Do You Know When We Should Use THE Before a Country Name? | I Am Going to USA or I Am Going to The USA?

Correct Usage of THE Before A Country Name

The article THE is used with definite things or proper nouns like 'The Eiffel Tower', 'The Taj Mahal', 'The Great Wall of China', 'The India Gate', 'The Great Barrier Reef', etc.

Generally, we don't use any article before any state or country's name but some states or countries take the article 'The' before them.

This is why we should say: The United States of America | The United Arab Emirates | The United Kingdom

But,

We can't say: The America. [We should not palace any article before America.]

1) I'm going to the USA. [Correct]

2) I'm going to America. [Correct]

But,

1) I'm going to the America. [Incorrect]

2) I'm going to USA. [Incorrect]

Important Notes

A) The USA like The UK or The UAE is a complicated structure to describe a country. The USA is essentially the United States of America. It's a proper noun and collection of states.

The article 'The' is used for a territory or a country formed by merging two or more state entities. For example, The United States of America, The United Kingdom, The United Arab Emirates, The Philippines, etc.

And 'USA' is a proper noun of a country. Therefore 'The' is required before it.

That's why:

1) I'm going to the USA. [Correct]

But,

2) I'm going to USA. [Incorrect]

Don't Say: I'm going to the America.

The Correct One Is: I'm going to America.

Likewise,

1) I'm going to Australia. [Not: I'm going to the Australia.]

And,

2) I'm going to Canada. [Correct]

But,

3) I'm going to the Canada. [Incorrect]

* The USA, The UK, The UAE, etc. are the collection/group of certain states. They are the united form of two or more states. Thus the article 'The' should be used before them.

B) And this rule applies not only to countries but also to mountains and mountain ranges, etc. For Example, The Alps is a mountain range. But we can't say: 'The Mount Everest'. [We should not use any article before 'Mount Everest']. We should say: 'Mount Everest'.