Viajo a Egipto vs. Viajo a la India
In my Rosetta Stone lessons they say, for example ",,,,a Egipto" but "a la India" . Why is India different than other countries and has the 'la'
1 Answer
Here is a good article from About.com
It says:
Answer: If there's a pattern to be found in which article precedes the names of countries, or even if one is used, I haven't discovered it. It's one of those aspects of the language that you either need to memorize or pick up as you learn the names of the countries and hear them used.
Fortunately, however, there aren't a lot of countries where the article is used, and even then with a few exceptions (particularly la India, El Salvador and la República Dominicana) its use isn't mandatory....
And for a good list: RAE
Which lists nations and shows articles with this comment:
En los nombres de países que se usan opcional u obligatoriamente con artículo, este aparece en el lema pospuesto y entre paréntesis siempre que no forme parte del nombre propio (razón por la que se escribe con minúscula inicial).
