Posted by pakguru on January 5th, 2018 | 0 comments | countries, languages, nationalities, speaking, vocabulary, writing
In this post we review country names, language names, nationalities, etc. Students sometimes use the nationality when they mean the country, or the country when they mean the language, and so on. I’ve chosen to focus on four countries in western Europe whose vocabulary most often causes confusion.
First of all here’s a table showing available word forms.
Name | Country | Language, Nationality | Person | (Nationalism) |
Pedro | Spain | Spanish | Spanish man | Spaniard |
Hans | Holland, The Netherlands | Dutch | Dutch man | Dutchman |
Fritz | Germany | German | German man | German |
Francois | France | French | French man | Frenchman |
Others | Britain | British/ English | English man | Englishman, Briton, Brit (inf) |
I wasn’t sure what to call the right hand column (Nationalism). Nationalism words also have limited use. If you’re French and you’re in a situation where nobody else is French, then you might be referred to as ‘the Frenchman’. If the Spanish navy attacks the British navy, then the British might refer to the Spanish as ‘the Spaniards’. Often these words have a negative connotation, and my advice would be to avoid ‘Nationalism’ words altogether in your writing and speaking!
OK so bearing this in mind, read through the text below and fill in the gaps with appropriate word forms.
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