48 Countries, Languages and Nationalities (Länder, Sprachen, Nationalitäten)

Länder, Sprachen, Nationalitäten

In English, we use the same word to refer to someone’s nationality and to where something was made or what country it is typical to:

• E.g. I am Canadian and I drink Canadian beer.

In German, for each country, there is a special word referring to nationality (there is a male and a female form!) and a different word to talk about things that were made in that country or are typical to it:

• E.g. Ich bin Deutsche und ich trinke deutsches Bier. = I am German (female) and I drink German beer.

The words referring to things made in a country are adjectives and are essentially the same as the word for language of the country (middle column) with one difference – adjectives are never capitalized in German, even if they are formed from country names:

• E.g. deutsches Bier, italienische Pizza, japanische Sushi, russischer Wodka, schweizer Schokolade
• but: ’Deutscher’ (a German male) ‘Italienerin’ (an Italian female), Japaner (a Japanese male) etc.

Normally, you would not use an article before nationalities (or professions):

• E.g. Er ist Deutscher / Italiener / Russe / Amerikaner .

Please note that it is incorrect to say ‘Ich bin kanadisch’ because ‘kanadisch’ is an adjective and can refer to things made in Canada only or to things typical to Canada. It is correct to say ‘ich bin Kanadier’ if you are male and ‘ich bin Kanadierin’ if you are female. Also, you must pay attention to the gender of the nationality and use the correct form. E.g. if you are a Canadian male but say ‘Ich bin Kanadierin’ you would say that you are a Canadian female. 🙂

FYI, there are a few exercises for nationalities in Part 1: Front Matter, Section 10-1.