"Internet" vs. "the Internet"

Discussion in 'All Languages' started by Gavril, Aug 8, 2013.

  1. Gavril Senior Member

    English, USA
    If your language has definite articles, do you normally use an article with the word "Internet", or your language's equivalent thereof? I.e., do you use a phrase that means "the Internet", or simply "Internet"?

    In English, Internet is normally usually used with a definite article: "I looked it up on the Internet", "The article is on The Internet now", etc. On the other hand, I've heard that it's considered incorrect to say L'Internet in French: instead, one is supposed to say Internet, without the definite article l(e).
  2. arielipi Senior Member

    In hebrew not every translation of english 'the' is to the hebrew definite article... so besides that yes.
  3. apmoy70

    apmoy70 Senior Member

    Hi Gavril,

    Modern Greek uses the definite article much more frequently than the classical language, before proper names, and nouns in an abstract sense.
    Internet in Greek is «Διαδίκτυο» [ði.a'ðikti.o] (neut.) a word calqued from the English one, and we refer to it as the-neuter Internet --> «το Διαδίκτυο». Even if the English name is used untranslated, the neuter definite article is there --> «το Ίντερνετ»
  4. Anja.Ann

    Anja.Ann Senior Member

    Hi, Gavril :)

    No definite article in Italian. We say "Ho visto l'articolo in Internet" or "Ho trovato l'articolo in rete". :)
  5. ThomasK Senior Member

    (near) Kortrijk, Belgium
    Belgium, Dutch
    Dutch: both can be used, I think. Generally I'd say that I found something op internet, but if I'd generally wish to refer to the phenomenon, then het internet would be possible, the worldwide web world then...
  6. Outsider Senior Member

    Portuguese (Portugal)
    In Portuguese, a Internet, "the Internet". We use the English noun with the feminine article, no doubt because the word rede "net/network" is feminine, and it's understood on some level. In fact, sometimes "the (inter)net" is actually translated as a rede.
  7. luitzen Senior Member

    Frisian, Dutch and Low Saxon
    it ynternet in West Frisian
  8. 涼宮

    涼宮 Senior Member

    Sbaeneg/Castellano (Venezuela)
    Same for Spanish: Busqué el artículo en internet. Lo vi en internet.
  9. Gavril Senior Member

    English, USA
    red is generally used with an article, isn't it? (Lo busqué en la red = "I searched for it on the 'net", etc.) However, I don't think red is as widely used in Spanish as Internet for this meaning.
  10. Hakro

    Hakro Senior Member

    Helsinki, Finland
    Finnish - Finland
    As far as I have seen in Spanish newspapers, it's always Red and practically never Internet.

    In Finnish, as you surely know, there's no equivalent for "the". Instead, we have the possibility to consider the word as a proper noun or a common noun by using an upper case or a lower case letter for the initial i. Both are possible but I think that the lower case i is recommended today.

    Instead, in the Spanish newspapers that I have read it's always Red, not red.
  11. Rallino Moderatoúrkos

    Idem for Turkish. :thumbsup:
  12. Maroseika Moderator

    There are no articles in Russian, but the same problem exists as capitalize it or not.
    Till the recent time it was recommended to capitalize Internet when used in the sense of the worldwide web, i.e. proper object name (like the Moon and the Sun). However nowadays it is reckoned to become the common name and is not capitalized any more.
  13. Rancher New Member

    Absolutely the same thing goes for Serbian. The latest Orthography book from 2010 mentions only internet, lowercase.
  14. 涼宮

    涼宮 Senior Member

    Sbaeneg/Castellano (Venezuela)
    Yep, it isn't that used and it does use the article. The times I've seen the word 'red' being used have been at cybercafes, ''juega en red''. But nothing else.
  15. Hakro

    Hakro Senior Member

    Helsinki, Finland
    Finnish - Finland
    According to this, it seems that 'red' is seldom if ever used in American Spanish, but I've seen it generally used in Castellano.

    Am I right or wrong?
  16. 涼宮

    涼宮 Senior Member

    Sbaeneg/Castellano (Venezuela)
    No idea if it's common in Spain. It's better if you ask in the Spanish forum.
  17. إسكندراني

    إسكندراني Senior Member

    أرض الأنجل
    عربي (مصر)ـ | en (gb)
    We use our usual definite article in Arabic.
    الإنترنت - Al-Intarnit.
  18. Encolpius

    Encolpius Senior Member

    Today I found it interesting some languages use the preposition "in" like German or Russian.

    Hungarian --- az interneten [on the...]

    German --- im Internet [in the...]
  19. DearPrudence

    DearPrudence Dépêche Mod

    French (lower Normandy)
    In French, in theory, both are possible (internet / l'internet, capitalized or not) but usually, you are either a fierce defender of 'internet' and deny the possibility of 'l'internet' or vice versa (see this heated discussion in the French only forum: Internet / l'internet) but you usually can't like both versions at the same time.
    (personally, I find that 'l'internet' is something that only old people would say but hush ;) :p)
  20. Angelo di fuoco Senior Member

    Russian & German (GER) bilingual
    In French, I use sometimes the one, sometims the other, but I think I go for the general French tendency to use the definite article even with rather abstract nouns.
  21. punctuate Senior Member

    That, I think, is not the tendency to use the definite article with abstract nouns, but the tendency to use the definite article for terms that should be definite for people who do the thinking, not for the very process of making models of the world. I don't think this tendency quite applies to the Internet, which may be considered either as a nom propre (like Charle) or as a (abstract, but it does not matter) thing to make judgements of. In defense of my position (written prior to my opening the thread mentioned by DearPrudence and prior even to my seeing its name), see for example that the options are either Internet or l'internet (note the capitalization written by default and the comments).

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