¡La Esquina de la Gramática! Rule 8
What about toponyms? In Spanish it is optional to use the name of many countries with an article preceding the name: (el) Canadá, (los) Estados Unidos), (la) India, (el) Líbano, (el) Perú, etc. For these toponyms, the article is not part of the name, so you should write it with a lower case, and are also combined with the prepositions “a” and “de” resulting in the contractions “al” (a + el) and “del” (de el): Nunca he estado en la India/ Nunca he estado en India Viajó al Ca