Maybe this is a regional thing but I’ve always called it the US
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I hear almost exclusively people referring to the country as “America”. This was actually a very conscious shift at the turn of the 20th century for people in public life to refer to the country as “America” instead of “the US” or “the United States” as we … acquired overseas territories and weren’t a country only of United States anymore
Ooosa
I actually use both, depending on the context of the conversation and the people I am speaking with. I do this partially because I understand we are one of three Americas. If I am speaking to someone who isn’t a U.S. citizen, I’ll say U.S. But to other U.S. citizens, I’ll say America because we know the implied meaning when we say it.
I use “the U.S.” or “States”.
There’s more than one America.
But not more States, united or not…?
I’ve been lucky enough to travel a fair amount. If I say, “I’m from the States.”, people knew that meant the USA.
They will. They will also know if you say you are from America. My point was that one is no better than the other, from an accuracy point of view. Both have multiple meanings.
Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians… All from America.
I heard in a podcast recently that many people in the US still believed Africa was a country, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this is somehow related to their using the name of their continent to designate their own country.
I refer to it as “the US”, but refer to myself as an “American.”
I’m a US citizen and lived there most of my life but refuse to call myself American. I’d rather call myself after my home state or country of birth, but saying you’re from the US is an embarrassment. That country never did anything for me anyways, I spent my life fighting it
I no longer live in the US
Sir this is Wendy’s
To add to the confusion. The Americas (or America) comprise the landmasses of North and South America in the Western Hemisphere
People living in North and South America (or the Americas) can also be called American or Americans if the were referring to the landmass.
Strangely the United States IMO is the only country that seems to indicate the landmass its situated on when using the full name, the United States of America. Not to mention the indication of a union of individual states as well.
Several single-word English demonym alternatives have been suggested over time, for example Columbian, Columbard, Fredonian, Frede, Unisian, United Statesian, Colonican, Appalacian, Usian, Washingtonian, Usonian, Uessian, U-S-ian, Uesican, and United Stater.
Saying someone is a United Statesian or Statesian is probably the closest to how other countries like Canada (Canadian) or Mexico (Mexican) refer to themselves. If we forget that pretty much all other countries are a unity of states, counties, and or provinces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United_States
Vespucciland -> Vespuccian.
At this point, I think we should just call US people Indian.
You do know it is actually named “the United Mexican States”, right? The name of the US is simply bad from the beginning and sometimes you can’t fix bad. Unless they take over all of the Americas, I guess. Then it’s a good name. Bad move, but good name.
I do, most countries are a unitity of states, counties, or provinces.
It would be so confusing if Mexico never settled on a name for its united states and called themselves the United States of America
That’s wild what a plot twist
Call us Yankees because it’ll annoy the “the South will rise again” crowd
Thats’s cuz English Language sucks.
In Chinese Language for example: A 美國人 (American (Country)) and a 美洲人 (American (Continent)). But in English both are “American”.
Also so many syllabels converying so few info.
Literally 4 syllabels for “American”
But “美國人” or “美洲人” are both 3 syllabels and already contains [America-Country Person] or [America-Continent Person]
Sorry, no offense to English speakers, but as a polyglot, I just had to comment this xD
All languages convey information at roughly similar rates. Those with less information per syllable tend to say more syllables per minute. It’s a fascinating area of linguistics!
All natural languages have ambiguities where the meaning of a word depends on context due to changes over time.
Several single-word English alternatives have been suggested
Some of these make sense, but several of them would only refer to a specific area in the U.S. (e.g. Washingtonian) or are really out of left field (e.g. Fredonian).
I’m assuming Washingtonian would be refering to the man, not the state that refers to the man. I mean, it’s a silly name, but not for the reason you state.
Residents of Washington DC are also referred to as Washingtonians
I hear “The states,” “The US,” and “America” equally used here in Cali. Almost never do I hear “The USA” unless it’s said like “the good 'ol US of A.”
I say “the US”
Safe to just call it shithole now.
“This is America! I’ll call it whatever I want!”
I use America a lot
In my country you can know someone’s politics just by knowing if they call people from the USA americanos or estadounidenses.
estadounidenses
people actually use this in conversation?
When they aren’t imperialist bootlickers.
ps: In Portuguese, United States is Estados Unidos - hence estadounidense.
When they aren’t imperialist bootlickers.
That’s not an ABSOLUTE true if you’re talking about Brazil. Yes, some people prefer to use the term “estadunidenses” over “americanos” for political reasons, but I’ve seen some people on the far left using the term “americanos” too. The problem is that “estadunidense” is a long word, even if it has just one additional syllable compared to “americanos”. Most Portugese words has 2-3 syllables and people tend to stick with shorter words.
Oh I understand the word, it just seems like a lot of syllables.
I’ll call it “the US” at the beginning of a conversation but mix it in with America afterwards as the context shows I’m talking about the US and not the continent.
When I hear the word “America”, I always have the mental image of someone that speaks English in a non-American (or even non-Anglosphere) accent, and that this person either really likes America or really hates The US, no in between. Like sometimes I picture a person saying “America” in a heavy russian accent I think it just sounds so funny. I think I watched too many movies and I just like the russian accent… it sounds very intimidating and that’s why it had that sort of “cool factor”.
Also, I kinda mix both depending on how my brain is thinking. Sometimes I think my thoughts in Chinese and the “美國” automatically converts into English as “America”, cuz nobody says “合眾國” (United States) in Chinese (at least not in the variants/“dialects” that I know of), cuz it feels like a generic term like “The Republic”, doesn’t make a lot of sense unless referring specifically to domestic politics.
As a Naturalized American Citizen, I sometimes feel like the term “American Citizen” feels like a wrong term, and the term “US Citizen” feels more “correct” to say.
I think that in Chinese, sometimes I hear “民國” (shortened from the full term 中華民國) to refer to ROC and I think “共和國” (shortened from the full term 中華人民共和國) can similarly be used similar to refer to PRC, when used in the context of Chinese history.
Red Green calls us “americans”, i call us fucked. Take your pick.
That’s just not true.
I use them interchangeably. 🤷
