Nationalities in English

Expressing nationalities in English can be a little confusing. There are exceptions to some grammatical rules for political or historic reasons.

Nationalities are expressed in the following ways:

• Country
• Origins
• Adjective
• Language
• Describing a group 

Generally speaking, you must use a nationality with a plural verb. This is because you are referring to all people with said nationality. 

Examples: 

• Italians make incredible wine. 
• The Chinese have a New Year festival that lasts up to 16 days.

As we mentioned, there are some exceptions to how nationality is expressed. In a historical and political context, sometimes the grammar-appropriate expression has taken on a racist association. Therefore, they should be expressed in a different way to be sensitive to the nationality referred to. 

Examples:

• Instead of ‘a Pakistani’, say ‘someone from Pakistan’.
• Instead of ‘an African’, say ‘an African person’ or ‘someone from Africa’. 

Typically, the suffixes -ish, -ese and -an are used to express nationality. However, when referring to specific cities, there are some additional exceptions to suffixes. 

Examples: 

City	Adjective	Noun
London	London	Londoner
New York	New York	New Yorker
Cape Town	Cape Town	Capetonian
Brighton	Brighton	Brightonian
Sydney	Sydney	Sydney-sider
Paris	Parisian	Parisian
New Delhi	New Delhi	Delhite
São Paulo	São Paulo	Paulistano