Line #162 Main/TheTheTitleConfusion


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4	[[quoteright:314:[[Film/TheEyeCreatures https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0418_Attack_of_the_the_Eye_Creatures.JPG]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:314:[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 "Did Mel Tillis write these titles or wha-huh?"]]]]
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9	%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thank you!
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11
12	->''"...John Williams is producing Creator/OscarWilde's ''Theatre/AnIdealHusband''—invariably spoken of as ''The Ideal Husband'' by the same group of intellectuals who always refer to ''[[Theatre/ADollsHouse The Doll's House]]''."''
13	-->-- '''Creator/DorothyParker''', review of ''An Ideal Husband'', November 1918
14
15	The word "the" is among the most common of all the words in all of the English language, the result of which is often the placement of "the" in the title of a work or in the name of a group regardless of the wishes of the people or the person who made it. (This also happens with definite articles in other languages: "le" in French or "der" in German, for instance.)
16
17	The "The" Title Confusion is when nobody seems to be quite sure whether or not a "the" is required in a title. As a result, merchandise or advertising can sometimes make it seem as if the title is constantly changing, or if there might even be multiple works/groups with the same title. Often WordOfGod is required to make a final decision on the matter.
18
19	Further confusion surrounds the question of whether something which doesn't include a "the" in the title officially should be supplied with one when grammatically appropriate. The "United States of America" doesn't have a "the" in the title, but you'd never use it in a sentence without one; by contrast, several bands which don't include articles [[BerserkButton get very upset]] when one is used. There are times when a "the" would clash with another article, in which case it's generally accepted that you drop the one in the name; it's "a Strokes song", not "a Music/TheStrokes song". In terms of alphabetical ordering, "the" and "a/an" are often ignored, and as such ''Film/TheGodfather'' should be categorized under "Godfather", not "The". Furthermore, some languages (such as Japanese) don't use articles at all. As such, when translated, the translator will usually add a "the", as just calling, say, a {{Kaiju}} movie "Giant Monster Attacks" would be ungrammatical in English ([[AmbiguousSyntax unless of course it's meant to be "attacks, plural, which are perpetrated by giant monsters" as opposed to "a singular giant monster is presently attacking"]]).
20
21	In many cases, an author will go ahead and drop the "the" from a title ahead of time, aware that many people would do so anyway just for the sake of brevity.
22
23	Compare SpellMyNameWithAThe, when the use of a "the" is ''insisted upon''.
24
25	----
26	!!Examples:
27
28	[[foldercontrol]]
29
30	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
31	* ''Anime/TheBigO'', or ''Big O''.
32	* From ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', (Music/YokoKanno and) (The) Seatbelts. (There's also some ambiguity as to whether "Seatbelts" should be one word or two.)
33	* ''(The) Manga/DailyLivesOfHighSchoolBoys''.
34	* Creator/{{Funimation}} uses ''The Manga/FutureDiary'' for the anime, while Creator/{{Tokyopop}}'s translation of the manga does not.
35	* (''The'') ''Literature/{{Slayers}}''.
36	* ''Manga/SquidGirl'', or ''The Squid Girl''.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Comic Books]]
40	* Creator/DCComics:
41	** ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
42	*** Whether anyone refers to Batman as "The Batman" depends on the era of comic books, with the "the" especially ignored during the LighterAndSofter era of the 1960s.
43	*** It's more stringently enforced for the villains. ''The'' Joker and ''The'' Penguin are never referred to as anything else in the comics, unless they're being directly addressed. For some reason, though, this convention rarely seems to apply to (The) Catwoman.
44	** ''ComicBook/TheFlash'', or ''Flash''.
45	** ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
46	*** Mini-series ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles'' is sometimes called ''Krypton Chronicles''.
47	*** ''ComicBook/TheJungleLine'': Superman fans refer to this story as "The Jungle Line" or "Jungle Line" interchangeably.
48	*** ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'' is also called ''Great Darkness Saga''.
49	* Creator/MarvelComics:
50	** ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'', or ''Avengers''.
51	** ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'', or ''Defenders''.
52	** ''ComicBook/TheEternals'', or ''Eternals''.
53	** ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'', or ''The Fantastic Four''.
54	** ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', or ''The Guardians of the Galaxy''.
55	** ''ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist'', or ''The Immortal Iron Fist''.
56	** ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules'', or ''Incredible Hercules'', or ''Hercules''.
57	** ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'', or ''Incredible Hulk'', or ''Hulk''.
58	** ''ComicBook/TheInhumans'', or ''Inhumans''.
59	** ''ComicBook/TheInvadersMarvelComics'', or ''Invaders''.
60	** ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'', or ''Mighty Thor'', or ''Thor''.
61	** ''ComicBook/NewMutants'', or ''The New Mutants''.
62	** ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'', or ''Punisher''.
63	** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'', ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' or ''Amazing Spider-Man''.
64	** ''ComicBook/SilverSurfer'', or ''The Silver Surfer''.
65	** ''ComicBook/TheVision'', or ''Vision''.
66	** ''ComicBook/WolverineOrigins'', or ''Wolverine: The Origins'', or ''Origins''.
67	** ''ComicBook/XMen'': The title changed from ''The X-Men'' to ''X-Men'' to ''The Uncanny X-Men'' to ''Uncanny X-Men''.
68	* ''ComicBook/OverTheGardenWall'': Some official listings and versions of the cover show ''The Benevolent Sisters of Charity'' without the first "The".
69	* ''The Franchise/StarWars'' is a miniseries adapted from an early version of the screenplay for ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]''. ''The Star Wars'' was a working title for the film, which also appeared in the somewhat wordier form of ''Adventures of the Starkiller, Episode I: The Star Wars'', and ''The Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Starkiller''.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
73	* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': It's just ''Peanuts'', not ''The Peanuts''. In the years since Schulz's death, many people in the public and even media outlets have started to call the characters "the Peanuts", even though they were never called that when he was alive ("the ''Peanuts'' gang" or "the ''Peanuts'' kids" usually being the collective term). Even more confusing, some people have even been known to call the characters "The Peanut Gallery", which is way, way off.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Films — Animation]]
77	* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'', for some reason, dropped the definite article for its sequel: ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2''.
78	* ''WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep Movie''. Not ''Shaun the Sheep: The Movie'' or ''The Shaun the Sheep Movie'', both common misrenderings.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
82	!!!'''In General:'''
83	* This can happen with foreign films when their titles are translated into English, especially when the language in question doesn't use "the". The Japanese film "砂の器" is called ''Film/CastleOfSand'' on Website/TheOtherWiki but ''The Castle of Sand'' on Website/{{IMDB}}.
84	* Played straight for a lot of movie localizations in France. It seems like a tacit "rule" that movie titles that are not translated lose their "the"[[note]]which is difficult to pronounce to most French speakers, unlike the rest of the title that gets that treatment[[/note]], especially if it can shorten it to a single word.
85	** Such as ''[[Film/TheAvengers2012 Avengers]]''.
86	** The same happened to ''Film/TheAbyss''.
87	** Or ''Film/TheLadykillers2004''.
88	** Or ''Film/TheMatrix''.
89	** Or ''Film/TheShining''.
90	** ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious2001'' -- and with it, [[Franchise/TheFastAndTheFurious the whole franchise]] -- is known as ''Fast and Furious'' in France.
91	** ''Film/TheHangover'' somehow managed to get both this trope and CompletelyDifferentTitle: French posters advertised it as ''Very Bad Trip [-(Hangover)-]''.
92	** ''Film/JumanjiTheNextLevel'' lost its subtitle's article.
93	!!!'''Movies:'''
94	* ''[[Film/TheBadLieutenantPortOfCallNewOrleans (The) Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans]]''
95	* Both ''Film/{{Batman\|1989}}'' and ''Film/{{The Batman\|2022}}'' exist as titles for adaptation of the comic books about superhero (The) Batman.
96	* ''Film/BicentennialMan'': Because the original story is named "'''[[Literature/TheBicentennialMan The ]]'''[[Literature/TheBicentennialMan Bicentennial Man]]", it is odd that the title of the film chooses to remove the definite article. This also caused ''Literature/TheBicentennialManAndOtherStories'' to be republished with a cover [[{{Novelization}} from the film poster]] declaring the title to be ''Bicentennial Man''.
97	* In the film ''Body Slam'' about a combination of Rock and Wrestling, there's a band called "Kicks." A reviewer talking to their manager casually refers to them as "The Kicks," but the manager is quite insistent that it's just "Kicks," saying that using "The" in a band name is passe.
98	* Tim Robbins' film ''Film/CradleWillRock'' is about the production of and controversy around a Depression-era play called '''''The''' Cradle Will Rock''.
99	* The re-release of ''Film/TheEyeCreatures'' had the phrase "''Attack of the''" superimposed on top of the original title ("''The Eye Creatures''", which already has "The"), resulting in ''Attack of the The Eye Creatures''.
100	* Averted with the ''Franchise/TheFastAndTheFurious'' franchise, where ''The Fast and the Furious'' is the name of [[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious2001 the first movie]], while ''Film/FastAndFurious'' is the name of the fourth movie.
101	* Averted with ''Franchise/FinalDestination'', where any confusion over whether or not it needed a "the" was cleared away (or possibly enhanced) by the title of the fourth installment, ''The Final Destination''.
102	%%* (''The'') ''Film/GangsOfNewYork''
103	* Batman's archenemy is referred to as [[ComicBook/TheJoker ''the'' Joker]] in almost every appearance in various media - his first solo movie however is simply called ''Film/{{Joker\|2019}}''.
104	* ''Film/LastActionHero'' was usually called ''The Last Action Hero'' until its release ''sans'' "The".
105	* ''Film/TheLittleShopOfHorrors'' and ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors''. The latter is a musical adaptation of the former.
106	* In the credits for ''Film/TheManWithTheIronFists'' RZA is credited as "The RZA" for the screenplay for some reason, even though he is simply credited as "RZA" when listed as the film's star, director, and composer.
107	* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse: ''Film/{{The Avengers\|2012}}'' was followed by ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' and ''Film/AvengersEndgame''.
108	* In-universe, there's [[ConversationalTroping a conversation]] in ''Film/MickeyBlueEyes'' about whether a restaurant is called ''"La Trattoria"'' or "The ''La Trattoria"''. Apparently it's the latter, despite being owned by Italians.
109	* The film ''Film/MinorityReport'' is based on a story titled ''The Minority Report'' by Philip K. Dick. A short story collection by Dick was released around the same time as the movie bearing the name ''Minority Report'' like the movie, not the original story.
110	* ''Film/TheNakedCity'' is an interesting case. The movie's title isn't actually shown onscreen, but rather spoken (with the definite article) in producer Mark Hellinger's opening narration. The original poster art omits the article, as does the later [[RecycledTheSeries TV series]] adaptation.
111	* All sequels of ''Film/TheOmen1976'' drop the article (''Film/DamienOmenII'' and ''[[Film/OmenIIITheFinalConflict Omen III: The Final Conflict]]'' -- which at times drops the "Omen" part as well).
112	* Ever wonder why the on-screen title for ''Film/SchoolOfRock'' is '''''The''''' ''School of Rock''? It's because the filmmakers decided to change the name long after the title sequence was shot and couldn't go back and re-shoot it. Adding to the minor confusion, the InUniverse band is called ''The'' School of Rock.
113	* All sequels of ''Film/TheSlumberPartyMassacre'' omit the article, as does the made-for-TV remake.
114	* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
115	** Episode IV (''Film/ANewHope'') had the working title ''The Star Wars'' for the first drafts, including the May 1973 story synopsis, May 1974 rough draft, and July 1974 revised first draft. The January 28, 1975 second draft was titled ''The Adventures of the Starkiller (episode one) "The Star Wars"'', or, ''Adventures of the Starkiller (episode one) "The Star Wars"'', or, ''The Star Wars - Episode One - "The Star Wars"''. The August 1, 1975 third draft is ''The Star Wars – From the Adventures of Luke Starkiller''. The January 1, 1976 fourth draft, ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from the "Journal of the Whills" (Saga I) Star Wars'' was no longer titled ''The Star Wars'', nor was the January 15, 1976 revised fourth draft, which was titled ''Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope, from the Journal of the Whills''.
116	** There's often confusion about the subtitles of the other films in the saga as well, since it's somewhat inconsistent whether they include an article or not: it's ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', and ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', but the rest of the films, including the entire sequel trilogy, begin with a "the". ''Film/ANewHope'' is the only one to feature an article other than "the".
117	* The sequel to ''[[Film/SuicideSquad2016 Suicide Squad]]'' is called ''Film/TheSuicideSquad''.
118	* Only [[Film/TheTerminator the first film]] of the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' franchise starts with "The". More confusingly, the working title of that movie was simply ''Terminator''.
119	* The credits to the American version of ''Film/WarOfTheGargantuas'' have a ''The'' before the title which is not included when the title is displayed on advertising or home video packaging.
120	* [[Film/WarOfTheWorlds2005 The 2005 Spielberg adaptation]] of ''Franchise/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' dropped the "The" from the title.
121	* ''The Wicked City'' is a 1992 live-action film adaptation of ''Anime/WickedCity''.
122	* ''Film/WildWildWest'': The TV series on which it was based was ''THE Wild Wild West'' -- but then, Creator/WillSmith is the lead here, and it's easier to rap three syllables than four.
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Literature]]
126	* ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'' was originally published without a leading article. Later printings added a "The" at the beginning.
127	* ''Literature/TheBookOfMormon'' is published with "The", but like the Bible, when talking about the Book of Mormon in a sentence, "the" is lowercase. For extra complication and confusion, [[Theatre/TheBookOfMormon the theatrical production of the same name]] always capitalises "The".
128	* ''Literature/TheFamilyOfFangAndClaw'': The online story collection does not have a "The" at the start of the title, but the print collection does.
129	* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
130	** Despite commonly being abbreviated "[=LotR=]", Creator/JRRTolkien's fantasy epic is called ''The Lord of the Rings''.
131	** Also happens in-story: when Radagast talks about a land he's heard of called Shire, Gandalf tells him it's ''The'' Shire. Nonetheless, this same mistake has been made out-of-story too: the first line of Creator/LeonardNimoy's novelty song "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins," the opening line is "In the middle of the earth, in the land of Shire," when it should have been "In Middle-earth, in the land of the Shire."
132	* ''Franchise/{{Mistborn}}'': The third ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'' book, ''Literature/TheBandsOfMourning'', was a victim of this for a long time on Website/ThisVeryWiki, with many tropers dropping the "The".
133	* ''Literature/TheNutcrackerAndTheMouseKing'' is actually titled just ''Nutcracker and Mouse King'' in the original German (''Nußknacker und Mausekönig''). This change in translation also carries over to [[Theatre/TheNutcracker the popular ballet adaptation.]] (See "Theatre.")
134	* ''Literature/TheParadoxesOfMrPond'': The first story, "The Three Horsemen of Apocalypse", is often mistakenly referred to with an extra "the" before "Apocalypse".
135	* ''Literature/TheScienceFictionHallOfFameVolumeOne'' has been printed both with and without a "The" at the beginning of the title.
136	* Literature/SherlockHolmes novel ''Literature/TheSignOfTheFour'' was originally serialized under that title. When it was later published in book form, it was titled ''The Sign of Four'', omitting the second "the". To this day, different publishers will use different titles. (The [[TitleDrop Title Drops]] in the text use the five-word title, "the sign of the four", it being a reference to four criminal conspirators.)
137	* [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde (The) Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]] - originally with no "the" but often printed with one.
138	* One entry in Lois [=McMaster=] Bujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' series is a short story called ''The Borders of Infinity''. It and several other short stories in the same series were later collected in an anthology called just ''Borders of Infinity''.
139	* The third arc of ''Literature/WarriorCats'', ''Literature/WarriorCatsPowerOfThree'', is often written with a "the" and abbreviated "[=TPoT=]" by fans, despite not actually having a "the".
140
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
144	* A bit of an odd one: Creator/BenElton insists on referring to a popular show as ''[[Series/{{Blackadder}} The Black Adder]]''. Actually, that's only the title of the first season -- i.e., the only season that Ben Elton ''didn't'' write for; none of his seasons or one-off episodes have a definite article at the beginning.
145	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has this with [[MonsterOfTheWeek The Gnarl]], who corrects the main characters by saying his name is actually just Gnarl.
146	%% Commented out - is this Colbert the person or Colbert the character? * Meta-example: Creator/StephenColbert refers to ''USA Today'' as "the ''The USA Today''".
147	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': There are numerous examples from across Website/ThisVeryWiki of episodes that don't start with "The", and episodes that ''do'', being subjected to this trope. Frequent victims include:
148	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E1HorrorOfFangRock Horror of Fang Rock]]" is frequently prefixed with "The".
149	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords Last of the Time Lords]]" only has one "the" in its title. The list of sources to get this wrong include ''the back of the DVD box set''.
150	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E9EmpressOfMars Empress of Mars]]" was first announced as "''The'' Empress of Mars" when the Series 10 episode titles were released. Only when it aired did the title card make it clear that there is no "the" in the title.
151	* In-Universe example: In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "Bushwhacked", an Alliance officer asks Inara how long she's been on "the ''Serenity''", prompting her to correct him that it's "just ''Serenity''".[[note]]Both methods are actually correct, but whether or not a definite article is used or not depends on what the ship's owners prefer.[[/note]]
152	* It uses a different article, but the TV series ''Series/GameOfThrones'' draws its title from the book ''Literature/AGameOfThrones''.
153	* ''Series/GuidingLight'' was known before 1975 as ''The Guiding Light''.
154	* ''Series/HappyDays'': Arthur Fonzarelli, aka "Fonzie" or "The Fonz".
155	* ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares'' used "The" in its title for the original 1966-1980 run. Subsequent revivals (1986-89 and 1998-2004) did not.
156	* On ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', falling victim to this (adding an initial "the" to a title that doesn't have one or dropping it from one that does) generally doesn't make a response wrong unless it changes the title to refer to something else (e.g., ''Literature/InvisibleMan'' vs. ''Literature/TheInvisibleMan'').
157	* ''Series/MatchGame'' is the game show from TheSeventies that had orange shag carpet, host Gene Rayburn, recurring panelists Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers, and funny questions about Dumb Dora and boobs. ''The'' Match Game is its somewhat more staid predecessor from TheSixties, with tamer fill-in-the-blank questions, but still hosted by Gene Rayburn. Similarly, the two-short lived revivals in 1990-91 and 1998-99 did ''not'' use "The" in the title.
158	* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Overlapping with EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, the titular starship is sometimes referred to as "the ''Voyager''" in early episodes. In later episodes, the creators codified that all characters would refer to the ship in universe as ''Voyager'' without the "the". See the note on ships on Real Life section below.
159	* ''Weakest Link''. It was ''Series/TheWeakestLink'' in the very early days, but that didn't last long.
160	* ''Series/TheXFiles'', or ''X-Files''.
161	[[/folder]]
162
163	[[folder:Music]]
164	* Any band in TheSixties (and to an extent TheSeventies) that did not have "The" in their name were inevitably referred to by the press or even marketed as such. Examples include "The Music/PinkFloyd" and "The Music/{{Cream}}".
165	* (The) Music/AlkalineTrio are a strange example. Retail websites list them as ''The'' Alkaline Trio, but none of their album covers include a "The."
166	* (The) Music/ArcticMonkeys
167	* Music/HenryCow spin-off Art Bears only had a "The" on one limited-edition single at the end of their career, and even that was probably just a mistake by whoever stamped up the labels. The name is meant to be parsed as Art (noun) Bears (verb), which theoretically ''could'' still take a "The", but doesn't.
168	* Music/ArtOfNoise interchangeably rendered their name with and without a "the" at the start.
169	* Averted with Music/BarenakedLadies. Their name is supposed to be an IntentionallyAwkwardTitle.
170	* Pete Wentz's band Music/BlackCards are often called "The Black Cards".
171	* For some inexplicable reason, some CD reissues of Music/BlackSabbath's [[Music/BlackSabbathAlbum first album]] added the definite article to the closing track "Warning".
172	* While Music/TheBeachBoys are always referred to with a "the" these days, their first two singles, "Surfin'"/"Luau" and "Surfin' Safari"/"409", identified the band as simply "Beach Boys". Strangely enough, while the third single, "Ten Little Indians"/"Country Fair", used "The Beach Boys", the fourth single, "Surfin' U.S.A."/"Little Deuce Coupe", went back to "Beach Boys". Subsequent singles and all albums used "The Beach Boys".
173	* (The) Music/BuffaloSpringfield
174	* Both Music/TheBuggles and Music/TheFunBoyThree ''did'' officially have a "The", but are often referred to without it. In both cases, it wasn't helped by designers omitting the definite article from the front of their single sleeves simply because it looked better that way.
175	* (The) Music/{{Buzzcocks}}
176	* (The) [[Music/TheCapitolSteps Capitol Steps]]
177	* Music/{{Carpenters}}: Commonly gets a "The" prepended to the name.
178	* Music/TheChicks' former name was Dixie Chicks, but they were very commonly called "the Dixie Chicks." When they dropped "Dixie" from their name in 2020, they added a "The."
179	* Music/CocteauTwins: Neither the band nor the early Music/SimpleMinds song they're named after properly have a "The", but both often get one added in error.
180	* (The) Music/DavidCrowderBand. Crowder once joked that the "The" wasn't necessary, but that he reserved the right to add it should another band also named "David Crowder Band" ever form, to assert that they were the ''definitive'' David Crowder Band.
181	* (The) Music/DeadKennedys.
182	* (The) Music/DiabloSwingOrchestra. Their third album, ''Pandora's Piñata'', even has "The" on the front cover, while their prior two albums didn't.
183	* Music/{{Eagles}}: Commonly gets a "The" prepended to the name.
184	* (The) Music/{{Eels}}. Although the only time a "the" has appeared before the band name in anything official was the GreatestHitsAlbum ''Meet The Eels'' -- presumably ''Meet Eels'' would sound strange and mess with the clearly intended ShoutOut to ''Meet Music/TheBeatles''.
185	* (The) Music/ElectricLightOrchestra
186	* (The) Music/{{Eurythmics}}
187	* Music/{{Faces}}: Commonly gets a "The" prepended to the name.
188	* HardcorePunk group The Faith: "The" is officially part of their name, but their discography consists of one release where the cover says "The Faith" (a split single with Void), and another where it's simply "Faith" (''Subject To Change'').
189	* Italian horror-movie soundtrack composers Music/{{Goblin}} were inexplicably credited as "The Goblins" on at least ''three'' films: ''Film/Suspiria1977'', ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'', and ''Film/BeyondTheDarkness''.
190	* [[Music/TheGoGos Go-Go's]] are repeatedly called "The Go-Go's" on their official website, though their record sleeves, posters and so on have always been just "Go-Go's"... and even the website itself is gogos.com.
191	* If you want to piss off the fans, insist on calling it "The Music/{{Gorillaz}}".
192	* (The) Music/JonasBrothers
193	* Julie Ruin was the [[OneBookAuthor one album solo project]] of Music/BikiniKill's Kathleen Hanna. ''The'' Julie Ruin are a full band that she would form over ten years later.
194	* (The) Music/KaiserChiefs
195	* "The macarena" is a dance. The song it's usually done to is a OneWomanSong just titled "Macarena".
196	* (The) [[Music/TheMagneticFields Magnetic Fields]]
197	* (The) Music/{{Melvins}}. They played with this on the artwork for ''A Senile Animal'', which actually does put a parenthetical "the" in front of the band name, and similarly renders the album title as "(A) Senile Animal". Their collaborative works with [[Music/DeadKennedys Jello Biafra]] are officially billed as Jello Biafra And ''The'' Melvins, probably just because that flows better as a name. The artwork to ''Tres Cabrones'' credits them as ''Los'' Melvins, just to add to the GratuitousSpanish motif.
198	* For a long time Music/TheMountainGoats' name was consistently stylized with an all-lowercase "the." Some music sites still format the name this way.
199	* This is actually why [[Music/NewFoundGlory (A) New Found Glory]] dropped the "A" from their name: customers at record stores didn't know where to look for their [=CDs=] under "A" or "N" (although it would be on "N" either way, since articles usually don't count for alphabetical sorting).
200	* (The) Music/{{Newsboys}}
201	* Music/TheOffspring released their second album under the name ''"Offspring"''.
202	* British folk-rock group Pentangle called themselves "The Pentangle" for their (self-titled) debut album before dropping the article.
203	* (The) Music/PetShopBoys typically do not use "the", but where it makes more grammatical sense, it can pop up, even in their own words (from a recording of the Nightlife Tour webcast: "good evening, Atlanta! We're the Pet Shop Boys! This song is called Being boring."). Always "the" with a [[https://youtu.be/_w6dt28Qs48?t=9m30s lowercase "t"]], though.
204	* Conversely, it was definitely ''The'' Music/PinkFloyd, at least until Syd Barrett got kicked out. Also, their breakthrough album is named ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'', despite often being referred to without the article.
205	* (The) Music/{{Pixies}}
206	* (The) Music/{{Pretenders}}. Originally no "The", then gained one with the forced change of line-up for their third album, but dropped it again a couple of albums later. Now {{Retcon}}ned: the two albums originally released with "The" have since been reissued without it.
207	* (The) [[Music/TheProdigy Prodigy]]. The cover art to ''Music/TheFatOfTheLand'' used a logo that dropped the definitive article from their name, as did artwork for singles taken from that album, but otherwise they've always officially been The Prodigy. Some further confusion is possible because of a rapper known as Prodigy, who is best known for being half of the duo Mobb Deep.
208	* See the entry for this trope under Music/ScreamingFemales. Call them "''the'' Screaming Females" in their presence, and they ''will'' jerk you around to their hearts' content.
209	* Music/{{Slade}} were briefly The Slade, having [[OfficiallyShortenedTitle shortened it]] from the [[ExecutiveMeddling record company-imposed]] name Ambrose Slade. They had firmly settled on Slade by the time they made their commercial breakthrough, however.
210	* (The) [[Music/TheSmashingPumpkins Smashing Pumpkins]], originally (they added the "The" later on). There also may be confusion over whether their name is meant to be a verb or an adjective and a noun (with the adjective being the British slang word for "excellent").
211	* In [[TheSixties the late '60s]], there used to be a psychedelic rock band named The Music/StatusQuo. After the turn of the decade, they dropped the "The" and switched to [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth Three Power Chords and the Truth]] rock & roll.
212	* It's generally accepted that Music/{{Stereophonics}} doesn't get prefaced with a "the" but people sometimes slip up and refer to them as "the Stereophonics" even though there's officially no "the" in the band's name.
213	* (The) Strawbs
214	* Parodied in the video for Music/Sum41's "Still Waiting" in which the band meets with a ''very'' out-of-touch record executive who tells them, among other incorrect things, that "number bands are out" and that they should change their name to The Sums.
215	* Glam rockers [[Music/{{Sweet}} The Sweet]] dropped the "The" after their first couple of hits. Most people kept on calling them The Sweet regardless.
216	* (The) [[Music/DanielAmos Swirling Eddies]]. They're just "Swirling Eddies" on their second album, ''Outdoor Elvis''; on all other releases, they're "The Swirling Eddies".
217	* The band Music/TalkingHeads are often erroneously referred to as "The Talking Heads"; they responded by naming one of their live albums ''The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads''. Amusingly, Chris Frantz, ''the band's own drummer'', botches this in the film ''Film/StopMakingSense''.
218	** Music/DavidByrne actually poked fun at this trope in his interview with himself to promote Stop Making Sense, where one of his interviewer personas asks if, based on his experience making the film, he now wants to be in movies like, "The Music/{{Prince}}, the Music/{{Sting}}, the Music/DavidBowie?"
219	* Music/TheThe:
220	** Deliberately [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by the band, which leads to the following joke: A guy in a record store is asked to file all the albums in alphabetical order. He starts by filing them all under 'T': 'The Beatles', 'The Rolling Stones', etc. "No," says his boss. "Ignore the 'the'." Then he gets to 'The The'.
221	** Similarly, online music services tend to need to special-case The The. 'The' is usually marked as a 'stop word', a word to be ignored in search queries. If the service is lucky, somebody on the team is aware of The The and they special-case them before roll-out.
222	* Short-lived Scottish postpunk band Thursdays get a mention in the 2015 documentary ''Big Gold Dream'' in which narrator Robert Forster (of JanglePop group The Go-Betweens) refers to them as "The Thursdays"... but is proven wrong just seconds later when we see a lingering shot of an original Thursdays flyer which lists their name "Thursdays" several times, then at the bottom says "NOT 'The Thursdays'".
223	* (The) [[Music/TheVerve Verve]]. Up until the release of their first album, they were officially Verve, but they had to add a "The" to their name due to legal difficulties with jazz label Creator/VerveRecords.
224	* (The) Music/ZacBrownBand
225	[[/folder]]
226
227	[[folder:Podcasts]]
228	* ''The Game Station Podcast'' (before being re-branded into ''Podcast/TheCoOptionalPodcast'') had an interesting case of this. The show was referred to as [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment The]] TGS Podcast almost universally. This was repeatedly lampshaded by them.
229	[[/folder]]
230
231	[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
232	* Many wrestlers from the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance and the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]] had a hard time breaking the habit of using "the" when they were in Wrestling/{{WCW}}. Wrestling/BretHart in particular was notorious for this.
233	** Likewise when the World Wrestling Federation changed their name to World Wrestling Entertainment, many wrestlers continued to refer to it as "the Wrestling/{{WWE}}," as do many instances on this site. It's still slightly absurd, though: "The... Entertainment" seems redundant, because, it being a collective, abstract noun, there can technically be only one entertainment.
234	** [[Wrestling/TooColdScorpio 2 Cold Scorpio]], having been temporarily PutOnABus down to Wrestling/{{ECW}} in 1998 after a year-and-a-half of primarily {{Jobb\|er}}ing in WWE as Flash Funk, once referred to the promotion, where had been a regular from 1994-1996, as "the ECW."
235	** Wrestling/UltraMantisBlack used to do this in his home promotion, referring to it as "The Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}}."
236	[[/folder]]
237
238	[[folder:Radio]]
239	* ''Radio/XMinusOne'''s "[[Recap/XMinusOneE037TheCChute The C-Chute]]": The original story is called "Literature/CChute", but the show's announcer presents the episode as "The C-Chute". The namesake is singular for the room the protagonists are in, but is plural within the ship they're in, so not much is gained by emphasizing the singular.
240	[[/folder]]
241
242	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
243	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', the herald of the god [[http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Gozreh Gozreh]] is called [[http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/heralds/personification-of-fury Personification of Fury]]. Fury doesn't like being accidentally called "''The'' Personification of Fury" by accident (or being referred to with gendered pronouns, [[HairTriggerTemper or as "it"]]).
244	* After the original 1E version, a large number of uses of ''TabletopGame/TheTempleOfElementalEvil'' don't include the "the". The sequel, ''Return To The Temple Of Elemental Evil'', is one of the few exceptions, and it uses the "the" but only because the title doesn't work without it.
245	* ''[[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness World of Darkness]]'', or ''The World of Darkness''.
246	* ''TableTopGame/YuGiOh'': The Winged Dragon of Ra, whose name is written like that on the card.
247	[[/folder]]
248
249	[[folder:Theatre]]
250	* ''Theatre/TheHotLBaltimore'': The TV adaptation is simply ''Hot l Baltimore'', which makes many forget the play is has a "the" article. In the end, both phrasings are used interchangeably.
251	* The musical ''Theatre/TheNewMoon'' was twice filmed by Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, which dropped the definite article from the title.
252	* ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' is the popular ballet's traditional English title, but its original Russian title, ''Shchelkunchik'', just translates as ''Nutcracker'' since Russian language has no articles. The first ballet company ever to stage it in America, the San Francisco Ballet, has always called it by the latter name, with no "The."
253	** Basically the same applies to the original German fairy tale: it has no articles whatsoever in German (''Nußknacker und Mausekönig''), but in the English translation it is usually ''Literature/TheNutcrackerAndTheMouseKing''. Made more egregious by the fact that German language, unlike Russian, ''does'' have articles, so their omission must have been a deliberate decision on part of [[Creator/ETAHoffmann the author]].
254	* Non-English example: Leoncavallo's popular short opera ''Theatre/{{Pagliacci}}'' is NOT ''I Pagliacci''.
255	[[/folder]]
256
257	[[folder:Theme Parks]]
258	* (The) ''Ride/ExtraTERRORestrialAlienEncounter'': The definite article was used in some official Disney media featuring the attraction (such as ''VideoGame/TheWaltDisneyWorldExplorer'' application from TheNineties), but the official title is apparently just "[=ExtraTERRORestrial=] Alien Encounter".
259	* ''Franchise/TheHauntedMansion'': The ride's official logo, and the sign on its entrance, includes a "The," but the actual trademark is for ''Haunted Mansion'' with no article. Both styles have been used for the film adaptations: the 2003 movie is ''[[Film/TheHauntedMansion2003 The Haunted Mansion]]'', and the 2023 movie is ''[[Film/HauntedMansion2023 Haunted Mansion]]''.
260	[[/folder]]
261
262	[[folder:Video Games]]
263	* The concurrently-developed arcade counterpart to Jaleco's NES game ''VideoGame/{{Astyanax}}'' was officially localized as ''The Astyanax'', though both versions were titled ''The Lord of King'' in Japan.
264	* The Future Foundation is referred to with a definite article in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', but it is omitted in ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls''.
265	* ''VideoGame/DarkParables'':
266	** The seventh game of the series is ''Ballad of Rapunzel'' and the ninth game is ''The Queen of Sands''. However, people often mix them up, putting a ''The'' on ''Rapunzel'' and/or removing it from ''Sands''.
267	** Also, the first game in the series is ''Curse of Briar Rose''. For some reason, when it first debuted, it was shown in a few places as ''Curse of '''the''' Briar Rose.''
268	* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': [=E1M9=] is titled Military Base, or in the Platform/PlayStation version, The Military Base.
269	* On ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena'' title screen, the game is titled ''The Elder Scrolls Chapter One: The Arena''.
270	* ''(The) First Samurai''. "The" appears on the title screen only, in small and poorly colored letters.
271	* ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters'':
272	** When referring to the series, the "The" tends to be dropped by many (i.e. ''King of Fighters''), although the eponymous tournament is usually missing the article as well or [[OfficiallyShortenedTitle just goes by KOF for short]].
273	** The MassiveMultiplayerCrossover BeatEmUp SpinOff released between ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIV XIV]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXV XV]]'' is officially titled ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersAllStar'', with ''All Star'' sometimes depicted as a single word in all caps ("ALLSTAR"). For convenience, many fans opt to call the game ''KOF All Star'', as did [[Website/TVTropes This Very Wiki]] before renaming the page to the full title. (And that's before you get to the occasional "''KOF All Star'''s'''''" typo, something that TV Tropes also briefly ran afoul of.)
274	* ''VideoGame/{{Langrisser}}'' and ''Der Langrisser'' are two different games; the latter is a remake of ''Langrisser II''.
275	* Similar to fellow Creator/{{SNK}} series ''The King of Fighters'' (see above), expect to see ''VideoGame/TheLastBlade'' and its sequel have the "The" in the title omitted quite frequently.
276	* The NumberedSequels to ''The Last Ninja'' omit the definite article.
277	* Japanese box art of ''VideoGame/TheLastStory'' has the title written in English, but also has a Japanese transliteration -- "ラストストーリー", meaning just "Last Story".
278	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendaryAxe II'' features the definite article on the title screen, but "Legendary Axe II" is used everywhere else.
279	* ''Legend of Makai'', an UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame by Creator/{{Jaleco}}, is titled "The Legend of Makai" on the flyer, instruction manual, and marquee, but the title screen omits the definite article.
280	* ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda (The) Legend of Zelda]]'':
281	** This sometimes pops up in abbreviations as well: Is it just [=LoZ=] or is it [=TLoZ=]?
282	** The confusion starts here with the Japanese version of the original game, which wrote out the title in English as "LEGEND OF ZELDA."
283	** The same goes for a few of the games' subtitles, namely ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast (A) Link to the Past]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker (The) Wind Waker]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap (The) Minish Cap]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds (A) Link Between Worlds]]''. [[note]]Possibly ''[[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink (The) Adventure of Link]]'' as well, but it's usually known as simply ''Zelda II''.[[/note]]
284	* The narration of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__FmeAQpSoY this commercial]] for ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' says "'''The''' Return of Samus" right when the logo appears on the screen saying "Return of Samus". The remake changed the subtitle to ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns''.
285	* ''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia'':
286	** With the exception of the second main entry (''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin Warrior Within]]'') and a TurnBasedStrategy spin-off [[{{Interquel}} set between the first and second games]] (''VideoGame/BattlesOfPrinceOfPersia''), the subtitles of the ''The Sands of Time'' sub-series all begin with "The": ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime The Sands of Time]]'', ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones The Two Thrones]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands The Forgotten Sands]]''. That said, it's quite rare to see the second game referred to as "''The Warrior Within''".
287	** WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier isn't too sure whether the subtitle for ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia2'' is "The Shadow and Flame The" or "The The Shadow and Flame" because of its weird title positioning. (It's actually "The Shadow and the Flame".)
288	* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'':
289	** The [[VideoGame/TouhouReiidenHighlyResponsiveToPrayers first]] game is titled ''The Highly Responsive to Prayers'', while the [[VideoGame/TouhouYumejikuuPhantasmagoriaOfDimDream third]] is ''The Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream'', as shown on both games' title screens. Despite this, virtually no one ever includes a "the" when mentioning those games. Even their work pages here in TV Tropes omit it.
290	** The [[VideoGame/TouhouFuumarokuTheStoryOfEasternWonderland second]] game is even more confusing, because the English half of its title doesn't actually appear anywhere within the game itself. No one is certain whether it should be ''Story of Eastern Wonderland'' or '''''The''' Story of Eastern Wonderland''. In this case, its work page ''does'' include a "the".
291	** The first game in the Windows series is titled "the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil." [[note]]Or more accurately "''Touhou Land of the Scarlet Devil'' ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil", with the italicised portion originally in Japanese. Fans typically refer to the games by the part in their native language.[[/note]] Seeing anyone include a "the" when discussing the game is rare, and seeing it with the original capitalisation is rarer still.
292	** The series itself can't seem to decide whether it's called "Touhou", "Touhou Project" or "The Touhou Project." TV Tropes itself originally went with the first, then switched to "Touhou Project."
293	* ''VideoGame/WizardAndThePrincess'', the predecessor to ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'', is known as ''The Wizard and the Princess''.
294	* ''VideoGame/WizardsCastle'': Was [[https://archive.org/details/1980-07-recreational-computing/page/n9/mode/2up originally written]] as "Wizard's Castle", but [[https://www.mobygames.com/game/7387/the-wizards-castle/ some releases]] have it as "The Wizard's Castle".
295	* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' is abbreviated in the DS version's manual and the name of a handful of fourth-wall-breaking postgame threads as "WEWY". Most fans ignored this and referred to it as "TWEWY"; the Solo Remix and Final Remix [[UpdatedRerelease Updated Re-releases]] {{ascended\|Fanon}} this by renaming the threads in question (they didn't have manuals).
296	* ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders'' is officially abbreviated "Z.O.E." or "ZOE" by Creator/{{Konami}}, rather than "ZOTE."
297	[[/folder]]
298
299	[[folder:Webcomics]]
300	* ''ComicStrip/ThePerryBibleFellowship'' apparently used to run into this confusion, as Nick Gurewitch addressed the question [[http://web.archive.org/web/20071111013344/http://www.pbfcomics.com/author.php?link=faq in an old version of the FAQ page.]]
301	-->'''Q:''' "The Perry Bible Fellowship", or "Perry Bible Fellowship"?\
302	'''A:''' ''The'' PBF. Treat it like a rock band though. For instance: "I own a White Stripes album", not "I own a The White Stripes album".
303	* ''Webcomic/TheSwordInterval'': The title as displayed in-comic is "The Sword Interval", but Webtoon lists the comic as just "Sword Interval".
304	[[/folder]]
305
306	[[folder:Web Original]]
307	* As anyone who's seen ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'' knows, Website/{{Facebook}} started out with a "the" in front of its name.
308	* For alphabetization purposes, Website/FanfictionDotNet omits any "the" at the beginning of a fandom's name, leading to such categories as "Movies -> [[Franchise/TheLionKing Lion King]]" and "Games -> [[VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou World Ends With You]]".
309	* Website/TVTropes has run into this a few times; "The" is usually omitted from a name unless it is a character type (TheDragon, ThePollyanna) or part of a set phrase (TheBlindLeadingTheBlind). Back when character names were accepted as trope titles, "The" was used to distinguish, say, The Ralph Wiggum ([[TheDitz a humorously stupid person]]) from Ralph Wiggum (the ''Simpsons'' character). Pages' search-engine descriptions take such forms as "The '''TheStarscream''' trope as used in popular culture, with a list of examples from all media." Or better yet, for this page, "The '''[[OverusedRunningGag The The Title Confusion]]''' trope as used in popular culture, with a list of examples from all media."
310	* On Website/{{Wikipedia}}, battles have sometimes raged over whether to use the "the" in an article title. ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' (the TV series) has it but ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' (the comic book) doesn't. The official Manual of Style says:
311	-->Do not use A, An, or The as the first word (Economy of the Second Empire, not The Economy of the Second Empire), unless by convention it is an inseparable part of a name (The Hague) or it is part of the title of a work (''A Clockwork Orange'', ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'').
312	[[/folder]]
313
314	[[folder:Web Videos]]
315	* (The) [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd Angry Video Game Nerd]].
316	[[/folder]]
317
318	[[folder:Western Animation]]
319	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' has two episodes that [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming don't begin with "The"]]: "[[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS2E9Halloween Halloween]]" and "[[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS2E15Christmas Christmas]]". Some episode guides will still have them start with "The" despite this.
320	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' makes a point of keeping the "the" when talking about him. This is to differentiate it from the then-recent DCAU and the Burton-Schumacher movies, which preferred simply "Batman" to the extent that it became a meme ("I am Batman!/I'm Batman.") Conversely, many of Batman's RoguesGallery ''are'' referred to without the article, such as (the) Joker.
321	* (The) ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. This confusion was referenced in "Bobba-Dee Babba-Dee". This mistake appeared (seemingly by accident) in a ''Series/{{Bones}}'' episode featuring a cameo appearance from Stewie.
322	* ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' has a full-length feature titled ''WesternAnimation/JetsonsTheMovie'', to which fans sometimes refer to as ''The Jetsons Movie''.
323	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' is a ''Franchise/{{Madagascar}}'' spinoff cartoon that aired on Nickelodeon. ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'' is a Madagascar spinoff movie not sharing continuity with the similarly named show.
324	* Sometimes, people call ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', ''The Regular Show''.
325	* While one ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode from the second season is simply titled "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E16GraveyardShiftKrustyLove Graveyard Shift]]", home video releases of the episode mistakenly put a "the" in it, making it spell "'''The''' Graveyard Shift".
326	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'' was a traditionally animated miniseries about the Clone Wars. ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Star Wars:]] '''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The]]''' [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Clone Wars]]'' was a CG-animated series on the same topic that ran for several seasons.
327	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The first episode of Season 4 is titled "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E1KindergartenKid Kindergarten Kid]]" according to its title card, but most official sources (such as [=iTunes=] and the Creator/CartoonNetwork website and app) call it "''The'' Kindergarten Kid".
328	* ''WesternAnimation/TimonAndPumbaa'', SpinOff TV series of the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon film ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', has an episode titled "The Law of the Jungle" in its title card. However, the VHS release, Creator/DisneyPlus, and even the credits all omit the first "The" in the title, making it simply called "Law of the Jungle".
329	* ''[[Franchise/{{Transformers}} The Transformers]]'' or just ''Transformers''? Post-[[Film/TransformersFilmSeries movies]] it seems to have stuck without the "the". The 1986 movie itself however was titled ''The Transformers: The Movie''.
330	* In-show example on ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': Dr. Girlfriend insists to The Monarch that the guy from Music/DepecheMode is straight--"I saw a whole thing about it on the VH-1!"
331	* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'': [[Recap/VoltronLegendaryDefenderS1E04TheFallOfTheCastleOfLions Episode 4]] is titled "The Fall of the Castle of Lions" on the episode title card, but the Netflix listing omits the first "The".
332	[[/folder]]
333
334	[[folder:Real Life]]
335	%% This section has been alphabetized, with general examples coming before more specific examples. Please rearrange as necessary.
336	* There are several countries that are commonly referred to as "The (country name)" despite lacking a definite article in their name.
337	** UsefulNotes/{{Sudan}}... though the error is less common now that both Sudan and UsefulNotes/SouthSudan exist.
338	** UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}}. This is somewhat controversial, as referring to it as "the Ukraine" can carry the implication that the speaker sees it as merely a region and not an independent nation.
339	* Countries with "Republic" in its name, due to rules in the English language. None of the countries below have "the" in their names officially.
340	** The UsefulNotes/CentralAfricanRepublic.
341	** The Congos: the UsefulNotes/DemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo and the UsefulNotes/RepublicOfTheCongo. In journalism, when there is a need to distinguish them, they are both shortened to "Congo" with the names of their capitals tacked at the end; the former is "Congo-Kinshasa", the latter is "Congo-Brazzaville".
342	** UsefulNotes/TheCzechRepublic. It's increasingly common to use "Czechia" as an alternative to avoid this trope (notably, Google Maps and FIFA both use this).
343	** The UsefulNotes/DominicanRepublic. "Dominica" refers to [[UsefulNotes/{{Dominica}} another country entirely]].
344	** ''[[UsefulNotes/TheGambia The]]'' [[UsefulNotes/TheGambia Gambia]], which is officially the Republic of the Gambia.
345	* Names of rivers are often preceded by "the" in English. Examples: The Ohio River, the River Thames, the Rubicon, the Nile, and many others. This tendency is often zig-zagged with other bodies of water. For example, Puget Sound or Lake Superior are never preceded by "the", but the Bay of Bengal, the Aral Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean are.
346	* Interstate highways zig-zag this. Numbered highways take a definite article in California ("the I-10") but rarely elsewhere ("I-10" or "Interstate 10"). In Chicago, it is always "the Dan Ryan Expressway", but "Edens Expressway" and "the Edens Expressway" are both acceptable, possibly because this highway predates the Interstate system. If the word "Expressway" is dropped, the definite article is always required ("I'll be taking the Dan Ryan to the Edens.")
347	* Many works from languages that lack an equivalent to the English "the", such as Russian or Japanese, have this problem when they're marketed in Anglophone markets.
348	* Many (though not all) newspapers have "The" as part of their official title, so that references to them should properly be (for example) ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', ''The Denver Post'' and so on. Contrasting this is the ''Los Angeles Times'', which notably doesn't use "the".
349	* Ships are variously referred to both with and without "the" prior to their names. For the most obvious example see the ''Titanic'', but it is not incorrect to omit "the", leading ships such as the USS ''Juneau'' to be referred to as both "''Juneau''" and "the ''Juneau''". To add to the confusion, some ships, such as USS ''The Sullivans'', have "the" as part of their actual name.[[note]]''The Sullivans'' was named after five brothers who were killed in action when the ''Juneau'' was sunk by a Japanese torpedo attack in 1942.[[/note]] However, whether it is correct to use "the" prior to designations (USS, HMS, etc.) depends on what they stand for. "The" works fine prior to USS ("United States Ship") and RMS ("Royal Mail Steamer") but not HMS ("His/Her Majesty's Ship") as this is ungrammatical.
350	* UsefulNotes/SteveJobs [[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/the-secret-to-apple-s-success-bad-grammar/339350/ insisted that]] Creator/{{Apple}} products shouldn't be preceded with "the" and should be referred to like people rather than objects, as he viewed them as a representation of a user.
351	* There is considerable disagreement over whether UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}'s most famous geological feature should be called "Grand Canyon" or "the Grand Canyon". National Park Service publications universally omit the definite article regardless of whether it refers to the park or to the canyon itself, while common usage almost universally includes the article, possibly treating it as a shortened version of the old name "the Grand Cañon of the Colorado".
352	* ''[[UsefulNotes/TheBahamas The]]'' [[UsefulNotes/TheBahamas Bahamas]]. And no, the "s" at the end is not optional. "The Bahama" is ''not'' valid (although "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bahama Grand Bahama]]" is the name of one of the country's islands).
353	* The British Broadcasting Corporation is referred to on this very wiki as ''Creator/{{The\|BBC}}'' [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]], despite not officially being branded as such, and despite there being no possible confusion with any other "BBC" out there. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, meanwhile, is referred to here as ''Creator/{{The\|ABC}}'' [[Creator/TheABC ABC]], to prevent confusion with America's Creator/{{ABC}}.
354	* ''The'' Bronx.
355	* Back after it was built, part of the scandal surrounding the ''Los Angeles Times''' handling of the opening of Staples Center was that people from Staples and the Lakers were calling the shots on coverage surrounding it, up to mandating that it never be called ''the'' Staples Center. Averted when the venue became Crypto.com Arena in 2021.
356	* The Moon always has "the" (at least when referring to Earth's Moon), because, contrary to what ''Series/{{QI}}'' will have you believe, there is definitely only one. The convention is a bit more shaky for (the) Earth.
357	* UsefulNotes/NewZealand has two main islands: the South Island (the larger one) and the North Island (the more populous one). Although they are often named on maps without the "the", used in a sentence the "the" is mandatory: "I'm going to South Island" will get you strange looks from the locals.
358	* The Ohio State University has "The" as an official part of its name, and people affiliated with OSU[[note]]Should be TOSU, shouldn't it?[[/note]] often emphasize the article in that context. This led to [[https://laughingsquid.com/dayton-daily-news-mocks-ohio-state/ an amusing headline]] when ''another'' Ohio university beat them in a basketball game.
359	** Interestingly enough, nearly half of Ohio State's conference rivals also have a "The" in their official name, but don't emphasize it, including primary rival (The) University of Michigan.[[note]]The others are The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), The University of Iowa (whose ''legal'' name is actually "State University of Iowa", but has officially used the other name since 1964), The University of Minnesota, and [[OverlyLongName Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey]] (generally shortened simply to "Rutgers University"), soon to be joined by The University of California, Los Angeles (invariably referred to only by its initials UCLA).[[/note]]
360	* [=SkyDome=], in Toronto, before the name change to Rogers Centre (which still, for the most part, doesn't use "The").
361	* The famous London thoroughfare officially called Strand, but popularly known as "The Strand" since at least the 13th century.
362	* A prominent street in UsefulNotes/RichmondVirginia was long called "The Boulevard", although its street signs read simply "Boulevard". Averted in 2019 when said street was renamed Arthur Ashe Boulevard, after the tennis great and social activist who was a Richmond native.
363	* Creator/CartoonNetwork started out with "the" in front of its name. ''The'' Cartoon Network is still its legal name.
364	* UsefulNotes/UnitedNations (no "The").
365	[[/folder]]

Context Main / TheTheTitleConfusion