Merry Christmas, Yule/Winter Solstice, Newtonsday!

From: der Mouse <mouse_at_Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
Date: Thu Dec 25 13:17:16 2003

>> But curiously, you can see more commonly [in English] "from the USA"
>> than "from the Germany" or "from the Australia" or "from the Italy".
> That is not so strange, as "from the USA" is literally "from the
> United _States_", i.e. plural form. Neither "from the Germany" nor
> the others qualify as plural. Exception: "from the Netherlands", but
> this is because Netherlands means "low countries" (again : plural)

It's not just being plural. Consider "from the European Union" or
"from the United Kingdom", which are (grammatically, at least)
singular.

I suspect it's more that "the" is used with country names formed as
adjective + common noun, but not those that are formed as proper nouns,
even if they also tack on an adjective: "from the United Kingdom" but
both "from Britain" and "from Great Britain".

I don't understand why "from Scotland", though, especially in view of
"from the Netherlands". Some other place names to consider: "from
Tierra del Fuego"; "from the Ivory Coast"; "from Costa Rica"; "from the
Isle of Man"; "from Newfoundland"; "from the Middle Kingdom" but "from
China"; "from Gibraltar" but "from the Rock of Gibraltar"....

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Received on Thu Dec 25 2003 - 13:17:16 GMT