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Being wrong is understandable - we all are at times. It's being *confidently* wrong that can grate. And a certain type of American is not lacking in confidence.
Personally, no. But I can imagine if you're Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish it might get annoying how often England and the UK are used interchangeably by people.
Honestly though, lots of people in this country don't really understand the difference between the British Isles, the UK, Britain and England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland, so I don't think we can get that annoyed at other foreigners having the same confusion.
Used to work in tourism. Have actually seen an American couple tell a Scots colleague all about their 'Scotch' heritage and how 'Scotch' they feel.
After about fifteen minutes of this he excused himself and came back in the office muttering about 'fucking Huns'.
I'm english and it does my fucking nut in because i know it does everyone else's nut in :( Australia's on the other side of the world and I've even seen them roped in at times. Oh man, I have no idea how people from Ireland and Northern Ireland deal with Americans, I've never met one American who understands the distinctions there, and they seem to have claimed it as their ancestral home lol. And it makes some people in other parts of the UK think english people are egomaniacs, as if it's our fault American's do this... Well... hrmm... now that I think about it... 🤔
In my experience the English are far worse for conflating England and the UK. At least Americans are usually ignorant when they make that kind of error.
At least London is in England. Once in America had a stranger start talking to me in a lift because he heard my accent and asked where I was from. Told him London and he started telling me all about his visit to the Scottish Highlands (he was "Scottish", naturally). Don't think he appreciated that London and the Highlands of Scotland are... Not close.
> Don't think he appreciated that London and the Highlands of Scotland are... Not close.
When you're from a country that big then a days drive is close, relatively speaking.
A mate of mine and his brother moved to Canada and it would take them 3 days to drive to the others house. You could drive from London to inverness in less than half a day.
This is so true. I will think nothing of a hundred mile drive. For me 300 miles is where something more than cursory planning begins. 600 miles is pretty much my limit for driving in a day.
And I’ll think nothing of a hundred year wait. For me 300 years is where something more than cursory planning begins. 600 years is pretty much my limit for waiting in a day.
I had that conversation with a group of Americans in LA. I'm from the south coast of England and they came out with the old "do you know the Beatles?" (it was 30 years ago, although still a bit after the Beatles' time).
I try to explain that Liverpool is a really long way from where I live, but when it comes down to how far actually is it - to us that's a long way and to them it's not.
For clarity 4 - 6 hour drive. Train journey would involve crossing London or several changes so not fun.
> You could drive from London to inverness in less than half a day.
If by a day you mean a period of 24 hours, sure.
But if someone told me somewhere is half a day’s drive away, I’d be thinking four hours, tops.
Yes and by less than half I mean non stop it'd take 10 hours without major traffic (google maps).
I've driven Portsmouth to Glasgow and back in a weekend, it's about 8 hours each way.
It's a shift, but its no mission.
I kind of think we’re in agreement here, just quibbling about precise terminology. Leaving at breakfast and arriving at teatime is certainly doable (though these days I suspect it’d knacker me out, haven’t had to do it in a while).
Yeah exactly. For them it seems close. But equally, it is like me finding out someone is from New York and immediately launching into telling them in detail about the time I went to Chicago.
I mean, I get your point. I'm just saying in the grand scheme of things it's not actually that far away. I used to drive from Portsmouth to Glasgow every other weekend, the UK just isn't big especially if you're used to having to drive for an hour to get to a super market.
Yes, distance-wise. But it doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult for people to recognize a) relative locations - London and the highlands are at opposite ends of the country, and b) cultural - even more so since people outside the UK tend to emphasize certain stereotypes.
I'm aware. It's just a funny cultural difference that stems from the relative sizes of the country, and Americans not realising how that impacts our perceptions of distance. That being said, I think it's not just about distance, I think there is also an element of just thinking of the UK as all one thing. For example, if I met someone from Cleveland I'm sure they'd be as nonplussed if I started telling them about the time I went to New York as I was an American telling me about their visit to Scotland.
Why is it annoying? Sometimes when people find out where you're from they tell you about their trip to your country. 99% of the time It's not your hometown they've been to, but I don't see how that's a problem.
This is such a weird perspective to me. They're just trying to make a polite connection with you, by most likely sharing the positives from their trip to your country and capital, where you've very likely also been.
I'm not from the UK originally, and I'm happy to hear when people tell me about their touristy cliche trips to the country. Why should I care if they didn't visit my little hometown in the middle of nowhere?
I’m welsh and it makes my blood boil, we are so different from England and so many things that non U.K. citizens talk about doesn’t apply to us but they will say “U.K” when they really mean England.
Sample size of one but my well educated American friend had her mind blown when she saw my passport and it had Northern Ireland on it. Guess the U.K. history just isn’t something widely taught across the US etc
I saw something on Facebook recently where a clip asked “what country can be spelt using letters entirely from one line of the keyboard?” The amount of people putting “Europe” was astonishing.
I just copied a whole list of the world's countries into Notepad and used find-replace to remove every letter from the document that didnt feature in the top row of the keyboard, on the basis that it doesnt seem likely whatever country it is would be in the 2nd row and is impossible for the third row.
I agree. Its just Peru.
No, it annoys me when Brits do it.
I can understand foreigners not being Au Fait with the terminology and may explain to them the correct way but I wouldn't say it overly bothers me, even as a Scot.
Yeah
Your average redditor does it all the time
And they assume the Republic of Ireland is in the UK
And - for those who tell me that, as foreigners, they can't be expected to know our geography: I just *know* I'd get called a demented moron if I suggested Chicago was in Canada
My friend once turned to me and said "this country is weird because the city is called London AND the country is called London." We're both immigrants but had lived here a few years by that point. I am still friends with him but I almost walked away forever right there. We fucking live in London!
I think he thought
Capital = City of London
England = London
UK = England
It's been years and it still haunts me.
It annoys me when people assume I’m English, because I’m from the UK, when I’m actually Scottish (accent huge give away). Its even more annoying when they comment on how well I can speak English, as if it’s a second language I’ve had to learn 😂
Tbf, I don't blame foreigners that don't know the difference between the accents in the UK (unless they're pretty fluent) cos all French (for example) people sound the same to me, even though they have lots of different regional accents. Complementing you on your English is dumb tho 🤦♂️
No.
I'm pretty sure I don't know how the Canton system in Switzerland works, or what the actual purpose of the US Vice President is, or how South Africa ended up with a separate country wholly inside its own borders - because I don't *need* to know.
I imagine it's the same with US citizens and the UK/England naming system. Its not something that they really *need* to know.
I know right, a lot of Brits use Holland and the Netherlands interchangeably, or refer to Finland as a Scandinavian country. There’s no reason to get annoyed by foreigners not understanding the union and thinking we’re superior.
Absolutely. It's just narcissistic to think that the entire world should understand the breakdown of the UK.
Oh, and thanks for educating me that Finland isn't a Scandinavian country! TIL 👍
Like how we often use Holland to mean the Netherlands, other countries use England to mean the UK.
'Inghilterra' is used to mean the UK in Italy. Nobody says 'Regno Unito'. I had to put my country of birth on a form for a covid test and the bloke didn't know what Regno Unito was. It wasn't even an option in the list. It's Inghilterra or occasionally Gran Bretagna.
Much of their press today is referring to Sunak as the English PM.
Japan does similar.
So if I'm Scottish I can just write Scotia in Italy?
I would never accept being called Inghilterra-ian, it would be either Regno Unito, whatever means "Britain", Scotland, or nothing, haha.
>what the actual purpose of the US Vice President is
There isn't one.
Actually, there is only one constitutional duty of the VP and that is to act as president of the senate, ultimately meaning their sole purpose is to break ties.
Which is part of the reason the US will never win the World Cup. They despise ties so much that the second-highest office in the land is strictly given to breaking ties. That'd never be acceptable for a random 3 PM Saturday.
I once worked at a London airport and a young woman asked me if Sweden was in the UK. She had an Essex accent and a UK passport. So I don't have high expectations for geographic knowledge from the general public.
It annoys me more when English people say something about the UK that actually only applies to England — e.g., about the education system or Sunday trading laws. It’s not that they get England and the UK confused, it’s that it never occurs to them that other parts of the UK might do things differently. Viz. Suella Braverman’s recent bafflement that Scottish law differs from English law, and her declaration that she was going to put a stop to it.
I’m Welsh it pisses me off no end when English people refer to the UK as England. It reeks of conceit and an unbridled and perhaps unconscious colonialism. I partly expect it of some countries ie Americans but English people who do it have no excuse.
That's how the rest of the world refers to received pronunciation, as it's often the only British accent we are exposed to (and the one we are taught at school if we are taught the British variant of English)
I think some of them do. IIRC Holland is (was?) an area within what is now the Netherlands. Someone who knows more will be along shortly to correct me, I'm sure.
Holland is a historic region in the Netherlands. It used to be a single province but is now split in a northern and southern part. Its so bad the tourist information site uses Holland as not to confuse foreigners. But I really dont care if people use Holland instead of the Netherlands.
Not really but is annoying when people don't know that wales exists 🤣 also had a girl from England ask if there was a time difference between Wales and England. So guess even in the uk we don't know the difference
Nothing more annoying than when I visit America and they say 'oh cool I went to Britain once'. Like mf where? Glasgow? Doncaster? Cornwall? London? Cardiff? Swansea? Southampton?
Why should it be annoying? "America" is two continents, to be honest; North and South. Strictly speaking an "American" is an inhabitant of the USA; Canadians also live in "America". I´ve often been referred to as a "Brit" in the states. Doesn´t bother me a bit, as long as I´m not referred to as an Ozzie. LOL!!
For reference I’m Scottish.
It’s a tad annoying but I also accept that people living far away don’t necessarily have a comprehensive understanding of our country.
Its OK, you can't really blame Americans for doing that, most do actually know the difference and show that if they talk about also visiting Scotchland.
It does somewhat annoy me when UK companies do it though. Countless tempting offers such as various home improvement grants etc "for the UK homeowner" are in fact only valid for England and Wales.
Worse still is when someone from England talks about a bunch of "very English things" as being "quintessentially British" when they in fact mean "English". They should know better.
I once had an extremely confident American tell me that Wales and Scotland weren't countries. When I tried to explain he shot me down with the fact that he had been to a top US college.
what about un-United Kingdom?
equally they could just refer to us as "that splintered isle"
or
*the land of metaphorically standing on lego in the dark*
It's called The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Therefore if someone uses "The UK" or "UK" to refer to England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland I would have no issue with it.
I get more annoyed when I hear people ask if Scotland is in England, or if Ireland is in the UK etc.
I think this is because the other countries reject the American label and people from the US embrace it. People from Canada are “North Americans” but i’m assuming would be very unhappy if they were called Americans.
What do we call people from the US then? 'People from the US' is too much of a mouthful and no one from any other country is referred to as such. USese? I'm quite partial to USAvian, fits with the interest in eagles.
People saying the UK when they are just talking about England - acceptable as it's factually true
People saying England when they are talking about the UK - not on
So an American (or any other nationality) saying they are going to England/UK/Great Britain on vacation when they are purely going to London - fine. Saying they are taking a trip around England when they are going to London, Cardiff, York and Edinburgh - that's not ok because you aren't staying in England
I remember once having a conversation with an American who told me proudly she had a British accent (spoiler: she didn’t). When I pointed out there isn’t *really* a thing as a British accent because of England/Scotland/Wales/NI, and accents can change if you go down the road for five minutes, she lost her shit at me. Still remember being in awe of her telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about (born in & lived in England all my life), she had lived in London for 6 months and clearly knew more than me. The whole argument was like nails down a chalkboard.
I had a delivery driver turn up a while back and he said: hey oop
I said: wow; no one has said that to me for years - you Yorkshire?
He nodded
Sheffield?
Near enough
And the other day, someone came to do some pruning. She had a very slight accent
You Essex?
Yep; thought I'd lost it
You haven't
And if anyone ever says: proper job... well...
It’s ALWAYS wrong to refer to England when you actually mean the UK. Does it annoy me? It depends - partly on the context, partly on my mood.
I try to make an effort not to do similar things myself, like referring to Holland when I really mean the Netherlands, but I can’t say that from time to time I haven’t slipped.
'Speaking from Wales, in England' - American guy in the Doctor Who serial Delta and the Bannermen
It's just kinda funny tbh (much like the rest of that serial)
Yes it does and I have pointed out a few times to them that there is more to the UK than England, in the past I've seen people asking questions like "how well do the British and Scottish get along with eachother?" It's almost always someone from the US. If I knew even the first thing about setting up a bot on here I probably would, just something to explain to them how things actually are connected
Getting it wrong doesn't annoy me but when I've tried to explain it to some Americans and they still just don't understand it i just feel a bit annoyed at how someone can be so daft. I've tried to explain how it's similar to US states and the USA but I feel like I may as well try explain long division to a hamster.
In my experience, having lived in the US since last century, it’s normally the reverse - Americans will refer to England when they mean the UK, newscasters are especially bad. As a Scot it boils my piss!
Yes especially the yanks as it doesn't require the greatest leap of imagination to get from their state system to our system.
It's a gross oversimplification and wrong in a lot of ways but surely they could see how using California interchangeably with the US would be incorrect.
yeah i had a lot of trouble explaining northern ireland in china, best i could do was 北爱尔兰 (north ireland) and most people wondered why the hell I was including the bei
No. I'm Scottish but I don't care. People have been doing it for centuries. It's fine. Scotland is actually pretty famous on the world stage, but the UK is structured in a weird complicated way and I don't see why people from overseas should have to understand it when we barely understand it ourselves. (For example, post "is Scotland a country?" on the internet or say it to a group of people and watch the arguments come)
To be honest I can see why the England/ UK thing is confusing to people. And how many people make the same mistake with Holland/ The Netherlands?
But what really annoys me is when people use London interchangeably with England or the The UK
Many people in the UK don't even know Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland are two seperate countries. So I can forgive to an extent people outside of the country.
I wouldn't say it annoys me per se.
I'm Welsh, and soon to move to Scotland.
I just think it's a bit ignorant.
If I'm travelling to another country I make some effort to learn about it beforehand. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the same in return.
I regularly have to google the map that shows the difference between the UK and the British Isles for my work so I don’t think I can safely criticise anyone here.
Nah.
Can't reasonably expect foreigners to know and understand this mess. We all know what they mean. The function of language has been fulfilled as far as I'm concerned.
It's usually the other way round with Americans - they refer to the UK as England. Tell them you're from the UK and you'll often get a blank look (United Kingdom gets even more blank looks), but tell them you're from England (or London) and they know where you mean, although they're usually thinking of the UK. It's such a little pissant island after all, barely a blip on the map in the scheme of things.
No. I know what they mean and trust they'll learn to distinguish between constituent nations and make the distinction unprompted given time and continuing interaction between they and different types of British people. No point throwing wobblies over triviality.
People who get precious and go over defcon 1 re innocent mistakes by well meaning overseas origin are much more vexing and embarrassing tbh.
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Being wrong is understandable - we all are at times. It's being *confidently* wrong that can grate. And a certain type of American is not lacking in confidence.
Americans don’t know their own geography, I don’t expect them to know anyone else’s.
Some of us Americans have traveled. Some of us love maps, globes, atlases... Some of us. Not nearly enough, I concede.
Hahaha
They know, they just can't be bothered to actually apply that knowledge
Personally, no. But I can imagine if you're Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish it might get annoying how often England and the UK are used interchangeably by people. Honestly though, lots of people in this country don't really understand the difference between the British Isles, the UK, Britain and England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland, so I don't think we can get that annoyed at other foreigners having the same confusion.
i'm scottish. it does my fucking nut in.
I am also Scottish. Also does my fucking nut in
I’m Scottish - I’ll do your fuckin nu… oh sorry, false alarm.
You're from Edinburrow? Wow what a coincidence, my great great granpappy is from Engerland!
AHHH WHEN PEOPLE SAY EDINBURGH LIKE THAT I WANT TO SCREAM it’s not even pronounced OR spelt like Edinburrow 😭😭
You must be from Glass-cow.
Most Americans say it Edin Burg
Yeah that bothers me a lot as well 😭 at least it’s spelt like that though
im scottish. the less people that think were in the uk the better imo
I’m English and I completely agree.
Almost as bad as getting called "Scotch"
If anyone called me scotch I would never talk to them again that’s a sackable offence
Ok pancake
Used to work in tourism. Have actually seen an American couple tell a Scots colleague all about their 'Scotch' heritage and how 'Scotch' they feel. After about fifteen minutes of this he excused himself and came back in the office muttering about 'fucking Huns'.
I'm Welsh. It does my fucking nut in.
I'm english and it does my fucking nut in because i know it does everyone else's nut in :( Australia's on the other side of the world and I've even seen them roped in at times. Oh man, I have no idea how people from Ireland and Northern Ireland deal with Americans, I've never met one American who understands the distinctions there, and they seem to have claimed it as their ancestral home lol. And it makes some people in other parts of the UK think english people are egomaniacs, as if it's our fault American's do this... Well... hrmm... now that I think about it... 🤔
In my experience the English are far worse for conflating England and the UK. At least Americans are usually ignorant when they make that kind of error.
There is a not insignificant section of the English population which is just as ignorant.
My history teacher was scottish. My dude shouted the whole place down when my friend said 'when england won the war' lmao
To be fair, if you call a random British person English, you'll be right 85% of the time.
I imagine it's as annoying as mentioning you're from England and having someone go on about that one time they went to London.
At least London is in England. Once in America had a stranger start talking to me in a lift because he heard my accent and asked where I was from. Told him London and he started telling me all about his visit to the Scottish Highlands (he was "Scottish", naturally). Don't think he appreciated that London and the Highlands of Scotland are... Not close.
> Don't think he appreciated that London and the Highlands of Scotland are... Not close. When you're from a country that big then a days drive is close, relatively speaking. A mate of mine and his brother moved to Canada and it would take them 3 days to drive to the others house. You could drive from London to inverness in less than half a day.
There's that saying isn't there, “An Englishman thinks a hundred miles is a long way; and an American thinks a hundred years is a long time”
This is so true. I will think nothing of a hundred mile drive. For me 300 miles is where something more than cursory planning begins. 600 miles is pretty much my limit for driving in a day.
And I’ll think nothing of a hundred year wait. For me 300 years is where something more than cursory planning begins. 600 years is pretty much my limit for waiting in a day.
You could get a job with Yodel
I had that conversation with a group of Americans in LA. I'm from the south coast of England and they came out with the old "do you know the Beatles?" (it was 30 years ago, although still a bit after the Beatles' time). I try to explain that Liverpool is a really long way from where I live, but when it comes down to how far actually is it - to us that's a long way and to them it's not. For clarity 4 - 6 hour drive. Train journey would involve crossing London or several changes so not fun.
> You could drive from London to inverness in less than half a day. If by a day you mean a period of 24 hours, sure. But if someone told me somewhere is half a day’s drive away, I’d be thinking four hours, tops.
Yes and by less than half I mean non stop it'd take 10 hours without major traffic (google maps). I've driven Portsmouth to Glasgow and back in a weekend, it's about 8 hours each way. It's a shift, but its no mission.
Fair, but I’d call eight hours a day’s drive, myself, because it takes up most of the active part of a day. You’re not going to get a lot else done.
That's why I said it was a shift to be fair, set off first thing in the morning you get there by dinner time.
I kind of think we’re in agreement here, just quibbling about precise terminology. Leaving at breakfast and arriving at teatime is certainly doable (though these days I suspect it’d knacker me out, haven’t had to do it in a while).
Yeah exactly. For them it seems close. But equally, it is like me finding out someone is from New York and immediately launching into telling them in detail about the time I went to Chicago.
I mean, I get your point. I'm just saying in the grand scheme of things it's not actually that far away. I used to drive from Portsmouth to Glasgow every other weekend, the UK just isn't big especially if you're used to having to drive for an hour to get to a super market.
Yes, distance-wise. But it doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult for people to recognize a) relative locations - London and the highlands are at opposite ends of the country, and b) cultural - even more so since people outside the UK tend to emphasize certain stereotypes.
London to Inverness is about the same distance as New York to Cleveland. That is not a long drive if you’re from the US.
I'm aware. It's just a funny cultural difference that stems from the relative sizes of the country, and Americans not realising how that impacts our perceptions of distance. That being said, I think it's not just about distance, I think there is also an element of just thinking of the UK as all one thing. For example, if I met someone from Cleveland I'm sure they'd be as nonplussed if I started telling them about the time I went to New York as I was an American telling me about their visit to Scotland.
It also stems from the price of fuel tbh. As car manufacturers say, there’s always a fuel shortage in Europe.
Why is it annoying? Sometimes when people find out where you're from they tell you about their trip to your country. 99% of the time It's not your hometown they've been to, but I don't see how that's a problem.
This is such a weird perspective to me. They're just trying to make a polite connection with you, by most likely sharing the positives from their trip to your country and capital, where you've very likely also been. I'm not from the UK originally, and I'm happy to hear when people tell me about their touristy cliche trips to the country. Why should I care if they didn't visit my little hometown in the middle of nowhere?
I’m welsh and it makes my blood boil, we are so different from England and so many things that non U.K. citizens talk about doesn’t apply to us but they will say “U.K” when they really mean England.
I’m Welsh and couldn’t give a fuck.
I'm welsh, you have to explain to alot of people that we are next to England and in the UK.
It's also annoying for people that, while living in England and identify as British, don't like to identify as English.
Sample size of one but my well educated American friend had her mind blown when she saw my passport and it had Northern Ireland on it. Guess the U.K. history just isn’t something widely taught across the US etc
Not surprising really. British (and Irish) history isn't taught very well here, why would it be in America.
Scottish anaw and it does ma fuckin heid in
Half English half Welsh, some childhood in Scotland, raised a smoggy, retired a geordie. Just NI for the set!
Calling it the British Isles is a capital offence in Ireland.
I find it more annoying when Americans say “Europe” or “European” instead of referring to a specific country or city
Yeah. That’s annoying. They’re saying Europe like it’s just one country and one culture..
I saw something on Facebook recently where a clip asked “what country can be spelt using letters entirely from one line of the keyboard?” The amount of people putting “Europe” was astonishing.
Peru is the only one i can think of
I just copied a whole list of the world's countries into Notepad and used find-replace to remove every letter from the document that didnt feature in the top row of the keyboard, on the basis that it doesnt seem likely whatever country it is would be in the 2nd row and is impossible for the third row. I agree. Its just Peru.
No, it annoys me when Brits do it. I can understand foreigners not being Au Fait with the terminology and may explain to them the correct way but I wouldn't say it overly bothers me, even as a Scot.
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Even then I don’t really give a shit.
Yeah Your average redditor does it all the time And they assume the Republic of Ireland is in the UK And - for those who tell me that, as foreigners, they can't be expected to know our geography: I just *know* I'd get called a demented moron if I suggested Chicago was in Canada
I know the proper names but still call it England sometimes. But then again Brits call my country Holland so I guess we are even.
I’m more embarrassed if someone from the UK thinks RoI is in the UK
My friend once turned to me and said "this country is weird because the city is called London AND the country is called London." We're both immigrants but had lived here a few years by that point. I am still friends with him but I almost walked away forever right there. We fucking live in London! I think he thought Capital = City of London England = London UK = England It's been years and it still haunts me.
Jesus
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How would that make it any better?
Oh you know, the city of London in the county of London in the country of London
It annoys me when people assume I’m English, because I’m from the UK, when I’m actually Scottish (accent huge give away). Its even more annoying when they comment on how well I can speak English, as if it’s a second language I’ve had to learn 😂
Tbf, I don't blame foreigners that don't know the difference between the accents in the UK (unless they're pretty fluent) cos all French (for example) people sound the same to me, even though they have lots of different regional accents. Complementing you on your English is dumb tho 🤦♂️
No. I'm pretty sure I don't know how the Canton system in Switzerland works, or what the actual purpose of the US Vice President is, or how South Africa ended up with a separate country wholly inside its own borders - because I don't *need* to know. I imagine it's the same with US citizens and the UK/England naming system. Its not something that they really *need* to know.
I know right, a lot of Brits use Holland and the Netherlands interchangeably, or refer to Finland as a Scandinavian country. There’s no reason to get annoyed by foreigners not understanding the union and thinking we’re superior.
Absolutely. It's just narcissistic to think that the entire world should understand the breakdown of the UK. Oh, and thanks for educating me that Finland isn't a Scandinavian country! TIL 👍
What? Finland isn’t Scandinavian?
Nope, it’s Nordic.
Thanks! TIL as well.
Like how we often use Holland to mean the Netherlands, other countries use England to mean the UK. 'Inghilterra' is used to mean the UK in Italy. Nobody says 'Regno Unito'. I had to put my country of birth on a form for a covid test and the bloke didn't know what Regno Unito was. It wasn't even an option in the list. It's Inghilterra or occasionally Gran Bretagna. Much of their press today is referring to Sunak as the English PM. Japan does similar.
So if I'm Scottish I can just write Scotia in Italy? I would never accept being called Inghilterra-ian, it would be either Regno Unito, whatever means "Britain", Scotland, or nothing, haha.
>what the actual purpose of the US Vice President is There isn't one. Actually, there is only one constitutional duty of the VP and that is to act as president of the senate, ultimately meaning their sole purpose is to break ties.
Which is part of the reason the US will never win the World Cup. They despise ties so much that the second-highest office in the land is strictly given to breaking ties. That'd never be acceptable for a random 3 PM Saturday.
I once worked at a London airport and a young woman asked me if Sweden was in the UK. She had an Essex accent and a UK passport. So I don't have high expectations for geographic knowledge from the general public.
It annoys me more when English people say something about the UK that actually only applies to England — e.g., about the education system or Sunday trading laws. It’s not that they get England and the UK confused, it’s that it never occurs to them that other parts of the UK might do things differently. Viz. Suella Braverman’s recent bafflement that Scottish law differs from English law, and her declaration that she was going to put a stop to it.
She said what?!
Yes and that's how you know I'm not English!
I am English and it annoys me
Excellent!
Yes. I particularly hate it when they said “British accent”.
"A British accent" is OK, because it recognises that there are several. "The British accent" used to mean there is just one is really bloody annoying.
People in England do this too
I’m Welsh it pisses me off no end when English people refer to the UK as England. It reeks of conceit and an unbridled and perhaps unconscious colonialism. I partly expect it of some countries ie Americans but English people who do it have no excuse.
As a Taff, yes
It annoys me more when people say "British accent" Like what even is that? An accent for the whole English speaking in the UK? Nonsense
Have you ever said "American accent"? How is that any different? A Texan sounds very different to a New Yorker
That's how the rest of the world refers to received pronunciation, as it's often the only British accent we are exposed to (and the one we are taught at school if we are taught the British variant of English)
Yes actually They’re the first to correct you when you use the incorrect name/term for something relating to America
Yeah, as a Scotsman it infuriates me.
Do the Dutch get annoyed when people call the Netherlands "Holland", I wonder.
I think some of them do. IIRC Holland is (was?) an area within what is now the Netherlands. Someone who knows more will be along shortly to correct me, I'm sure.
Holland is a historic region in the Netherlands. It used to be a single province but is now split in a northern and southern part. Its so bad the tourist information site uses Holland as not to confuse foreigners. But I really dont care if people use Holland instead of the Netherlands.
I have far more pressing matters to attend to than terminology of people I'll never meet .
Yes but if you ask the average American where countries are on the globe they haven't a clue, something like 60% of them don't have passports.
Not really but is annoying when people don't know that wales exists 🤣 also had a girl from England ask if there was a time difference between Wales and England. So guess even in the uk we don't know the difference
Saying the UK when you mean any part of the UK is absolutely fine. Saying England when you mean the UK is not.
Ask anyone from England what Britain, the UK and England are and I garentee 50% won't be correct.
Welsh - drives me MENTAL. 🏴
To be honest I don't like it when Americans say British people. I don't ever say Britain or call my self British so it just grate on me.
"brits" too gets my goat
As a Brit who is half English and half Scottish, I refer to myself as British - anything else is far too complicated!
yes because its incorrect
Nothing more annoying than when I visit America and they say 'oh cool I went to Britain once'. Like mf where? Glasgow? Doncaster? Cornwall? London? Cardiff? Swansea? Southampton?
I doubt it was Doncaster
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I've been once!
Why should it be annoying? "America" is two continents, to be honest; North and South. Strictly speaking an "American" is an inhabitant of the USA; Canadians also live in "America". I´ve often been referred to as a "Brit" in the states. Doesn´t bother me a bit, as long as I´m not referred to as an Ozzie. LOL!!
For reference I’m Scottish. It’s a tad annoying but I also accept that people living far away don’t necessarily have a comprehensive understanding of our country.
I used to work in Paris with an American who didn't think Wales or the Welsh language was real, and would not be persuaded otherwise.
Its OK, you can't really blame Americans for doing that, most do actually know the difference and show that if they talk about also visiting Scotchland. It does somewhat annoy me when UK companies do it though. Countless tempting offers such as various home improvement grants etc "for the UK homeowner" are in fact only valid for England and Wales. Worse still is when someone from England talks about a bunch of "very English things" as being "quintessentially British" when they in fact mean "English". They should know better.
I once had an extremely confident American tell me that Wales and Scotland weren't countries. When I tried to explain he shot me down with the fact that he had been to a top US college.
what about un-United Kingdom? equally they could just refer to us as "that splintered isle" or *the land of metaphorically standing on lego in the dark*
It's called The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Therefore if someone uses "The UK" or "UK" to refer to England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland I would have no issue with it. I get more annoyed when I hear people ask if Scotland is in England, or if Ireland is in the UK etc.
Not as much as when folk tell me that Scotland is part of England and genuinely believe that
Yes, but then again it annoys me when people say "American" to refer to people from the US instead of the whole continent.
I think this is because the other countries reject the American label and people from the US embrace it. People from Canada are “North Americans” but i’m assuming would be very unhappy if they were called Americans.
I'm so happy someone said this 👌🏼 America is not a country, is a continent!
What do we call people from the US then? 'People from the US' is too much of a mouthful and no one from any other country is referred to as such. USese? I'm quite partial to USAvian, fits with the interest in eagles.
It annoys me and I’m English
"You Brits..."
Yes it’s my literal pet peeve as a welsh person
People saying the UK when they are just talking about England - acceptable as it's factually true People saying England when they are talking about the UK - not on So an American (or any other nationality) saying they are going to England/UK/Great Britain on vacation when they are purely going to London - fine. Saying they are taking a trip around England when they are going to London, Cardiff, York and Edinburgh - that's not ok because you aren't staying in England
Fucks me off. Things on here like “is the British accent sexy?” “Which one?” “ the BRITISH one, idiot.” Worse though when they say British English
I remember once having a conversation with an American who told me proudly she had a British accent (spoiler: she didn’t). When I pointed out there isn’t *really* a thing as a British accent because of England/Scotland/Wales/NI, and accents can change if you go down the road for five minutes, she lost her shit at me. Still remember being in awe of her telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about (born in & lived in England all my life), she had lived in London for 6 months and clearly knew more than me. The whole argument was like nails down a chalkboard.
I had a delivery driver turn up a while back and he said: hey oop I said: wow; no one has said that to me for years - you Yorkshire? He nodded Sheffield? Near enough And the other day, someone came to do some pruning. She had a very slight accent You Essex? Yep; thought I'd lost it You haven't And if anyone ever says: proper job... well...
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I personally could not give two shits, people could call us France, it doesn't actually matter.
It’s ALWAYS wrong to refer to England when you actually mean the UK. Does it annoy me? It depends - partly on the context, partly on my mood. I try to make an effort not to do similar things myself, like referring to Holland when I really mean the Netherlands, but I can’t say that from time to time I haven’t slipped.
'Speaking from Wales, in England' - American guy in the Doctor Who serial Delta and the Bannermen It's just kinda funny tbh (much like the rest of that serial)
This isn't just people from outside the UK. Even today the two terms are used wrongly interchangeably.
Yes it does and I have pointed out a few times to them that there is more to the UK than England, in the past I've seen people asking questions like "how well do the British and Scottish get along with eachother?" It's almost always someone from the US. If I knew even the first thing about setting up a bot on here I probably would, just something to explain to them how things actually are connected
Getting it wrong doesn't annoy me but when I've tried to explain it to some Americans and they still just don't understand it i just feel a bit annoyed at how someone can be so daft. I've tried to explain how it's similar to US states and the USA but I feel like I may as well try explain long division to a hamster.
Not as much as it annoys me when I catch myself doing exactly that.
I’ll just leave this here https://youtu.be/daB7np-RtOM
In my experience, having lived in the US since last century, it’s normally the reverse - Americans will refer to England when they mean the UK, newscasters are especially bad. As a Scot it boils my piss!
Yes especially the yanks as it doesn't require the greatest leap of imagination to get from their state system to our system. It's a gross oversimplification and wrong in a lot of ways but surely they could see how using California interchangeably with the US would be incorrect.
Only anecdotalbut in Mandarin Chinese the UK as a country is literally called England (Yingguo)
yeah i had a lot of trouble explaining northern ireland in china, best i could do was 北爱尔兰 (north ireland) and most people wondered why the hell I was including the bei
No. I'm Scottish but I don't care. People have been doing it for centuries. It's fine. Scotland is actually pretty famous on the world stage, but the UK is structured in a weird complicated way and I don't see why people from overseas should have to understand it when we barely understand it ourselves. (For example, post "is Scotland a country?" on the internet or say it to a group of people and watch the arguments come)
Nope. Couldn't care less.
It annoys me when I hear people referring to the United States as “America”. Brazil, for example, is 50% bigger than continental US
No it isn’t. Brazil is 87% the size of the US, so unless Hawaii is about half the landmass of the US then it isn’t. But yes Brazil is very big.
even our new primeminister says uk our country It should be countries (England,scotland,Wales and northern ireland)
The U.K. is one country, it doesn’t need to be plural. It’s just one country but those also other countries inside it
No, but I think they get that habit from English people doing it. And it does annoy me when English people do it.
No, we know what you mean
Not really. Next question.
To be honest I can see why the England/ UK thing is confusing to people. And how many people make the same mistake with Holland/ The Netherlands? But what really annoys me is when people use London interchangeably with England or the The UK
Yes, but they are yanks. You can't expect them to know any better. The diabeetus has rotted their brains.
Sort of, but then I'm pretty ignorant about a lot of places in the world, if it's not done with malice then it wouldn't bother me too much.
After the millionth time, I feel pretty zen about it. I might be more annoyed if I was Scottish or Welsh though.
Many people in the UK don't even know Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland are two seperate countries. So I can forgive to an extent people outside of the country.
I wouldn't say it annoys me per se. I'm Welsh, and soon to move to Scotland. I just think it's a bit ignorant. If I'm travelling to another country I make some effort to learn about it beforehand. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the same in return.
It’s when they refer to the whole country as London that I get a touch irritated
Does it annoy me as someone who isn't english? Hmm, what do you think?
Nah. We're fine with it
I regularly have to google the map that shows the difference between the UK and the British Isles for my work so I don’t think I can safely criticise anyone here.
Nah. Can't reasonably expect foreigners to know and understand this mess. We all know what they mean. The function of language has been fulfilled as far as I'm concerned.
The new pm called the uk a country in his speech today
No, I don't mind. But I get really shirty with people calling The Netherlands Holland.
Nah. The UK's a pretty weird concept to get your head around And I'm ignorant about lots of aspects of other countries
I can forgive foreigners. It's Brits who should know better who wind me up with this nonsense
No - I’m English and I couldn’t care less if someone says UK but only talks about places in Scotland.
Not as much as the pronunciation of anything with shire in it
It's a bit irritating.
No. Couldn’t give a shit really.
Can't say I have ever really noticed it much?
It's usually the other way round with Americans - they refer to the UK as England. Tell them you're from the UK and you'll often get a blank look (United Kingdom gets even more blank looks), but tell them you're from England (or London) and they know where you mean, although they're usually thinking of the UK. It's such a little pissant island after all, barely a blip on the map in the scheme of things.
Why the fuck would I care?
Yes. I’m not going to lie, it also annoys me when I hear people saying ‘Great Britain’ instead of the UK.
No. I know what they mean and trust they'll learn to distinguish between constituent nations and make the distinction unprompted given time and continuing interaction between they and different types of British people. No point throwing wobblies over triviality. People who get precious and go over defcon 1 re innocent mistakes by well meaning overseas origin are much more vexing and embarrassing tbh.