same with the following...

- the Ukraine
- the Lebanon
- the King's Road

Doesn't have the same emphasis somehow...

My theory is it's some sort of colonial hangover, though I don't have any evidence for that. Incidentally, I've never heard anyone say "The Oman."

Nous avons la France. Sans 'la'? C'est une affectation dérogatoire Anglais. Vive la France! À bas les commerçants.

may take a definite article, but not countries, so it shouldn't be The Ukraine. Sudan, for example, used to be a region before it became a country, hence why you often see it with the definite article.

Never Wirral.

Tend to attract the definite article for some reason. We've already had The King's Road but (less glamourously) I would also say The Uxbridge Road, The Boston Manor Road, The Westway etc. Does this happen elsewhere?

Of course the one London street which always gets a definite article and shouldn't is (the) Strand.

Didn't they surrender their "The" at some point ?

Grossbritannien, Frankreich and Spanien, but die Niederlande, die Schweiz, die Türkei and die USA.

Scottish people always seem to refer to the place as The Argentine.

... that it reflects a kind of imperialist disparagement of places that aren't "proper countries".

If it's Argentina it's a country worthy of some respect. If it's The Argentine it's some kind of tinpot little South American territory that probably ought to be governed by Spain or some other European country.

The Falkland Islands?

The 'definite' country rather than the 'definitive' country?

Or are you making a complete different emphasis (as in 'definitive version' of a country's name) and I just look even more like a tw*t for posting?

....shall we file that under 'The Sudan' and 'The Argentine' as regions, from the colonial era, which later became countries?

And what about The Hague? or The Isle of Man (which should really just be Man - like Lewis, Skye etc)?

It may be a regional affectation, but in NI people have a general tendency to put 'the' in front of thoroughfares which end in 'Road', but never those which end in things like Street, Crescent, Avenue, etc. Curious.

And in the Rep of Ireland, for some reason, people always refer to 'The Horslips' when, in fact, ALL their records only ever had 'Horslips' as the band name. This is a very definite (!) regional variation, peculiar to the south of Ireland in my experience.

Of course, there's a whole slew of bands which could/do exist with a degree of ambiguity about whether we need to affix a 'the'....

...which are often given a definite article but don't actually have one is our own (or at least, mine).

I looked in my passport. It says 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. No definite article.

There's a pub quiz question on this which asks for the countries that start with the definite article. The ones people miss are The Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia and El Salvador.

Thee England sounds good but Thee Mighty Caesars, Thee Milkshakes, and Thee Headcoats sound a whole lot better.

but surely the winner is Los Angeles ?.

ssalonika.

I suggest this is another usually written without but said with the.

...The Philippines

...prog-rock journeymen Micronesia... and a repeat session for cult singer-songwriter Tristan Da Cunha, featuring his cover of Yes' 'Keys To Ascension' with the controversial extra verse where it's explained that, in fact, they fell down a sofa on the annual supply ship from South Africa and now nobody can get in...