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Why 'The' always comes in front of 'The United Kingdom' but the same does not always apply to 'Great Britain'?

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  • Why The Netherlands, but only France? The Soviet Union, but only Russia? The most puzzling question is: "Why do you expect there is a rule about this?" – GEdgar Jun 21 '20 at 23:29
  • @GEdgar This question suggests nothing about whatever expectations about whatever rule but it is asking for the reason, which could be found to be the result of a general principle (i.e. rule) or imputed to the vagaries to which language is exposed; in this latter case we would just say that the reason is mere usage. – LPH Jun 21 '20 at 23:58
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    @GEdgar If you look at your list you will find that the names that have the definite article are composed of an ordinary noun preceded by an adjective but the ones without the definite article are referred to by a proper noun. You might claim that The Netherlands is a proper noun but it is composed of two words, "nether" and "lands" which have been joined together. The only country I know of with a definite article where this does not apply is The Gambia and I don't know what Gambia means. Perhaps it's an ordinary noun in a local language. – BoldBen Jun 22 '20 at 11:55
  • @BoldBen ... interesting. We used to say The Ukraine before that country left the USSR. And there is The Congo formerly known as Zaire. – GEdgar Jun 22 '20 at 15:54
  • @GEdgar True, I''d forgotten about them. The Congo was named after a river, of course. I wonder if Ukraine has that sort of structure in Ukrainian or Russian. Maybe it means something like "The border land". – BoldBen Jun 23 '20 at 05:03

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There are many kingdoms but only one Britain.

Of all the kingdoms, ours is the only united one. Historically there were many kingdoms in the British Isles but then they were united under one monarch. So we live in the (one and only) United Kingdom.

There is only one Britain and Britain is its name. If we talk about a friend, we don't say "Have you seen the John lately?" We say "Have you seen John lately?" Similarly we do not say "the Britain" we say "Britain".

Why Great Britain? Well funnily enough there used to be more than one "Britain". At that time it would have made sense to say "the Great Britain" to distinguish it from the smaller . Now however we have separate words. Nowadays, there is only one Britain and the other is called Brittany (Bretagne).

EDIT See comment by @Kate Bunting

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  • I thought that the name "Great Britain" was by contrast with the second-largest of the islands, which was once called Small Britain, but is now called Ireland. – Tanner Swett Jun 22 '20 at 01:00
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    According to Wikipedia, both could be true. The 2nd century geographer Ptolemy called Ireland mikra Brettania, and in the 12th century Geoffrey of Monmouth called Brittany Britannia minor. – Kate Bunting Jun 22 '20 at 07:57
  • @TannerSwett You are basically correct, although I've never heard of 'Small Britain". The full title of the UK is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" but determining exactly what constitutes Great Britain can lead you down all sorts of geographic, political, legal and cultural rabbit holes. There are islands which are definitely part of Great Britain, islands that look as though they should be part of Great Britain but aren't and parts of the British mainland many of whose inhabitants don't want to be part of the UK. – BoldBen Jun 22 '20 at 11:46