Nationalities, Part III

In Part III of "Nationalities," we are going to continue Part I and Part II and talk about the names of the main languages that are spoken and the adjectives used to describe somebody from that country. Usually, the noun for the language spoken is the same as the adjective for somebody who resides there. Note that in English, unlike many other languages, even the adjectives for nationalities are usually written with a capital letter.

For example, in the country Spain, most people of Spanish nationality speak the Spanish language. But there are also exceptions: In the United States, most Americans speak English. It is interesting that the residents of the United States choose to call themselves "Americans," when in fact all of the people in the countries in North, Central, and South America could equally call themselves "Americans."

Let's take a look today at some countries we didn't discuss in the first two lessons whose country names and/or languages differ from the nationalities.

And look at that temperature in Brazil!

Caption 69, Side by Side - Beginners - The Weather

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This is also by Kobra, the Brazilian street artist.

Caption 16, John S in New York - Kobra

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I can speak Portuguese.

Captions 25-26, Side by Side - Beginners - Expressing abilities

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In the country of Brazil, most Brazilian people speak the Portuguese language.

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I come from Canada.

Caption 19, English Grammar in Use - Present Simple

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Canadian kids are stepping up.

Caption 19, CBS News - The Easter Bunny in New Zealand

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They brought many French words that became part of English.

Caption 46, The Alphabet - Introduction to the Alphabet

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In the country of Canada, most Canadian people speak predominantly English or French. In the Canadian province Quebec, most people speak French and are called French Canadians.

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The whole world was turned upside down by pictures from Ethiopia.

Caption 6, Make Poverty History - Bono

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But a black runner never won the marathon until 1960,

when an Ethiopian runner did it barefoot.

Captions 11-12, Olympics 2012 - Fun Facts

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In the country of Ethiopia, the dominant language spoken by the Ethiopian people is Amharic.

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They were colonized by Spain, and so was the Philippines.

Caption 54, Turn Here Productions - San Francisco, CA

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What's been the response to your winning from the Filipino people?

Caption 36, Miss World - Megan Young - Hello London!

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In the country of the Philippines, most of the Filipino people speak Filipino or Tagalog.

Further Learning
Go to Yabla English and find more videos that use some of the country names, dominant languages, and nationalities used above and listed below. You can also see a more complete list of countries, their people, and their languages here.

Country                  Language          Nationality
Australia                  English               Australian
Brazil                       Portuguese        Brazilian
Chile                        Spanish             Chilean
China                       Chinese             Chinese
Egypt                       Arabic                Egyptian
Hungary                   Hungarian         Hungarian
Italy                          Italian                Italian
Japan                       Japanese           Japanese
Korea                       Korean               Korean
Netherlands             Dutch                 Dutch
Portugal                   Portuguese        Portuguese
Russia                      Russian             Russian
United States           English               American