The Scandinavian Peninsula or Scandinavian Peninsula

[Son Ho]

I wonder why this place is used with the article the? We must use the before a peninsula, mustn't we?
The Scandinavian Peninsula or Scandinavian Peninsula

 

[Tarheel]

I had never heard of that rule before.

The Scandinavian Peninsula is a particular place. It's a place where Scandinavians live, thus the name.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes.

 

[probus]

Actually the phrase seems vague and useless because there are at least two Scandinavian peninsulas. In the south Denmark occupies the peninsula called Jutland (as well as many islands) while to the north Norway and Sweden share a much larger peninsula.

 

[Tdol]

If you use the word Peninsular in the name, then I would use the definite article.

 

[Tarheel]

I guess technically there are two Scandinavian peninsulas, but when I think of the Scandinavian peninsula poor little Denmark gets left out.

 

[probus]

I guess technically there are two Scandinavian peninsulas, but when I think of the Scandinavian peninsula poor little Denmark gets left out.

How very typically American of you.

 

[Tarheel]

According to Encyclopedia Britannica the Scandinavian Peninsula consists of Norway and Sweden.

 

[5jj]

Wikipedia adds the north-western part of Finland.

I think most of us include Denmark in Scandinavia, but not in the Scandinavian Peninsula.

 

[probus]

I guess technically there are two Scandinavian peninsulas, but when I think of the Scandinavian peninsula poor little Denmark gets left out.

How very typically American of you.

Wikipedia adds the north-western part of Finland.

I think most of us include Denmark in Scandinavia, but

 

[probus]

As is so often the case, Wikipedia is wrong. As I learnt when I lived in Copenhagen, no part of Finland is In Scandinavia. Throughout Scandinavia people use Norden (the north) when they want to include Finland.

By its own express admission, Wikipedia does not even aspire to be right. Instead it aspires to tell us what most people think.

 

[5jj]

Wikipedia did not say that Finland was part of Scandinavia. It said that the Scandinavian peninsula included the northwestern parts of Finland.

 

[jutfrank]

Actually the phrase seems vague and useless because there are at least two Scandinavian peninsulas.

You're using the word Scandinavian in a different way, probus. 'The Scandinavian Peninsula' is the name of one particular peninsula. There aren't two of them. This is why the word the is used before the name: precisely because it specifies only one.

 

[Tdol]

I find the idea of the Scandinavian or Iberian Peninsulas a bit odd- they seem too big to be worth classifying as such.