|1| The Story of the English Language > Level 1 > Dynamic Key 2 - grammar
|7| To talk about people and countries you need four kinds of nationality words
1 Words (nouns) for the names of countries
England Scotland Wales Indonesia the United States of America Rule : geographical names in the plural generally take the definite article (the)
Spelling : always begin a nationality word with a CAPITAL letter
Examples:
France, China, Russia, Israel, Italy
the Maldives, the Philippines2 Words (nouns) for individuals
an / the Englishman a / the Scot (Scotsman) a / the Welshman an / the Indonesian an / the American Examples :
"Don't tell a Scot that he is an Englishman."
"The Indonesian I met in Hong Kong is a businessman."
"Those (three) Americans are from Virginia."3 Words (adjectives used as nouns) to talk about (groups of) people in general
the English the Scots the Welsh the Indonesians the Americans Rule : use the plural form and the definite article
Rule : countries in -ese, -ch, -s, and -sh take no plural ending
Examples :
"The English are said to be conservative."
"The Normans spoke French, and the Romans spoke Latin."
"The French are said to be a wine-loving people."
"The Dutch are known for their early explorations."4 Words (adjectives) to talk about languages, culture, things, ...
English Scottish (Scotch) Welsh Indonesian American Rule : names of countries ending in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u, y) get the adjective ending -an
Examples :
America American Angola Angolan Chile Chilean Italy Italian Morocco Moroccan Norway Norwegian Russia Russian Examples :
"Ken speaks English, French, Spanish, and Russian."
"My Spanish teacher comes from Venezuela."
"I prefer Scotch to Irish whisky."
"This is Danish bacon."
"Is New Zealand wool as good as Australian?"
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