Could anybody please help shed some light on this?

[Bangkeaw]

Hi all!

In reference to my last post on the use of the definite article "the", I still haven't been able to throughly comprehend the use of this very tricky grammatical aspect even after receiving helpful and generous explanations from Alan and Diverhank. (I also wish to thank them here for their contributions). (:

**This link will lead you to my first post on 25 April: http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic17451.html

While I'm agreeing with Alan on the point that oceans/seas, mountain ranges, archipelagos, rivers and plural names of countries should be preceded by "the", and -from my understanding of his answer- the other proper nouns are less likely to be preceded by this definite article, I still think that the exact use of "the" is still very much debatable.

I went through a bit of search last night (thanks to Google - not so authoritative a source, but handy!) and found some ambiguous use of this article eg.
1) Victoria Falls & the Victoria Falls were used interchangably!
2) Sydney Marriott Hotel & the Sydney Marriott Hotel were in the same case
3) London Theatre and the London Theatre

I believe there are so many more proper nouns which fall into this category. (:

However, it seems to me (a non-native speaker of Eng) that there are also some pronouns which are more/less-prone to "the" such as:

1) More-prone eg. the Vincent Thomas Bridge, the Melbourn Royal Botanic Garden etc..

2) Less-prone eg. Sydney Airport, Bendigo Bank, Sydney Hospital etc...

I don't know if these assumptions are right or wrong. Anyway, I'd be very very grateful to anyone who could help me clear this up.

Thank you very much for your time.

[Conchita]

Apparently, there is no definite pattern as to the use of 'the' with names of buildings. Here is some more information (scroll down to 'buildings: the or zero article').