definite article.
See:
the Camargue (in France)
the Algarve (in Portugal)
the ...
20
votes
Why is it "the North Island" and not "North Island" in New Zealand?
Naming is highly ideosyncratic. While there are some common patterns, there are also many exceptions, and this is one of them.
You can't usually identify reasons for the exceptions, they just happen ...
- 1,991
11
votes
Why is it "the North Island" and not "North Island" in New Zealand?
Speaking as a NZer, it's the North Island simply because it's a descriptive label... out of the two main islands that make up the country, it's the northern one. And likewise the South Island being ...
- 111
5
votes
Why is it "the North Island" and not "North Island" in New Zealand?
The New Zealand Geographic Board seemingly has a strange dislike for arthrous proper nouns (including its own moniker), and declared in 2009 that the official English names are simply "North ...
- 151
3
votes
Why was the noun 'president' used without any articles in 'to be president' though it's a countable noun?
"The" can be omitted if a sentence is understood to refer to a uniquely singular job or position.
For example, it does not make sense to write "unfit to be senator"; there are many ...
- 1,916
2
votes
Why is it "the North Island" and not "North Island" in New Zealand?
Unfortunately there is little in the way of hard-and-fast rules on which place names take a definite article, and to make matters even worse, common usage often disagrees with the official position of ...
- 680
1
vote
Shall I write the article here
I would certainly use the there, probably for the reason you give.
But it is possible to omit it.
- 64.9k
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