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 (1268)
Country: "The United States of America"
Oficial abbreviation: "United States" (US)
Informal abbreviations: "America" y "The States"
Lol, they should just stick with their official abbreviation. They don’t need an informal abbreviation (… at least not America).
Obviously…
2 continents: "North America" and "South America"
Official abbreviation: "America"
Informal abbreviations: "The Americas" y "Pan America"
To those of you that up-vote my comment above, I just want to say … I have also replied to Joda Loca in the 'Demonyms' page - that has written their comment on 'February 23 2021 7:40pm'. I sure would appreciate it if the same up-voters will upvote my comment there also!
exit = éxito
dinner = dinero
American = americano
American is not a false friend with americano/a. If it was a false friend then why north, south, latin, anglo, central, meso, ibero... american.
Why OAS (Organization of American States)?
I tell you what they say (the English speakers, particularly the Americans -or United Staters or Usamericans or whatever-), they say that it is a false cognate but since the mid-20th century, they decided that. And the Organization of American States is because it was founded before that "reservation" of the English word American for the nationality of someone from the United States of America.
I'm going to continue with this joke about false cognates anyway
exit = salida
dinner = cena
Since 1916 the Unites States has participated 4 times in the American Football Cup, as invitee.
https://copaamerica.com/en/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVMZC4y4zXU&lc=Ugw95ONDp4lMvt_tTQF4AaABAg.9Je1v5TL5hr9JgkGlACAMr
This video is very bad, either way go to the comment section in "newer first" there is literally a guy that don't get why the US stole the continent name.
"Respect each other languages"? That's *****. It's like someone calling them "Maricas in Spanish" and I not caring, because it is Spanish.
English is made up of ignorance and repetition. That does not make a term correct. Still it is an offense to American countries when United Statians call themselves the Americans.
the video is bad
Brits vs United-Statians
https://twitter.com/tealisa_/status/1306053274144038912
What did it says? The tweets are now deleted.
It was a classic meme with some of girls. One United Statian claiming to be American, a Brit behind her just watching, and on the other side a Brazilian reminding the United Statian what she is.
I don't know what happened. Maybe David complained and it got censored. Remember Twitter is also a United Statian company.
Well said!
http://affinitymagazine.us/2016/11/02/reminder-the-united-states-is-not-america/
that article is partially wrong. america is 1 continent, not 2.
Hi Setsuko!
To me, it doesn’t matter for America to be 1 or 2 continents. It can be seen both ways.
All that matters is … America is never just 1 country by itself! It is forever 35 independent countries that are apart of the Western Hemisphere!
and also contains territorries owned by european countries.
Where is the United States physically located?
Northern America
https://9gag.com/gag/a43wq6p
Hauahauahaua
https://novni.com/letters/read/255804/the-americans-are-more
Why does a country that wants to be called America need the continent not to also be called America? if there are different districts that share the same name clarifying their status, for example City of Buenos Aires and Province of Buenos Aires, or Mexico, the country, Mexico City and the State of Mexico, or in the United States itself that are in Washington D.C. Washington State.
Has no sense!
America includes too many nations for a country to try to compare with.
Nevertheless, following your example, you could say United States of Washington.
It is not that a country cannot include the name of the continent it is in, as South Africa or the existence of a few years in the 19th century of the "Republic de Centro America" shows. But some distinctive in its name that it is not the continent must have! in the case of the country we are talking about, it is the words "United States", which in fact are the ones that most identify it and is the main part of its name, not "America".
I agree
soma soma, if that would be the case, it would be half acceptable, but the case seems to be that the USA has totally controlled the name and in order to not have to share the same name with the continent, they had the idea of dividing the continent into two so that the continent's name America no longer fits and now they can call it The Americas for being two. But this is not something that the rest of America embraces so it is only the English language countries teaching that view.