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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Article "the"

Hi gang,

I have a quick question I am hoping to find the answer to.

Why do we use the article "the" when referring to "the Second World War" but not when referring to "World War II"?

Or should/could "World War II" be referred to with the article "the"? "The World War II"?

thanks
  

Top answer

Hi Anon: English is inconsistent when using the definite article with names. There are some general (rather complex) guidelines, and there are exceptions. We use "the" before ordinal numbers the first, the second, the third.....

— AlpheccaStars

  • Hi Anon: English is inconsistent when using the definite article with names.
  • There are some general (rather complex) guidelines, and there are exceptions.
  • We use "the" before ordinal numbers the first, the second, the third.....
  • so that might account for the difference in use of "the" between 2 names for the same event.
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1 Answers
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Hi Anon:
English is inconsistent when using the definite article with names.
There are some general (rather complex) guidelines, and there are exceptions.
We use "the" before ordinal numbers the first, the second, the third..... so that might account for the difference in use of "the" between 2 names for the same event.
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