What's the difference here: Our company is based in the NYC and our market is primar

[B45]

What's the difference here:

Our company is based in the NYC and our market is primarily in the US.

VS

Our company is based in the NYC and our market is primarily the US.

Are both okay?

 

[Matthew Wai]

our market is primarily in the US.

The market is somewhere in the US.

our market is primarily the US.

The whole nation is the market.

Not a teacher.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

You should remove 'the' before NYC.

 

[Matthew Wai]

As we can say 'the United States', why can't we say 'the New York City'?

Not a teacher.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's "the" before "United States" because the country is made up of a combination of states. It is made up of the states which have been united to form one country.

The United States of America
The United Kingdom
The United Soviet Socialist Republic (no longer exists).

New York City is simply a name, a proper noun, like London, Paris, Italy etc. No article is necessary before them.

 

[Matthew Wai]

'The People's Republic of China.'
This country is not 'United'. Why is 'the' used?
Not a teacher.

 

[Polyester]

Same question that I want to ask the teacher here. Thank you Matthew.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

It's not 'United' that conditions whether we use the article 'the' in every case. It's just the explanation in this case.

We say The People's Republic of China, The Republic of the Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, because they are the official English names of these countries. We also say The Gambia, The Seychelles, The Netherlands and others, but NOT The New York City. The French say Le Caire (The Cairo) but in English we just say Cairo. There are conventions you just have to accept.

 

[Matthew Wai]

'The' should be used before an official name but not before a common name.
Whether it is an official name or a common name is not a grammatical problem.
It is simply decided by the official people.
Am I right or wrong? Not a teacher.

 

[Roman55]

'The' should be used before an official name but not before a common name.

I am not a teacher.

I'm not sure that I understand your point.

France, Italy, Germany, Spain and so on are all official names, and we put 'The' in front of none of them.

We put 'The' in front of the names of groups of islands because they are considered as plurals e.g. The Azores/Bahamas/Cayman Islands/Channel Islands/Hebrides/Philippines/Seychelles/Virgin Islands et al. That is grammatical.

We also use 'The' before groups of states or nations for grammatical reasons, e.g. The United States of America/United Kingdom/European Union/Netherlands.

The only singular country name that comes to mind using 'The' is The Gambia, but their real official name is 'The Republic of the Gambia'.

 

[Matthew Wai]

'The' is not used in 'New York City' because it is not an official name.
'The' is used in 'The People's Republic of China' because it is an official name.
Am I right or wrong? Not a teacher.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm pretty sure "New York City" is the official name of "New York City".

 

[Roman55]

'The' is not used in 'New York City' because it is not an official name.
'The' is used in 'The People's Republic of China' because it is an official name.
Am I right or wrong? Not a teacher.

I am not a teacher.

I don't get it Matthew. You 'thanked' my post #10 but you're still on the same subject.

 

[Matthew Wai]

As both 'The People's Republic of China' and 'New York City' are official names, why is 'the' used in the former but not in the latter? Is it because the former is considered a group of states as Roman55 said in his post#10?
Not a teacher.

I don't get it Matthew. You 'thanked' my post #10 but you're still on the same subject.

I thanked your post by way of civility, which this forum values. I am still on the same subject because I am still confused.

 

[Roman55]

Sorry if I offended you. I (wrongly) assumed you were thanking me for the explanation.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Matthew, "The People's Republic of China" is analogous to "The United States of America" and "The United Kingdom". It has no commonality with "New York City" or "Kansas City" or "Oklahoma City". Completely different.

 

[Matthew Wai]

"The People's Republic of China" is analogous to "The United States of America" and "The United Kingdom".

What is the analogy? Is it that China is composed of provinces, which are similar to the states in the US and the counties in the UK?

Sorry if I offended you.

Take it easy. I took no offence. I am not so touchy. Did I sound offended?

 

[MikeNewYork]

The analogy applies to the name more than the structure, but the structure is part of the reason for the name. It can be complicated.