Quote:
Originally Posted by BobK  I didn't answer Manuela's original question. We use either; I'd guess 'Oporto' is slightly more common - though Google disagrees seriously:
3,170,000 for Oporto
1,280,000 for "O Porto"
1,350,000 for "o Porto"
but
126,000,000 for Porto |
The 126 million hits for "porto" will include all the hits for "O Porto" and "o Porto"; additionally, it will include all the references where "Porto" is not a reference to the city at all, including pages in Portuguese and any other language where "porto" is a word. I just googled for "Porto", and the first page included hits for "Universidada do Porto" (Oporto University), "FC Porto" (the football club) and a bakery in California. Plus we have references to:
Salir do Porto, Portugal
Porto Santo and Porto Moniz, Madeira
Vila do Porto, Madeira
Porto Seguro, Porto Velho, Porto Ferreira, Porto Alegre and Porto Feliz, Brazil
Porto-Novo, Benin
Porto, Italy
Porto-Torres and Porto Ottiolu, Sardinia
Porto-Vecchio, Corsica
Porto Carras and Porto Cheli, Greece
Georges de Porto-Riche, a French novelist
Jorge Porto Cuba, a Cuban artist
The Porto Rico Importing Co., New York
..and many more.
Google is a bit of a blunt instrument at times.
