Geneva Lake & (the) Lake of Geneva

Question

what is the use of articles with this particular name?
As far as I know, "Geneva Lake" is used without any article, but what about "(the?)Lake of Geneva"? According to the idiotic grammar book we have to use at university (a horrid Soviet opus with incomprehensible rules), there should be no article, but I've searched Google and got "the Lake of Geneva". If there is an article here, how to explain this fact?

Milky · Accepted Answer

Ukrainian_Hobbitwhat is the use of articles with this particular name? As far as I know, "Geneva Lake" is used without any article, but what about "(the?)Lake of Geneva"? According to the idiotic grammar book we have to use at university (a horrid Soviet opus with incomprehensible rules), there should be no article, but I've searched Google and got "the Lake of Geneva". If there is an article here, how to explain this fact?

It's "Lake Geneva".

Ukrainian_Hobbit · Answer

I know. but we have a weird exercise in our home assignment where we have to insert articles with geograpical names and there is this "Lake of Geneva" thing... Still, this exercise is from a Soviet book which has so much weird stuff in it.

Milky · Answer

Ukrainian_HobbitI know. but we have a weird exercise in our home assignment where we have to insert articles with geograpical names and there is this "Lake of Geneva" thing... Still, this exercise is from a Soviet book which has so much weird stuff in it.

As far as I know, there is only one lake in Geneva, so use "the". Also, the lake that is in Geneva is not the one that is in Hamburg, again use "the".

Paco2004 · Answer

Ukrainian_Hobbitwhat is the use of articles with this particular name? As far as I know, "Geneva Lake" is used without any article, but what about "(the?)Lake of Geneva"? According to the idiotic grammar book we have to use at university (a horrid Soviet opus with incomprehensible rules), there should be no article, but I've searched Google and got "the Lake of Geneva". If there is an article here, how to explain this fact?

Some lakes can be called by a name in the form of "the Lake of X", especially in the case X is a place name. In this case putting THE is a must: the Lake of Geneva, the Lake of Galilee, the Lake of Como, the Lake of Constance, the Lake of Lausanne, the Lake of Marathon, the Lake of Mexico. THE is necessary also to the Great Salt Lake. We cannot call it "Lake Great Salt".

paco

Milky · Answer

Paco2004
Ukrainian_Hobbitwhat is the use of articles with this particular name? As far as I know, "Geneva Lake" is used without any article, but what about "(the?)Lake of Geneva"? According to the idiotic grammar book we have to use at university (a horrid Soviet opus with incomprehensible rules), there should be no article, but I've searched Google and got "the Lake of Geneva". If there is an article here, how to explain this fact?
Some lakes can be called by a name in the form of "the Lake of X", especially in the case X is a place name. In this case putting THE is a must: the Lake of Geneva, the Lake of Galilee, the Lake of Como, the Lake of Constance, the Lake of Lausanne, the Lake of Marathon, the Lake of Mexico. THE is necessary also to the Great Salt Lake. We cannot call it "Lake Great Salt".

paco

It's now called "Lake Geneva" (no article), in British English. And:

The Sea of Galilee

Lake Como

Lake Constance

Lake Lausanne

.........

NB

*I think it is Amiel who remonstrates somewhere on the habitual foreign and even French misuse of Lac Lèman for Lac du Lèman; but use and wont have now made the article obsolete, and even purists like M. Anatole France and M. Paul Bourget have concurred in the vulgarisation.

http://www37.pair.com/sundown/Sharp/WSVol_4/geneva.htm

Milky · Answer

Paco2004THE is necessary also to the Great Salt Lake. We cannot call it "Lake Great Salt".

paco

It's called "the Great" because it is the biggest of the lakes in the region and also the largest salt lake in the Western Hemisphere. That's the correct use of the article to indicate its unique nature.

Paco2004 · Answer

Nor strangely enough, for a country straight out of toyland, has much of Switzerland. I was once invited to a yodeling club meeting behind a barn, overlooking the Lake of Geneva. (The New York Times, April, 11, 2006)

For me, the most captivating and authoritative part of the letter comes when the author speaks directly from personal experience of his own spiritual openings, as when he again recounts his vision of how Jesus took him at dawn to the Lake of Galilee and washed his ugly cancerous wound and said, ''Your sins are forgiven." (The New York Times, April, 11, 2006)

paco

Milky · Answer

Paco2004Nor strangely enough, for a country straight out of toyland, has much of Switzerland. I was once invited to a yodeling club meeting behind a barn, overlooking the Lake of Geneva. (The New York Times, April, 11, 2006)

For me, the most captivating and authoritative part of the letter comes when the author speaks directly from personal experience of his own spiritual openings, as when he again recounts his vision of how Jesus took him at dawn to the Lake of Galilee and washed his ugly cancerous wound and said, ''Your sins are forgiven." (The New York Times, April, 11, 2006)

paco

Yes, I'm aware of writer errors and overblown text. Now, what is the common name for both those stretches of water in English?

BTW, is this a good English sentence?

<<Nor strangely enough, for a country straight out of toyland, has much of Switzerland. >>

Geneva Lake & (the) Lake of Geneva

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