Ziko van Dijk wrote: > 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". > Actually, singular proper nouns commonly do not take the definite article in English. I would not say "the Britannica" anymore than I would say "the Wikipedia" (or, as noted, "the Encarta"). This particular case may indicate a difference between British and American English here, I'm guessing from the other comments.
There are some situations where you would use the definite article for singular proper nouns, such as with some geographical names, or when the name is actually a combination of common and proper nouns. Thus, I might refer to "the Encyclopedia Britannica" because it's "the encyclopedia" and "Britannica" identifies which encyclopedia I mean. --Michael Snow _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
