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.
Add Comment
These terms and conditions contain rules about posting comments. By submitting a comment, you are declaring that you agree with these rules:
- Although the administrator will attempt to moderate comments, it is impossible for every comment to have been moderated at any given time.
- You acknowledge that all comments express the views and opinions of the original author and not those of the administrator.
- You agree not to post any material which is knowingly false, obscene, hateful, threatening, harassing or invasive of a person's privacy.
- The administrator has the right to edit, move or remove any comment for any reason and without notice.
Failure to comply with these rules may result in being banned from submitting further comments.
These terms and conditions are subject to change at any time and without notice.
Comments (1349)
The adjective "United" is a modifier. The noun "States" is a subject. "Of" is a preposition. "America" is a prepositional object. The noun here is "States". That being said, the name of the country is "States". The facts that the States are united and located in America are complementary information.
Are you being serious?
Please note that my other post does not absolve the founding fathers of the United States of America from choosing an awkward and arrogant name for their new country. Residents of other countries in the Americas have a right to be annoyed with a country that names itself a shortened version of the continent it is on and shares with other countries. However, asking people to not call their country by its proper common name, is offensive in itself.
As a courtesy, I rarely use the lone term “America” to refer to the USA, but I reserve the right to occasionally do so without being harassed. And, I will continue to refer to myself and my fellow countrymen as “Americans” because it is the correct name for us.
In my opinion, American is NOT the correct name or demonym for your country. NO.
The Most Proper and Correct Name for your country is ‘U.S. AMERICAN(S)’!
Canadians, U.S. Americans, Mexicans and Central Americans are all Americans of the North!!! (That is the Northern Part of the Continent America)!!!
Now, stop calling yourself just American please. It’s annoying.
There are currently two countries in the world with “United States” in their names: the USA and Mexico. There have historically been several others including Brazil and Belgium. In all of these cases, the emphasis is not on the modifying phrase (e.g. Estados Unidos de...), but on the name (e.g. Mexico). Similarly, many countries’ formal names include the phrase “The republic of...”, but that phrase is dropped in the common name. For example, The Republic of Peru is not shortened to “The Republic” and it’s inhabitants are not referred to as “Republicans.”
While many Americans have adopted the term “The United States” as the shorter common name for the country (as a courtesy to other countries in North and South America), this is technically incorrect, which becomes apparent when one tries to find a name for the inhabitants of the USA. “United Statesians” doesn’t work because you can only add a demonym (e.g. the “an” in Cuban) to a proper place name which in this case is America.
"America" is not the proper place name for the United States. America is the whole continent, not one country.
Your personal definition of proper doesn’t change the fact that many hundreds of millions of people, who speak many different languages and live all over the world, use the word ‘America’ to refer to the USA. Because they do this, the most common meaning of ‘America’ in English and many other languages is the USA. Your preferences don’t change how words are used and what they mean.
How great can a country that murders to get his way from the very beginning of creation. “ U. S. Won the west”. Lol it was not a game and it wasn’t for sale. Like the Luisiana purchase. A French sold it to another European. And the native said “ what just happened? “. And now they want to steal the name . Give me a break!
Didn’t every existing country in the Americas kill to get its way from the very beginning? The vast majority certainly did. This doesn’t just apply to the United States. The Europeans started killing the natives as soon as the Europeans wanted something that the natives didn’t want to give. They were called conquistadores for a reason.
Yes, maybe they did kill natives, but in most instances they were defending themselves from the aggressive natives. However, most countries in Latin America did not kill all of their natives, in fact, the Spanish married natives and viceversa. The Amerindian traits are readily visible in our beautiful Latin people with olive skin and straight hairs. Many of the Indigenous tribes and customs are embedded within our cultures in many of our Latin American countries. This you can't say about the USA, where most of the natives were thrown out of their lands. Latin Americans would probably have more American Indigenous blood running through their veins than Anglo Americans.
The full name of our country is "The United States of America," so we call it "America" for short. By analogy, the full name of our southern neighbor is "The United States of Mexico," so it is called "Mexico" for short. It is an abbreviation rather than an attempt to usurp a continent.
But Mexico is not our continent's name. America is.
Sorry but this issue is not due to an analogy but that a country is using the name of the continent in which is in. The real name of Mexico is : United Mexican States.
DNA of Latin Americans shows them possessing genuine American heritage. The same can't be said of more than 95% of non-Hispanic United Statesians.
Don’t tell German (Argentina) about this. He thinks Argentina’s greatest accomplishment is that such a high percentage of its population pretend to be 100% European. They can’t keep the lights on, but, hey, aren’t they so very white? At least they’ve got that going for them.
I voted this nonsense up by mistake.
I'm from Argentina, and people in this "Latin American" country seem to have more European DNA than those in the United States. Traveling in New York metro, I see myself much whiter than 95% of the United Statesians there. I don't feel that way when I take the metro in Buenos Aires, where I pass unnoticed and feel I'm just one of the crowd. All my ancestors are from either France or Italy. In the US there are many blacks. Argentina and Uruguay are the whiter countries in America.
Unfortunately for you and Argentina, it takes a lot more than a high percentage of white people to have a competently managed government and economy. Argentina went from one of the wealthiest countries in the world 100 years ago to the basket case that it is today. Obviously more is needed than just whiteness and Argentines’ expert knowledge of the names of national capitals.
Burn.
And the USA is going the same way!
The United States is exceptional. The rest of the “American” countries are not. When they become exceptional, they can call themselves “America” as well. Until then, people from all over the world will continue to line up and come to America just like Akeem.
All countries are exceptional in their own ways, the United States is too. What is good about the United States is that is its powerful and mighty. This characteristic of the U.S. has been good and bad for the world.
America isn’t the name of a continent...stop trying to give geography lessons with such a glaring geography mistake. North America...continent. South America...separate continent.
The United States is in America.
That is why it is called The United States of America.
And not United States is America.
Hawaii is not in the American continent, but it is still one of the states that form the union.
Nope! One continent not two otherwise the name changes and that is what the USA wants you to think is the correct way.
It seems there has always been the misconception in the US that "America" is a country. It is not. It is a continent; in fact there are 2 of them, North and South, and EVERYBODY in both Americas is an American. Ever hear of the Pan American Games? Everyone from both continents comes, not only the US. Another issue that has always baffled others is that the US does not actually have a name. It has a geopolitical description only.It describes a land, divided into states that are united - and it's name is ..... oops, forgot the name. That is all they have, so if we use what is out there we should call them United Stations. I know, it's awkward, but if they don't like it they can GET A NAME for their country.Still known as the country without a name.
If we don’t like being called United Statians, which we don’t, we will simply continue calling ourselves ‘Americans’, and our country ‘America’. Many other people around the world will continue doing this too. Language doesn’t follow your fake rules, no matter how much you cry.
The meaning of the word "America" changes when people make the changes and this is what happened with the U.S. People in the U.S. started using the name "America" to call their country even though the name belonged to the continent in which the U.S. is located. The word was changed by the actions of the U.S. and this action is in question today more than ever since the technology helps other people in America see how the U.S. has managed to use the name of the continent and spread it across the world as if it was always theirs to take. Trying to excuse the actions taken by the U.S., by saying that meanings of words change is absurd! Yes, meanings of words do change, but in this case, the meaning of the name America did not change, the continent is still named America.
Many people around the world? What do you know about the world? I bet you don't even know what the capital of Austria is. For your information, you have all Spanish speaking countries attached to the original and true definition of "America", a name they invented 511 years ago. All European countries but the UK also consider America to be a unique continent. America is a "latino" name. If your president hates anything "latino", why don't you run a contest for your country's name?
And, of course, at the end of the day, no matter what you write, no matter what you think, no matter what you want, no matter what you need, ‘America’ and ‘American’ will be used, by people all over the world, to refer to the United States and its citizens. You know this. You cannot do anything about it. Nothing. Nada. We have already won.
You won nothing - more and more people are stopping Calling The Unites States "America"
Because they know that America is a continent and NOT a country as you think it is.
People call the country ‘America’ because they know that one of its meanings is the United States of America. You lost this battle even before you starting posting your nonsense.
How do you like them apples?
As long as they are granny smith apples
You forgot about Central America. America is North America,Central America and South America.
Why do people forgot about Central America, Poor Central America.
They didn’t forget about Central America. In the two continent model of the Americas, Central America is part of North America, so when North America is mentioned, it includes Central America. Please learn some basic facts before posting. Your errors are tiresome.
Your errors are tiresome as well. CHECK YOUR FACTS
What you say is very unlikely! Wouldn't the illegal immigrants coming through the South border be then called North Americans rather than Central Americans?????
Roda, you are truly dumber than dirt.
America is NOT a continent. North America and South America are. America is a country. It is kinda like saying you are from New York, when you are actually from New York City. Both are correct
Okay what continent is your America in and what countries are in your America?
You are wrong. The correct logic is "all people from NYC live in the State of NY, but not all people from the State of NY live in NYC". The same way, all people from the USA live in America, but not all people from America live in the USA.
Western Europe is a part of Europe just as North America is a part of America. Only an idiot could say that Europe is a part of Western Europe. And you sound idiot when you say that America is a part of North America. Period.