2009/6/27 Ziko van Dijk <zvand...@googlemail.com>: > Hello, > Could someone explain to me why "Wikipedia" is without definite > article? In English you say "the Britannica", so why not "the > Wikipedia"? I am wondering that also in German Wikipedians and > non-Wikipedians tend to drop the article, although we say "der > Brockhaus".
We do indeed say "I looked it up in the Encyclopedia Britannica", but we also say "I looked it up in Encarta" or "I looked it up in Whitaker's". Whether or not something gets an initial article is a bit erratic, on the whole... (Perhaps Britannica gets it because "Encyclopedia" is a common word - we'd feel silly with the sentence "I looked it up in Encyclopedia Britannica", because "I looked it up in encyclopedia" would itself be wrong) For what it's worth, I've noticed that "the Wikipedia" is becoming more common, but more among third parties than among people associated with the project. -- - Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
