Which one is correct, Sirs ?
(1)The river,May Kha,flows swiftly.
(OR)
(2)The river,May Kha flows swiftly.
(OR)
(3) The river “May Kha” flows swiftly.
Here, “May Kha” means one of the rivers in Myanmar.
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As for me, the best choice definitely is version number 3. I would even leave out the quotation marks since the fact that May Kha is capitalized and is followed by ‘the river’ make it clear it is the name of the river.
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But, Torsten, I wonder why we shouldn’t put the definite article before the name of the river and rewrite it as The river, the May Kha, flows swiftly. Or River May Kha flows swiftly.
Does it make sense in view of the fact and practice that we use the before the river’s name?
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Hello, Sir Anglophile
I think that
1- The river “May Kha” flows swiftly. Presence of the name of the river makes the river definite so it needs a definite article.
2- River May Kha flows swiftly . means the word “River” is a part of the name of the river.
I’m waiting for, Sir Torsten’s opinion.
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Hi Lawrence, I don’t think the definite article is required before proper names. We don’t say ‘the music band the Depeche Mode’ but ‘the music band Depeche Mode’ or ‘the company the Google’ but ‘the American company Google’ etc…
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Torsten, we always say the Thames, the Mississippi, the Danube, the Rhine etc. So is the case with oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian etc.
We do not use the before the names of games but we do before the names of musical instruments like the violin, the guitar, the accordion, the flute etc.
We may say Prime Minister Boris Johnson left London for New York. or The Prime Minister, Mr Boris Johnson, left London for New York.
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I meant it like Quiet flows river May Kha of Myanmar or Quiet flows the May Kha, the river of Myanmar.
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That’s right, but we don’t say "the river the Thames’ as you suggested.
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This was what I suggested with commas.
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Hello, Sir Anglophile,
Thank you for replying to me.
Quiet flows river May Kha of Myanmar = Quiet flows the river May Kha of Myanmar.
It is a piece of new knowledge to me
Thank you very much
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Hi,
In my opinion ‘river’ can be omitted:
e.g.: The Mackenzie is the longest river in Canada covering a distance of around 1800 km.
So: The May Kha of Myanmar flows quietly.
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Torsten, I don’t completely agree. See below:
- A world-class walk along the enchanted river Thames. But ofcourse as Abba sang: Walks along the Seine, laughing in the rain, our last summer. I think given a particular context you can either use or omit ‘the river.’
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Well spotted, Marc! Thanks a lot for pointing it out 
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I added something else whilst you were typing your answer.
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Thank you Torsten for liking my posts again, but it feels so good to give something back to others than to always receive. I was once asked if I thought that altruism is a form of egoism. In a certain, small way it is, because we all like to say that we enjoy helping people and have helped them over the past years and will continue to do so in the future. Ofcourse, you mustn’t boast or brag about it. 
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[quote=“Anglophile], post:3, topic:173800”]
put[/quote]The Mykaa river flows swiftly
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You are most welcome, Narsis.
(My idea was to put the definite article or a suitable prenominal before the name of the river.)
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Yes, Narsis, but in one of his sentences Anglophile used ‘quiet’ and therefore I used ‘quietly’. Ofcourse, ‘swiftly’ is what it should be. But I will not change the sentence I initially gave, I will only replace ‘quietly’ by ‘swiftly’.
So: The May Kha of Myanmar flows swiftly.
By the way welcome to the forum. We all appreciate you as a new member.
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Hi Anglophile,
Using the definite article is certainly not wrong, but my point here is that you don’t always need to add ‘the river’. The Seine, the Thames is good enough or sufficient, although it’s not wrong when you do wish to use ‘the river’ as I’ve pointed out in one of my previous sections concerning this topic. See my reply below.
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A world-class walk along the enchanted river Thames. But ofcourse as Abba sang: Walks along the Seine, laughing in the rain, our last summer. I think given a particular context you can either use or omit ‘the river.’
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