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I would like to say, "Here is the latest notification (notice) from Le Monde (the newspaper)".

Voici la dernière notification du Monde.

What makes me uncomfortable is that the definite article "Le" is lost, which would be fine otherwise, but in this case it's part of the newspaper name — Le Monde.

When a preposition such as "de" or "à" precedes a name like Le Monde, should the definite article be contracted? Is there any way around it (e.g. a different preposition or phrasing)? What wording would be the most natural and the best style?

ktm5124
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2 Answers2

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Actually it's a pretty tough question as there is no proper answer to it except "common sense." In the majority of cases we would contract the article.

When writing we can also use ways to avoid having to make this decision, for example by specifying that "Le Monde" is a newspaper Voici la dernière notice du journal Le Monde

It's mainly appreciation of the writer/translator. I'm working as translator and in my company we tend to specify the nature of the product between the preposition and its name, as I did for du journal Le Monde

However, we never make contractions when talking about a person (de Le Corbusier).

And as Jiliagre stated, it's a duplicate of Contraction de « de Les », « de La » ou « de Le » dans les noms propres, I still answer so you have english translation of this french thread.

Turbolay
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    You would make contractions when talking about a person if you're using their "nicknames", like the names of Renaissance painters for example : "un tableau du Caravage". That's because the article here still works like an article in terms of grammar, unlike articles that are part of people's names like in your example. I'm not criticizing your answer at all, btw, just adding further, probably unnecessary, detail xD – Pwassonne Nov 24 '17 at 20:53
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I'd certainly say "du". as in "Ce journaliste du Monde a été arrêté dans des circonstances encore inconnues". "De Le Monde" would sound ugly. Like some automated voice messages heard in train stations: "Le train dessert la gare de Le Mans". The computed program does not detect the part of the name of the city that is actually an article.

Emmanuel Guilhen
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