Understanding Mountain Naming Conventions: Rules and Exceptions
A Guide to When to Use Articles with Mountain Names
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Today, mountains are under scrutiny. As we remember from school, there is a rule: when we talk about mountain ranges, we must use the definite article "the" (e.g., the Misty Mountains, the Caucasus, the Carpathians). However, when referring to a single mountain, we generally do not use an article (e.g., Hoverla, Mount Rushmore, Mount Everest).
But sometimes (although extremely rarely), this rule has exceptions. One such exception is the Lonely Mountain, or Erebor—a fictional mountain created by Tolkien in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. As we can clearly see, it includes a definite article. Since the name was coined by the author, he chose to bend the rules. By using "the", Tolkien gives the mountain a sense of importance and distinction, making it a landmark in the geography of his world and in the minds of the characters.
Another exception is the peaks in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. Their names also include the definite article, e.g., the Jungfrau, the Matterhorn, the Zinalrothorn, the Dom, etc.
You can visit this Wikipedia page about the Swiss Matter Valley to find other examples of using the definite article with single mountain names.
However, we don’t use both the word "Mount" and an article together. So, you wouldn’t say "the Mount Matterhorn" or "the Mount Jungfrau".
In a headline context, articles are often omitted for brevity. So if you read something like "Lovers found frozen to death on mountain", you should know that the articles are missing and the full sentence will be "The lovers were found frozen to death on a mountain".