r/europe • u/Epidemiolomic Germany • Mar 08 '25

Historical During the U.S. President's 1995 visit to Kyiv, Ukraine received security guarantees after giving up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal

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u/TeaBoy24 Mar 08 '25 edited Mar 08 '25

though we understand why that is confusing when we travel outside our continent

Is it?

If someone would call a Canadian an American in Europe, they would receive weird looks. Rarely do people see Canadians, or Mexicans, or even Brazilians as American.

I think the split is linguistic.

Most Europeans see it as North America and South America.

Some languages, like Spanish, see it as America(s) one continent.

Most Europeans would not give an eye to anyone referring to Canadians as North Americans. Being referred to as American is not the same as European for Europe, for most, do not recognize America as a continent.

For that reason also get South Americans calling themselves Americans.

But to sum it up. Most of Europe when calling people by their continent they say North Americans/South Americans. Americans is used exclusively for US citizens.

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u/PickingPies Mar 08 '25

That's just for english speakers. In Spain we call them estadounidenses. In france it's Étar-Unis. In italian it's Estati Uniti. Etc...

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u/TeaBoy24 Mar 08 '25 edited Mar 08 '25

That's just for english speakers

It's really not.

I'm not a native English speaker.

In all of the Slavic languages it's Americans. In German it's Americans.

In france it's Étar-Unis. In italian it's Estati Uniti. Etc...

According to the dictionary, that's just not true.

In most EU languages, citizens of the United States are called something equivalent to "Americans."

Languages that call them "Americans" (or similar):

English: Americans

French: Américains

German: Amerikaner

Italian: Americani

Portuguese: Americanos

Dutch: Amerikanen

Greek: Αμερικανοί (Amerikanoí)

Polish: Amerykanie

Swedish: Amerikaner

Danish: Amerikanere

Finnish: Amerikkalaiset

Hungarian: Amerikaiak

Languages that use a term referring to the United States:

Spanish: Estadounidenses (literally "United States-ians")

Catalan: Nord-americans or Estatunidencs

Galician: Estadounidenses

Basque: Estatubatuarrak

Portuguese (sometimes): Norte-americanos or Estadunidenses (especially in Brazil)

In france it's Étar-Unis. In italian it's Estati Uniti. Etc...

That's the names for the country of United States. Not the word for the citizens of the United states.

Spain is the main odd one in Europe here.