British?

Ni hao! Can anyone tell me how to say 'I'm British'? Xiexie. Sally

我是英国的（人） wǒ shì yīng guó de (rén)

err why the "de"? And Ying Guo means English not British? (and NO it's not the same!) Howard

de to show that there is a noun being dropped off (人) England and Britain aren't the same?

England is a unique Country Within the British Isles; So is there a Chinese phrase that can adequately describe my country of birth and not political boundary? (I am actually 50% Welsh, born in England to English mother and Welsh father) Howard

In English maybe this is a usage difference? In US English when we say England and Britain both are only referring to Great Britain. Chinese phrase 英国 refers to just Great Britain. In my two dictionaries I use they both gave a translation of the British Isles as a whole: http://www.nciku.com/search/en/detail/British%20Isles/1701579 http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=British+Isles

Thanks for that but this is a BIG problem when you travel and try to say you are Englsh. Also Great Britain excludes Northern Ireland who are also British (That is the United Kingdom of GB and NI) I agree it is very confusing. What I really want to say (I think) is that I am "Born and Bred" in England as opposed to my Nationality which of course is British. Are Hawaiian people called American first then Hawaiian? just a note: please don't think I am being nationalistic or anything, just very curious how other people perceive "people from our isles", I usually declare my self as "European" anyway whilst I live in Asia, then give more detail as people ask so you can see why I would like to say English or sometimes Mancunian hahaha. Howard

Thanks guys! :)

Actually can I just check... Am I ok to say: Wo shi ying guo ren or Wo shi ying guo de??? Am still totally new to this and only 5 months until I move to Beijing! Thanks again

Sally: Yes. de or no de both of yours are ok

Thanks Oggiedoggy :)

What will you be doing in Beijing? Teaching? My girlfriend and I are both currently studying Chinese at Tsinghua University in Beijing and I must say that the city is very interesting! Be sure to visit the outdoor market on Wangfujing street, the one with all the weird food like scorpions and spiders. My roommate has been here for a while and says that scorpion is actually pretty good, but spider is pretty bad (chewy... -_- ) However, walking through the city during rush hour you can taste the air..

Ah yes, but what about the Bird Markets. Once a month...they are something else!!!!

I am sorry oggiedoggie, but I will have to say you made a slight mistake :) But good job for your translation. The correct translation should be: 我是英国(的)人 wǒ shì yīng guó (de) rén Where the word 的 (de) can be omitted. So, what's the difference between: 1. 我是英国的人, and 2. 我是英国人 ? In the first case (with '的'), the sentence can be literally translated into: "I am Britian's people." which means "I am a people of Britain" or "I am a citizen of Britain". In the second case (without '的') the sentence becomes: "I am British." 英国的人 = Britain's citizen 英国人 = British 英国 = Britain Oggiedoggie's translation is slightly wrong as he made '人' omit-able, as opposed to '的') In that case, if '的' was omitted, i.e. 我是英国的, the translation then becomes "I belonged to Britain". The meaning of 'belonged' here is more like YOU ARE A PROPERTY OF BRITAIN, which is weird. In English, you need to change the country name a little to make it a nationality. For example, Britain (country) -> British (nationality); China (country) -> Chinese (nationality). In Chinese however, you can simply add a '人' to the country name to make it a nationality! For example: 英国 = Britain 英国人 = British 中国 = China 中国人 = Chinese 马来西亚 = Malaysia 马来西亚人 = Malaysian Get the idea? :D Hope I helped!

I don't think what I said is wrong. It is very common to hear people say 男的 for 'male'. "A person belonging to male" is translated exactly like you translated the sentence above. To me, this is also weird English. I really don't think it matters if the 的 is there or not because in sentences with multiple attributive levels, one of the 的 may get deleted anyway. Too many 的 make a sentence sound ugly.

I'm sorry. Let's put the 男的 aside first, shall we? First, please let me clear our misunderstanding: You're right about this sentence: I really don't think it matters if the 的 is there or not because in sentences with multiple attributive levels, one of the 的 may get deleted anyway. Too many 的 make a sentence sound ugly. But in your first post, you typed this: 我是英国的（人） I was merely saying that this is more reasonable: 我是英国（的）人 ********************************************** Going back to "男的", the "的" applied here has different usage. In this "男的" case, the "的" acts as a modifying particle, as opposed to having the meaning of "belonging to". For more info about modifying particles: http://members.rocketlanguages.com/your-community/chinese-vocab/modifying-particles-ba-de-le-etc And about this: "A person belonging to male" is translated exactly like you translated the sentence above. To me, this is also weird English. and this: 我是英国的, the translation then becomes "I belonged to Britain". The meaning of 'belonged' here is more like YOU ARE A PROPERTY OF BRITAIN, which is weird. OK. Perhaps I made a mistake. Perhaps not. The 的 in 我是英国的 is more to "belong" in normal usage. However, if you insist on making it a modifying particle, it then means: "I am Britain" Of course, these are my views as a native Chinese speaker. If you really want to make sure on this one (you should - the more you know, the more self-confident you'll get) you can of course ask the specialist Lin Ping 老师 on this one. :) 请多多指教！

The 的 in 我是英国的 is more to "belong" in normal usage. However, if you insist on making it a modifying particle, it then means: "I am Britain" >"I am British" is perfectly acceptable English. When a person is from X country, they in a sense DO belong to X country. I am almost of the belief that both sorts of DE you are referring to play the same role, as possessive words are still just describing the noun that follows. 我的一条狗 My dog? or A dog of mine? I realize that without the rest of the sentence you can't tell definite vs indefinite noun, and perhaps it is the case that it depends on each seperate DE case. 你具备本族语言领悟力, 因此我不能批判你对此方面的看法, 而且你的本族语才能本来远比我高! 但是我对一方有好奇, 关于将"英国"译成英语, 你认为是指出哪一国家? No disrespect to your English intended with the above Chinese, actually it reads like you grew up in Hong Kong?

I pretty much give up :) I myself is getting confused X_X And about my English, I KNOW MY ENGLISH SUCKS! :) Tenses are used all wrongly, sentences are all jargon-ed up >.< (In my class, my English is always failing O_O anyway...) And did you type this out yourself? 你具备本族语言领悟力, 因此我不能批判你对此方面的看法, 而且你的本族语才能本来远比我高! 但是我对一方有好奇, 关于将"英国"译成英语, 你认为是指出哪一国家? :D It's pretty amusing actually, because this is a "different" type of Chinese writings - Traditional Chinese. I noticed that Rocket Chinese only offers Simplified Chinese :) But I kinda don't understand this! Sorry! 但是我对一方有好奇, 关于将"英国"译成英语, 你认为是指出哪一国家? (But I curious about one thing, about translating "Britain" as "English", which country do you think it's referring?) ._.? Sorry! X_X

Regarding British and English. British is my nationality but English is my home country! Korea used to make the mistake of british=english until they staged the world cup then they were embrassed as Britain doesn't have a football team! so they used the term "Engerlanduh". So what will happen when China stages world cup, we will then find out a real word for england? Regarding use of simplified. NO we use standard Chinese. other countries use traditional. Don't say we use simplified which although correct it implies the lessons are inferior. NO Mainland Chinese uses that method. Go there and see for yourself. Please people don't try to be clever and use something thats no relevant unless you want to NOT learn what we use in Mainland. (i.e. Taiwan who dont even have a standard method for representing chinese characters the same roman characrters for example, road in Taipei has 3 different english spellings within 3km (zhong shan bei lou) Another problem with Chinesee lessons (like Rocket and others, is that they try to sexy - up the English using idioms which are lost on non (American) speakers. I have said this several times Lisa translates correctly then ruins it all by using American idioms to be "clever'. I am 58 years old and these idiomatic speach sounds stupid. So Rocket please be careful! We all don't speak American English. ( by the way Lisa do you know that there is a letter "t" in English? she says "lidderally so many times I could scream! howard

"但是我对一方有好奇, 关于将"英国"译成英语, 你认为是指出哪一国家?" 不好意思~ 我应当修改一下成如下: 但是我对一方有好奇,关于将中文名词"英国"翻译成相同英文名词之一,你自己会用哪一名词以叫做? 即看一下Howard发帖的楼上一个帖子 ~ 那种问题 I was just wondering what a native speakers insight into Howard's comments for those following the conversation.

是, 亲手打的! I like to use my written syle Chinese. :D Your English doesn't suck! I think it flows well.

O_O Thank you Howard for clarifying that. Please take note that in China, however, some people just shot out all the idioms they know. Chinese uses idioms or the "成语" quite often in their everyday life in China (at least I think so) so it's always best to get prepared for it. And yes, I know it's a pain, but Chinese is one of the languages that contain a lot of idioms. Best of luck. And Oggiedoggy, I'm impressed at your level of Chinese! :D I see that Rocket Chinese has done a good job and you're cruising well :P Answer to your question: Sorry, I'm still a little bit unclear of your question, but if you're asking how I would translate the Chinese word "英国" into a English noun, I would like to say my answer is: "Britain"? :D Anyway, my school holiday has ended and I won't be active around here (I think so) so happy Chinese Learning! And thanks for Oggiedoggie for saying my English flows well. Regards.

This won't teach you the proper Chinese term, but is very informative for those like me whom didn't know the proper terms even in English for the various countries in the British Isles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_705467 Howard will be proud :D

OHHH, so long to read... Well done everyone! SAY: 我是英国人。TRADITION, simly.

Pedantic AND puerile....what a load of codswallop. OK translate that in Chinese, American and English.....If the words spoken are understood by the recipient who has that particular language as a first language, does it matter? Unless of course one wants to impress. BH

I agree with barryh. What does it matter?