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The – Nationality Names (Demonyms)

Recognize country, language/origin, people and person word forms

Referring to Nationality

REFERENCE	GENERAL RULE
Country	Use no article when referring to a country with a single or a merged name (except The Gambia). Use the before countries (1) with plural names the Philippines, the Maldives (ex. Barbados); (2) with names containing a noun stating the kind of state the republic, the kingdom, the principality and so on; (3) and capitalize the before official names The Bahamas or The Gambia. See Countries.
Origin / Language	Use no article before an adjective for national origin (except when specifying the class of a particular item: He thinks the Mexican chocolate is fruitier than the Venezuelan chocolate.)
The People	When referring to the national name of the people in general, no article is used. (Canadians). When referring to the group specifically, use the before the name for the people (the Canadians, the people of Canada)
A Person	Use a / an before a national noun for a person. A nationality ending in -ese sounds better as an adjective followed by a noun such as citizen, national or person. (See section below for specific names.)

Also see Pop-Q "Nationality" and The Group, The Countries

Sections on this page

-AN	-ESE	-I	-ISH/ MAN/WOMAN	OTHERS
-an / -ian (Mexican)	-ese (Japanese)	-i (Saudi)	–ish, -sh, -ench (Irish, French) -man/-woman (Irishman)	-k (Greek, Turk) -a/-o (Filipino) -er (Icelander)

-AN

-ESE

-I

-ISH/ MAN/WOMAN

OTHERS

-an / -ian (Mexican)

-ese (Japanese)

-i (Saudi)

–ish, -sh, -ench (Irish, French)

-man/-woman (Irishman)

-k (Greek, Turk)

-a/-o (Filipino)

-er (Icelander)

Country, Origin and People

Nationality names ending in -an / -ian

Pattern 1 –an / -ian

REFERENCE	EXAMPLE
Country	Mexico is in North America.
Origin / Source / Language	Mexican chocolate is delicious. The official Mexican language is Spanish.
The People	Mexicans are an ethnically diverse people. The Mexicans are made up of native Americans and European immigrants.
A Person	A Mexican named Frida Kahlo was an extraordinary artist.

Pattern 1 –an / -ian

COUNTRY	ORIGIN / CULTURE / LANGUAGE	PEOPLE	A PERSON
a noun	an adjective for people, culture and sometimes their language	a noncount noun (always plural)	a count noun (singular or plural)
-AN	SOURCE / ORIGIN	THE PEOPLE	A PERSON
Africa	African	the Africans	an African
Chile	Chilean	the Chileans	a Chilean
Germany	German	the Germans	a German
Jamaica	Jamaican (culture only) English / Creole	the Jamaicans	a Jamaican
Mexico	Mexican	the Mexicans	a Mexican
Monaco	Mongasque / Monacan / French, Monégasque (lang.)	Mongasque / Monacan	a Mongasque / Monacan
Morocco	Moroccan	the Moroccans	a Moroccan
Palau	Palauan	the Palauans	a Palauan
Tonga	Tongan	the Tongans	a Tongan
United States of America	American (culture only)	the Americans, U.S. Americans	an American, a U.S. American
Venezuela	Venezuela	the Venezuela	a Venezuelan
-IAN	SOURCE / ORIGIN	PEOPLE	A PERSON
Argentina	Argentinean	the Argentineans / the Argentines	an Argentinean / Argentine
Austria	Austrian	the Austrians	an Austrian
Australia	Australian	the Australians	an Australian / Aussie
Belgium	Belgian	the Belgians	a Belgian
Brazil	Brazilian	the Brazilians	a Brazilian
Cambodia	Cambodian	the Cambodians	a Cambodian
Canada	Canadian	the Canadians	a Canadian
Colombia	Colombian	the Colombian	a Colombian
Croatia	Croatian	the Croats, Croatians	a Croat, a Croatian
El Salvador	Salvadoran	the Salvadorans, Salvadorians	a Salvadoran, Salvadorian
Hungary	Hungarian	the Hungarians	a Hungarian
India	Indian	the Indians	an Indian
Indonesia	Indonesian	the Indonesians	an Indonesian
Iran	Iranian	the Iranians	an Iranian
Laos / Lao People's Democratic Republic (the)	Lao	the Laotians (Lao people)	a Laotian / a Lao person
Norway	Norwegian	the Norwegians	a Norwegian
Peru	Peruvian	the Peruvians	a Peruvian
Romania	Romanian	the Romanians	a Romanian
Russia	Russian	the Russians	a Russian
Saudi Arabia	Saudi, Saudi Arabian	the Saudis, the Saudi Arabians	a Saudi, a Saudi Arabian
Tunisia	Tunisian	the Tunisians	a Tunisian
Ukraine	Ukrainian	the Ukrainians	a Ukrainian

"Ukraine or the Ukraine: Why do some country names have 'the'? By Tom Geoghegan, BBC New Magaznine. 7 June 2012. bbc.com/news/magazine-18233844.

Afghan – -an is part of the country name ("horsemen") not a suffix. (See Other Examples.)

Country, Origin and People

Nationality names ending in -ese

Pattern 2 –ese

REFERENCE
Country	Japan is in the north Pacific Ocean.
Origin / Source / Language	Japanese economy influences the rest of the world. Japanese is spoken here.
The People	Japanese people consist of people who are 95.5% of Japanese origin. The Japanese people have the longest life expectancy in the world.
A Person	A Japanese baseball player named Ichiro plays for the Seattle Mariners. A Japanese person, Fujita, invented a scale for rating tornado intensity. *A Japanese / A Japanese man / Two Japanese men… (woman, citizen, individual, person.)

*Yellow highlighted words are examples of incorrect usage.

Pattern 2 – ese

COUNTRY	ORIGIN / CULTURE / LANGUAGE	PEOPLE	A PERSON
a noun	an adjective for people, culture and sometimes their language	a noun (plural)	a count noun (singular) Use this form as an adjective with a noun such as: citizen, national, or person.
Burma He is from Burma.	Burmese He is Burmese.	the Burmese The Burmese are a strong people.	a Burmese person
China	Chinese	the Chinese	a Chinese person
Portugal	Portuguese	the Portuguese	a Portuguese person
Japan	Japanese	the Japanese	a Japanese person
Lebanon	Lebanese	the Lebanese	a Lebanese person
Sudan	Sudanese	the Sudanese	a Sudanese person
Taiwan	Taiwanese	the Taiwanese	a Taiwanese person
Vietnam (Viet Nam)	Vietnamese	the Vietnamese	a Vietnamese person

Country, Origin and People

Nationality names ending in -i

Pattern 3 – i

REFERENCE	EXAMPLE
Country	Saudi Arabia is located on the Arabian Peninsula.
Origin / Source / Language	Saudi (Arabian) dates are exported around the world. Arabic is spoken here.
The People	Saudis (Saudi Arabians) speak three variations of Arabic. The Saudis come from a variety of regions.
A Person	A Saudi can receive free education. A Saudi woman can also receive an education.

Examples for 3 –i

COUNTRY	ORIGIN / CULTURE / LANGUAGE	PEOPLE	A PERSON
a noun	an adjective for people, culture and often language	a noncount noun (always plural)	a count noun (singular or plural)
Bangladesh	Bangladesh(i)	the Bangladeshi	a Bangladeshi
Iraq	Iraqi	the Iraqis	an Iraqi
Israel	Israeli	the Israelis	an Israeli
Pakistan	Pakistani	the Pakistanis	a Pakistani
Saudi Arabia	Saudi, Saudi Arabian	the Saudis, the Saudi Arabians	a Saudi, a Saudi Arabian
The United Arab Emirates	Emirian, Emirati	the Emirian, the Emirati	an Emirian, an Emirati
Uzbekistan	Uzbek	the Uzbek	an Uzbek / Uzbeki
Yemen	Yemeni, Yemenite	the Yemenis	a Yemeni

Country, Origin and People

Nationality names ending in -ish / -man or -woman

Pattern 4 –ish, -sh, -ch / -man, -woman

REFERENCE	EXAMPLE
Country	England is in northern Europe.
Origin / Source / Language	English tea is known around the world. English is used around the world. The English language is spoken here.
The People	The English are proud of their history. *The Englishes/ English drink tea.
A Person	An Englishman. Two Englishmen here. An Englishman spoke to us about the history of England. An English woman lives next door to us.

*Yellow highlighted words are examples of incorrect usage.

Examples for 4 –ish, -sh, -ch / -man, -woman

THE COUNTRY	THE ORIGIN / CULTURE / LANGUAGE	THE PEOPLE	A PERSON
a noun	an adjective for people, culture and often language	a noncount noun (always plural)	a count noun (singular or plural)
England	English	the English	two Englishmen / Englishwomen
France	French	the French	a Frenchman/ Frenchwoman
Holland	Dutch	the Dutch	a Dutchman/ Dutchwoman
Ireland	Irish	the Irish	an Irishman/ Irishwoman
Wales	Welsh	the Welsh	a Welshman/ Welshwoman

Country, Origin and People

Nationality names other endings

Other Patterns

REFERENCE	EXAMPLE
Country	Greece is in southern Europe.
Origin / Source / Language	The letters are Greek. Greek is spoken here.
The People	Greeks are proud of their teams. The Greeks are the first to enter the games.
A Person	A Greek won the race.

Other Examples

COUNTRY	ORIGIN / CULTURE / LANGUAGE	PEOPLE	A PERSON
a noun	an adjective for people, culture and often language	a noncount noun (always plural)	a count noun (singular or plural)
Afghanistan	Afghan (Dari Persian, Pashto, others) (Afghani is the currency)	the Afghans	an Afghan
Argentina	Argentinean	the Argentines / the Agentineans	an Argentine / Argentinean
Croatia	Croatian	the Croats	a Croat
Czechia (Czech Republic)	Czech	the Czechs	a Czech
Denmark	Danish	the Danes	a Dane
Finland	Finnish	the Finns	a Finn
Greece	Greek	the Greeks	a Greek
Hong Kong	English / Cantonese	Citizens of Hong Kong	a citizen of Hong Kong (Hong Konger)
Iceland	Icelandic	the Icelanders	an Icelander
Liechtenstein	Liechtensteiner	the Liechtensteiners	a Liechtensteiner
the Philippines	Philippine	the Filipinos	a Filipino / a Filipina
Poland	Polish	the Poles	a Pole
Saudi Arabia	Saudi, Saudi Arabian	the Saudis, the Saudi Arabians	a Saudi, a Saudi Arabian
Scotland	Scottish	the Scots	a Scot
Serbia	Serbian	the Serbs	a Serb
Slovak Republic (Slovakia)	Slovak	the Slovaks	a Slovak
Spain	Spanish	the Spaniards	a Spaniard
Sweden	Swedish	the Swedes	a Swede
Switzerland	Swiss	the Swiss (no plural)	a Swiss
Thailand	Thai	the Thais	a Thai
Turkey	Turkish	the Turks	a Turk
Yugoslavia	Yugoslav	the Yugoslavs	a Yugoslav

Common Mistakes

Errors and Solutions

Error and Solution

ERROR
My neighbor is Afghani.
*One neighbor is a Turk and the other is an English. (noun)
*The Englishes colonized North America.
English built the Titanic and the Queen Mary. ships
*One neighbor is a Irishman and the other is a Chinaman. (not used anymore)

SOLUTION
My neighbor is Afghan. He uses the Afghani (currency) to buy food and other necessities.
One neighbor is a Turk and the other is an Englishman. (noun)
The English colonized North America.
The English built the Titanic and the Queen Mary.
One neighbor is an Irishman and the other is a Chinese national or citizen / is from China. (noun) A Chinese sounds awkward. Adding a noun such as citizen, national, person, etc is a quick fix. National names for people change through time. It is best to look the name up: Hong Konger, Taiwaner, Argentine, etc. Google "demonyms"

*Yellow highlighted words are examples of incorrect usage.

Resources

"Countries: Designations and Abbreviations to Use." Interinstitutional Style Guide,7.1.1.18 Sep 2018. publications.europa.eu/code/en/en-370100.htm.
"Independent States in the World." U S Department of State, 22 July 2016, www.state.gov/s/inr/rls/4250.htm.
"List of sovereign states." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 June 2016. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states. Accessed on 7 June 2017. (includes details regarding sovereignty disputes)
"UNGEGN World Geographical Names." United Nations Statistical Division. 1 Mar. 2017, unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/geonames. Accessed on 7 June 2017. (authoritative data-base)

Practice 1

Class Diversity

Complete the sentence with the correct word form of nationality.

Select the response from the list that best completes the sentence.
Compare your response to the feedback by clicking the "check" button.

In my class, there are a lot of students.

Feedback 1

One is .

Feedback 2

Another one is .

Feedback 3

Another student is from Thailand. He is .

Feedback 4

There is also from Madrid.

Feedback 5

In addition, there is from Istanbul.

Feedback 6

In my class, we have a few .

Feedback 7

There is .

Feedback 8

Next to me sits a girl who is .

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10.

One student is from Australia. She is .

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11.

Another student is from Holland. He is .

Feedback 11

12.

The student giving a speech is from the Islands of Palau. She is .

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13.

The student who is absent to day is .

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14.

The teaching assistant is from the United Arab Emirates. He is .

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15.

There are two new students from Afghanistan. They are .

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16.

They sit next to the student from Iraq. She is .

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17.

We also have one person from Croatia. He is a .

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18.

We had a student from Malta, but this returned to his country.

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19.

We also had a student from Uzbekistan. He was an .

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20.

My teacher is a delightful .

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