Sistine Chapel

[Xinfu]

Is THE optional?

-(The) Sistine Chapel is a large and very famous chapel in the Apostolic Palace.

For Sassetti Chapel, St. Aloysius Chapel, Palatine Chapel, King's College Chapel, Eton College Chapel, etc. is THE optional? Or is THE idiomatic, sometimes obligatory, sometimes bound to omited?

[Rusty]

We tend to say the article, but it may be omitted in the sentence you cited.

[Xinfu]

Thank you. But what's the reason for omitting, or for being able to omit, it? Is it because chapel names can be omitted, or because Sistine Chapel, of all chapels, is an exception?

[Rusty]

I personally would never omit the article, but as I read the sentence over and over, I realized that it doesn't really need to be there to make the sentence work.
That's why I said it may be omitted. The other chapels you mentioned also don't need the article to work, using the same logic.

Whether we use the definite article or not comes down to a question of collocation, I believe.

For instance, we never use the article with some place names, like Yellowstone Park or Mt. Everest, but always use it with 'the Great Lakes' or 'the Great Wall of China'. If one the Great Lakes is singled out, we don't use the article. 'Hudson Bay', however, may be spoken of with or without the article depending on the circumstance.
We always use the article if we're talking about 'the White House', but never when we talk about 'Black Manor'. We use the article to talk about 'the Winchester House'.

[Xinfu]

Originally Posted by Rusty

I personally would never omit the article, but as I read the sentence over and over, I realized that it doesn't really need to be there to make the sentence work.

You mean other native speakers of American English could omit THE out of their personal habits?

[Rusty]

I'm saying that if I were to read the sentence as you wrote it, the missing article wouldn't throw me off (I wouldn't be confused by the wording).
I can't say whether other native speakers would omit the article.

[Xinfu]

Originally Posted by Rusty

I'm saying that if I were to read the sentence as you wrote it, the missing article wouldn't throw me off (I wouldn't be confused by the wording).

Thank you, but you mean the meaning can still be conveyed?

[wrholt]

I generally agree with everything Rusty has said so far, especially his comment that most of the time whether or not we use an article with a particular name comes down to a question of collocation: some names require using an article, some names require omitting an article, and some names allow both using and omitting an article.

For all of the examples that Rusty has already given I use articles the same way that Randy does. As we are both native speakers of US English, our similar preferences are not surprising.

However, I can't tell you whether people from other regions besides my area of the US have different preferences for some names; I haven't spent enough time in some parts of North America or in other parts of the world with large populations of native speakers of English to know for sure.

[Xinfu]

Thank you~

[Xinfu]

Do you think this is an exception and the use of 'the' is wrong?

-(The) King's College Chapel is a splendid example of late Gothic architecture.