Viaja a (la)?

Question

'He/She travels to Italy' is translated as 'Viaja a italia', whereas 'He/She travels to India' is translated as 'Viaja a la india'. May I know why the definitive article 'la' is required for the second example, yet the first doesn't? Is there a rule governing what countries/places require an definitive article in such a case?

Thank you.

If your problem is solved, could you pick whichever answer best served you as the best answer? - Helado_eclectico, Jan 17, 2014

Answer 1

AFAIK, there is no fixed rule that determines whether a country receives an article (akin to los generos). Check out this link which will provide more info on this subject (and a handy list of countries).

Answer 2

Yeah thanks people for the quick and good replies. More memory work for me, I guess. ¡Muchas gracias!

Answer 3

It has to do with the gender of the word. it takes practice and more courses to master this though. But here are some examples:

?El (masculino singular) ? El Sr. Ramírez está enfermo. ?La (femenino singular) ? Me gusta pasear por la mañana ?Los (masculino plural) ? Practico baloncesto los lunes. ?Las (femenino plural) ? Salgo para la Universidad a las 8 horas.

link: http://www.gramaticas.net/2010/09/ejemplos-de-articulo.html

Answer 4

I'm afraid you'll have to learn how those places are named in Spanish. For example: El Congo, Los Estados Unidos, El Reino Unido, El Salvador. Also, India is afemale gender name so to distinguish from male gender, we might use LA. We can also say, El Brasil: viajo a El Brasil, Viajo a La Argentina, Viajo a El Canada, viajo a El Sudan. However, you can't say: viajo a la espana, viajo a la alemania. It doesn't sound correct. But you can could say viajo a la Alemania de Merkel, viajo a la España de Franco.

Answer 5

Just comment on it - a good and useful site the link to which you have provided Helado_electrico, cheers, Wheeler