Below are the answers and explanation for the lesson about using the article “the” when referring to countries and nationalities.
If you have not completed the test already, please do so now. To complete the test, click here: Articles & Countries Grammar Test
Country Names and THE
Almost all country names do not require the article “the”. We refer to France, England, Britain, Vietnam, Canada, China, India – all without “the”.
However, there are exceptions. Countries that are made up of a group of states or islands use “the”, such as the Philippines and the US. Any country that uses the words “states” or “united” or “republic” also use “the”, for example the UK, the US, the Republic of China.
Please note, the word “Britain” is not a synonym for England. Britain means the UK. Britain refers to the group of countries that make up the UK: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The word “Britain” actually means “Great Britain”.
Nationalities
We need to use the article “the” when referring to nationalities as a group of people: the British, the Americans, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the English.
Do not confuse the rule of nationalities, above, with a different rule about using similar words as part of a noun phrase where it does not form the main noun. For example, the words “a British car” is a noun phrase and in that noun phrase the word “car” is the main noun, not the word “British”. So, the rule about using “the” with nationalities is only when referring to a group of people under the umbrella of their nationality – not when using the nationality as an adjective to another noun. One more example: “the hard-working British” is a noun phrase referring to the whole group of British people as a nationality and requires “the”. But we could say “a hard-working British man” – in this noun phrase, the word “man” is the main noun and can use any article depending on how the noun is used. To learn more about this, refer to two chapters in my Grammar E-book: the chapter on Articles and the chapter on Noun Phrases. Also note that when referring to “Americans”, it is possible to drop the article “Americans are friendly” and it is also possible to use “the” – “The Americans are friendly”.
I hope you found this useful. Rules about articles (a / an / the) can feel confusing. But you can learn them all simply and easily in my new Grammar E-book 🙂
Answers for the Grammar Test:
Number 3 “the America” is wrong. Number 4 “the Britain” is wrong. Number 8 “the England” is wrong.
Correct: the British, the UK, the English, the US, the Americans. Note it is also possible to say “Americans” without an article as noted on the page above.
