English question....

Language Corner
1
Hi!

I see all the time ''Swiss people''. And I'm curious to know why people say that. I don't see American people, British people, Turkish people, Canadian people....

We say American, British, Turk, Canadian.... So why Swiss people???

I'm asking because english is not my first language and I try to improve it as much as I can, and this is a question I have since a while.

If someone can contribute to my education, I will appreciated it!

Nil

2
The best person to answer this question is actually Abfab but I'll have a go...

(he can correct me if I'm wrong ).

Both forms are technically correct as British/Swiss denotes what sort of something ie people, cars, houses etc. Using just the adjective, British/Swiss etc is commonly accepted as referring to the people of said nation.

3
Well I usally say "the Swiss".

I think its because just saying "Swiss" is an ambigious adjective for the people.

where as "British", "American" is less abmigious....

both "Swiss" and "Swiss people" are correct forms, but at least with you wont be confused with say...err...swiss chesse..?

4
I only hear people saying "the Swiss" or "the British" or "the Americans". I've not heard "Swiss people" commonly used unless it is used to differentiate various nouns in the same sentence for emphasis; " The Swiss food and Swiss watches are only enjoyed by the Swiss people " for example.

And the same would go for; " The British food and British humour are only enjoyed by the British people "

5
Me too. DH, who is Swiss, also says "the Swiss".

6
Look on this forum.... It is full of the term ''Swiss people''! And since most of the people here are english speaker, I was curious to know why they use it.

7
Yes, you are right - I was referring to what I hear. Although I would guess that the most posts using the term "Swiss people" use it in a negative context. Adds to the emphasis during an emotional post .

"Swiss people bump into me all the time!!!" Chuffin' annoyed.

"My husband, who is Swiss." General statement.

8
It's because some of these words can be used as both adjectives and nouns. You can talk about American food (where American is an adjective) or talk about the American you sat next to on the plane (noun). Same goes for the word Canadian. British is used as an adjective and Brit tends to be used as a noun. (e.g. I work with two Brits.)

The word Swiss is only really used as an adjective. You can talk about Swiss people, but you wouldn't really say 'I work with two Swiss' you'd say 'I work with two Swiss people'. There doesn't seem to be any hard rule about which nationalities are referred to using a noun (e.g. Germans, Australians, Filipinos) and which are referred to using an adjective (e.g. Chinese people, Japanese people). It could be because words like Swiss, Chinese and Japanese are hard to use as singular and plural nouns because they already end with an 's' sound, and therefore it would be hard to distinguish between singular and plural (so instead you'd say 'a Chinese person' or 'Chinese people'). But that's just a guess.

Anyway.

Heather

9
We "Brits" are a bit weird in that you can work with British people but you can also work with a "Briton" or two "Britons". This is where "Brit" comes from.

10
I've noticed it too. In common usage there's no reason for saying "the Swiss" or "Swiss people". However, as Lynn says, in English it's usual to use the adjective form to refer to nationalities. So you can say "the English" or "English people". To add to the confusion with a few countries there is a third alternative.

The English, English people; an Englishman

The French, French people; a Frenchman

The Dutch, Dutch people; a Dutchman

The Irish, Irish people; an Irishman

But you would never say for example a Norwegianman, a Swissman, a Italianman. To add to the confusion we would also never say a Spanishman but we could say a Spaniard),

11
And they say french is complicated.....

12
I think you've put your finger on why people choose to say Swiss people - their subconcious is comfortable using "Swiss" as both singular and plural but recognises "Swisses" isn't right so defaults to using "Swiss people".

13
"The Swiss" would be the normal modern way to say it. "Swiss people" is mostly found on this forum, and def used mostly in negative connotations. I have noticed it like you. Although it has become normal in my brain as a result of reading the forum, if you had asked me 10 months ago, I would have told you it is a weird construct to use. It's connotation is to refer to the Swiss as one generalised, homogeneous people.

I would stick to "the Swiss".

Now the construction of adjectives and nouns in referring to nationalities/ethnicities in English is a very curious topic. For example, one can says the Scots or the Scottish, but one does not use the Angles in referring to the English. Then there is the question as to to whether one is a Croat or a Croatian, the former being an ethnicity, the latter being a nationality. I could go on forever. History has a big part to play.

Modulo the case of plural above, for nouns such as Swiss, English, Irish, Welsh, French, Dutch, who don't have a gender neutral term for a single person.

Although going back to Swiss, I find it curious that we call them Swiss and not Switzers. Again weird historical aspects of English (from French and German) which has multiple constructs and multiple influences.

14
Lynn nailed it.

It's the same for any nation Swiss/British/American

British: The British nation

British people: Individuals from Britain

The British have a bad foreign policy British people do not generally have a foreign policy

But British people drink to much beer The British drink too much beer.

15
Are you implying that Switzerland is more mature than Austria here, Mr Nathu?

16
How do you describe someone coming from Liechtenstein?

17
bored.....

18
Liechers?

BTW, for us Canadians, you can also use: Canucks, Hosers, Hockey Gods.

19
The Guardian still uses the term so it must be still.. umm.. hip, man...

20
Liechtensteiners, the form usually used to describe people from a city rather than a country ie Londoners; Dubliners; Berliners; New Yorkers etc.

There again in English there's no hard and fast rules for describing inhabitants of cities either. We say Londoner etc but not Amsterdamer, Madrider. Then again we say Parisian, Roman, Muscovite, Viennese etc. We even say Glaswegian for people from Glasgow implying that somehow they deserve national status like Norwegians!

County folk have irregularities too. I'm a Yorkshireman because my county Yorkshire is as big as some countries and deserves national status. However you never refer to a person from less worthy counties like Surrey, Essex, etc as a Surreyman or Essexman.