Indeed, U.S.A. is not America!
America is the name of a whole continent. United States of America means that the United States belongs to America and NOT that America belongs to the United States. So, next time you want to refer to The United States of America, you can do it as U.S. or the States or whatever you want but not as only America. Gotcha?
How should I use the term America then?
Here we will show you some wrong and correct uses of the term America:
This is how we do it in America.
This is how we do it in the States.
- America is my country and I love it.
- The United States is my country and I love it.
- America lost the Vietnam war.
- U.S.A. lost the Vietnam war.
- Here in America we love Mc Donald's.
- Here in the U.S. we love Mc Donald's.
Please, note that this page in not about demonyms (gentilics) but about the way to call a country.
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Comments (1254)
If I (correctly) refer to myself as "American", and you fail to understand that I am from the United States of America, then that is a 'you' problem and not a 'me' problem.
They understand you perfectly and they know that many other people all over the world understand you perfectly. That is part of the reason why they have their panties in a bunch.
Then some people must really be upset when they find out U.S. soldiers stationed overseas ask each other "Where in the world are you from?". When asking where in the U.S.A they are from.
America is the name of a hemisphere, not just one continent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent
That's right. As a matter of fact, it is the only country that does not have a proper name. The United States of America represents a geopolitical location, rather than a name, because in America there are other countries constituted in states such as Mexico and Brazil.
That’s not a fact. Do some researching and thinking before posting.
If you're from a country that speaks one of the Romance Languages (and a few others), you're taught that the Western Hemisphere is one continent called "America." The rest of the world is taught that the Western Hemisphere is two continents: "North America" and "South America", or together, "The Americas". If you're speaking in English, "America" refers to the United States of America.
America is a continent.
Not in the English language. You would get that answer wrong on a geography test.
America is a continent.
So if the English language admits different meanings of the names of continents why not say Asia is a country too? The English Language is not the one which makes the rules for the whole world! The world together accepts and adapts to names accordingly. America was coined by Germans and accepted by the world as the new continent. The English changed all that at their leisure not because it was establish that way but because they figure that the name they had been using for their country was actually the name of the continent (accepted by the world) and so they started to make changes to the American hemisphere. They changed America for Americas and divided the continent into two so they can use the name of America for themselves.
Do you refer to yourself as an American or a Canadian? In fact does any other citizen of any country that occupies the land masses of North & South America call themselves Americans?
Yes We do call ourselves Americans as well as the country we are from in the continent America.
I have never heard a Canadian refer himself as an American and we have a lot of Canadians here in Florida.
This is *****. There are about 23 or 24 countries in North and South America, not counting island nations, and only one has America in the name. That is us, the United States of America. Further, America is not a continent. North America is and so is South America. But, there is no continent named America.
People who are not citizens of the USA should not refer to themselves as Americans, as that is the designation for those of us who are citizens of the United States of American.
Interesting side note: The official name of Mexico is not Mexico. It is Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Mexican United States.
America is a continent.
The word "America", when speaking English, does NOT refer to a continent. If you took a geography test, your answer would be incorrect.
America is a continent.
You continue to refer to geography tests that are created in the United States of America. I'll concede on the name "American(s)" referring to residents of the United States of America, because the name in which a people choose to refer to themselves is usually decided by the people themselves. Unfortunately, America, unless specifically qualified in reference as a country, refers to the collective continents of North and South America.
For example:
Person 1: "I'm visiting America next week."
Person 2: "What part?"
Person 3: "The United States!" (or enter any other country in the Americas)
Sorry "Gaylord" Loomis... You got it all wrong calling yourself an American only show your ignorance in geo....
USA is essentially a dream with a schizofrenic personality.....We got South America.. . Central America & North America (your location)
Far as I know the US is the only country on either of the American continents that has "America" in it's actual/official name. So it just makes sense to shorten it to "America" and "americans" when talking about the US or anyone from there.
You want to refer to Mexicans, Canadians, Brazilians, Chileans, Peruvians, Salvadorians, or anyone else as "americans" then go right ahead, just be ready to get a lot of funny looks. Especially when talking to people.
.....From the US
this is hilarious! BTW, "America" is not available in the country drop down!
That is because America is not a country.
Yes, America does not appear in the drop down menu. That's because the name of our country is United States of America. So our name appears as this, United States, or USA. America is a slang name for our country.
its my country
I've never heard of a European or Asian refer to us as Mexicans, Chileans, Brazilians, Statians, whatever. I've always heard them refer to us all as "Americans." I had had Europeans say I'm American and then ask "from the U.S. or from the states?" In other languages it's easy to designate but in English it's not that's why we all say "Americans" but I guess a more correct designation would be "Statesman." However I've heard people from Central and South America always call us "Americans."
Actually we call people from the states (and all white-looking English speaking people) gringos.