Country names and articles in French

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Country names and articles

•  In French, we precede names of countries and continents with a definite article (le, la, l’, les). This is unlike English, which rarely uses articles before countries (the United States).

♀ (those that end with an ‘-e’) la or l’
La Grèce (Greece), la France (France), la Chine (China), l’Allemagne (Germany), la Bolivie (Bolivia), la Belgique (Belgium), etc.

♂ le or l‘
Le Maroc (Morocco), le Cameroun (Cameroon), le Brésil (Brazil), le Portugal (Portugal), le Vietnam (Vietnam), le Japon (Japan), l’Iran (Iran), etc.

♀♀♂♂ les
Les États-Unis (the United States), les Pays-Bas (the Netherlands), les Philippines (the Philippines), les Seychelles (the Seychelles), etc.
Note:
•  Le Mexique (Mexico), le Mozambique (Mozambique), le Cambodge (Cambodia) end in an ‘-e’ but are masculine.
•  With towns and islands we don’t use an definite article.
J’aime l’Amérique du Nord ! Le Canada, les États-Unis, New-York ! I love North America! Canada, the US, New York!
La Thaïlande attire de nombreux touristes. Thailand attracts many tourists.
J’aimerais bien visiter Cuba. Pas toi ? I’d like to visit Cuba. You?

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