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Fairy Princess Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Another question: Why does a particular war need article the? Like the Korean War when we are already mentioning which war we are referring to.
  

Top answer

Fairy Princess Why does a particular war need the article " the " ? It doesn't logically need it; it's more like a tradition that we use "the". World War I and World War II don't have an article, but most other wars do.

— CalifJim

  • Fairy Princess Why does a particular war need the article " the " ?
  • It doesn't logically need it; it's more like a tradition that we use "the".
  • World War I and World War II don't have an article, but most other wars do.
  • CJ
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9 Answers
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Fairy PrincessWhy does a particular war need the article "the"?
It doesn't logically need it; it's more like a tradition that we use "the".

World War I and World War II don't have an article, but most other wars do.

CJ
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CalifJimWorld War I and World War II don't have an article, but most other wars do.
The grammatical reason for zero article in World War I and World War II is the cardinal numeral. The First World War and the Second World War
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Cool BreezeThe First World War
Yes. Also, the Great War.

I wonder if there are any cases of Civil War I and Civil War II in any country.

CJ
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It seems to me that "the Korean War" has an article according to the usual rules relating to singular countable nouns.
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GPYIt seems to me that "the Korean War" has an article according to the usual rules relating to singular countable nouns.
But that's for common nouns, isn't it? Not for proper nouns. Or are we wrong to capitalize War? Should we write the Korean war?

CJ
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CalifJimBut that's for common nouns, isn't it? Not for proper nouns. Or are we wrong to capitalize War? Should we write the Korean war?
No, I think "War" should be capitalised, but just that the default, or expected, treatment of proper nouns that are also ordinary phrases in English, capitalisation aside, is to apply articles as if they were ordinary phrases.
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If you call WW1 and WW2 "The First World War" and "The Second.." Then it looks like we have a rule that the name of all wars stars with "The". This also seems to apply then to named Battles and Campaigns, maybe it's a military thing...
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Vic ZIf you call WW1 and WW2 "The First World War" and "The Second.." Then it looks like we have a rule that the name of all wars stars with "The".
I don't think it's anything to do with "War", specifically. "The First World Anything" would be expected to have an article, as would "the Korean Anything", where "Anything" is a singular countable noun, just by th
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GPY - yes of course, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole there.
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