Brazil: Fernando de Noronha

Tue Nov 7 19:11:06 UTC 2000

I have checked this against the large Times atlas and my grammar Portuguese.

The atlas says Fernando de Noronha.
The preposition 'de' means just: from, of.
'Do' however is a contraction of the preposition 'de' and the article 'o'.
I believe it's therefore correct to say Rio Grande do Norte (in the North)
and Mato Grosso do Sul (in the South), but Fernando de Noronha (from
Noronha).

Regards,

Oscar van Vlijmen
2000-11-07