Re: the correct wording for "the" United Kingdom

[Grail <talthane -at- mac -dot- com>]

I'm 99% certain (ha!) that you do use the definite article. "We have an 
office in United Kingdom" would be marked as wrong in any proofreading - 
after all, on that basis, you would also write "We have an office in 
United States".

http://www.infoukes.com/faq/the_ukraine/ has a good explanation of why, 
which I'll reproduce here. In essence, there are two groups of countries 
whose names require the article; those with plural names such as the 
United States and the Netherlands, and those with adjectival or compound 
forms which require the article such as the United Kingdom, the Dominion 
of Canada, or the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Confusingly, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales drop the article and 
are treated as proper names ("England are scheduled to lose to Argentina 
in this year's World Cup...").

But to select an American source, 
http://ustudies.semo.edu/writing/Proofreading/Articles.htm says "Do not 
use a/an or the with the specific names of continents, countries, 
cities, states, counties, mountains, lakes, islands, beaches, streets, 
avenues or parks [with the following] exceptions : groups of islands or 
lakes or mountain ranges; names with plural forms; names containing 
Union, United, Kingdom, Republic, Empire, or Dynasty". [Southeast 
Missouri State University]

The UK and US roughly parallel one another anyway :

"UK attitudes to football are..." (adjectival, no article)
"The UK's attitudes to football are.." (noun, article)
"US attitudes to soccer are.." (adjectival, no article)
"The US' attitude to soccer is..." (noun, article)

Grail.
PS: A search on google for "united kingdom definite article" (no quotes) 
will reveal the links cited above and others.

Rob Partridge wrote: