>>214042605
> Is Russia the Brazil of Asia?
is correct.
Normally you wouldn't put an article before a proper noun but in this case "the" is being used in with the idea that there is a "Brazil" of Asia like there is a "Brazil" of any continent/place, see sense 1.10 of "the"
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/the
A trick you can use is swapping the word order to make the sentence a statement and see if it sounds right:
> Russia is (the) Brazil of Asia.
In this case it sounds more natural to include the "the".
Since "Brazil" may be confusing in particular as it is a proper noun, you can try substituting any generic nouns as well:
> Russia is (the) [thing] of Asia.
Again, it sounds correct only when including "the".
Note that you don't say "the" for Asia specifically, nor any other noun in its place - if that's confusing it may just be easier to memorize the phrase. An example without proper nouns:
> [This board] is the [HR department] of [this website].
Also note that this is only better if used in the idiomatic sense. The sentence:
> [This board] is [this website]'s [HR department].
wouldn't work as well since we are making a figurative statement, not asserting that /int/ is a literal HR department (although at this point it starts to become more a matter of style than of grammar). Hope this helped.
8/21/2025, 6:37:07 PM
No.214041970
>>214042156
>>214042605
>>214043491
>>214043581
>>214045365
>>214045391
