Kenny同志 Posted December 17, 2010 at 11:54 AM Report Share Posted December 17, 2010 at 11:54 AM I am an American. I am American. I am a Chinese. I am Chinese. Which are correct? I am quite confused. I once saw someone get corrected (can’t recall whether by a native speaker or not) when he said “I am a Chinese”, but this seems inconsistent with the OP’s statement “ I am an American”. So could somebody shed some light on this? Thank you very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted December 17, 2010 at 12:04 PM Report Share Posted December 17, 2010 at 12:04 PM moved from this thread to avoid derailing the other discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted December 17, 2010 at 12:10 PM Report Share Posted December 17, 2010 at 12:10 PM I am American I am an American I am Chinese are all correct. If you say: I am a Chinese it feels like the sentence is incomplete (you are a Chinese what?), you would need to say something like: I am a Chinese person. Typically nationalities that end in '-an' can be used as a noun to mean a person of that nationality (as well as an adjective), e.g. Australian, Canadian, American, German etc. Therefore you can say things like I am an Australian, or I am an American. Other nationalities tend to only act as an adjective, e.g. Chinese, Japanese, English, Swedish etc. So sentences like 'I am an English' or 'I am a Chinese' sound incomplete because they have no noun. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymoose Posted December 17, 2010 at 12:47 PM Report Share Posted December 17, 2010 at 12:47 PM 我同意imron的分析。 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Johnston Posted December 17, 2010 at 01:20 PM Report Share Posted December 17, 2010 at 01:20 PM It's never wrong to use the adjective form, so if you're uncertain just drop the article. Personally, I prefer the adjective form anyway, because my nationality is just one small part of me. Incidentally, in colloquial English, "a Chinese" is short for "a Chinese meal/take-away". e.g. "We're having a Chinese tonight." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creamyhorror Posted December 17, 2010 at 07:09 PM Report Share Posted December 17, 2010 at 07:09 PM Also agree with imron. You'll find this link helpful, if possibly over-informative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym See the 'Irregular forms' section: There are many irregular demonyms for recently formed entities, such as those in the New World. There are other demonyms which are borrowed from the native or another language.... In some of the latter cases the noun is formed by adding -man or -woman, for example English/Englishman/Englishwoman; Irish/Irishman/Irishwoman; Chinese/Chinese man/Chinese woman (versus the archaic or derogatory terms Chinaman/Chinawoman, which are not the preferred nomenclature). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny同志 Posted December 18, 2010 at 07:43 AM Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2010 at 07:43 AM Thanks everybody. Sorry for posting under the wrong thread. Imron notified me just now that he had removed my post to another forum. I am delighted when I open the thread that you guys have already settled the question for me. Thanks again. Thanks especially go to Imron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aristotle1990 Posted December 18, 2010 at 01:30 PM Report Share Posted December 18, 2010 at 01:30 PM "Chinese" used to mean "Chinese person" was in fact quite common in earlier varieties of English (see, e.g., this and this), but this usage is no longer current. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realmayo Posted December 19, 2010 at 05:07 AM Report Share Posted December 19, 2010 at 05:07 AM Bear in mind "the Chinese" = Chinese people. Also, while "he's an American" sounds normal and I guess is often used, do you guys think "he's a German" sounds a bit odd? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creamyhorror Posted December 19, 2010 at 06:23 AM Report Share Posted December 19, 2010 at 06:23 AM do you guys think "he's a German" sounds a bit odd? At first blush, slightly, but then I thought about "they are Germans" and that seems fine (as does "he's an Italian"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted December 19, 2010 at 10:50 AM Report Share Posted December 19, 2010 at 10:50 AM Imron's explanation looks excellent, I had never thought about it but would also never describe myself as 'I am a Dutch', for the same reason as 'I am a Chinese' doesn't work. 'I am a German' doesn't sound quite right, but also not quite wrong. It does seem to sound like referring to the German(ic) tribe more than to the country of Germany, though, but I might be mistaken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooironic Posted December 19, 2010 at 01:56 PM Report Share Posted December 19, 2010 at 01:56 PM Actually "a Chinese" has been attested for a long time, but in modern usage English speakers tend to veer away from using attributes as total-noun-descriptors, e.g. "He's gay" is fine but "He's a gay" is considered offensive, same with "He's black" / "He's a black". 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muirm Posted September 29, 2011 at 10:35 AM Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 at 10:35 AM Am I the only one who thinks using "Chinese" as a noun (e.g. "I am a Chinese") sounds weird? I know it is technically correct, but my ears really prefer "I am Chinese" and "I know a lot of Chinese people" to the noun-form. Maybe it's just a usage I haven't been exposed to a lot so I'm not used to it. Edit: This is from my duplicate thread that got merged into this one, so that's why it seems to ignore the previous posts in this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fanglu Posted September 29, 2011 at 10:38 AM Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 at 10:38 AM It sounds old-fashioned to my ears. Same with Japanese, Siamese etc. I guess it's the -ese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestTexas Posted September 29, 2011 at 11:23 AM Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 at 11:23 AM I am Chinese is what's normally said, you are right "I am a Chinese" is grammatically correct but sounds weird. Maybe because "I am Chinese" means basically the same thing and is shorter, so that's what we always say Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fanglu Posted September 29, 2011 at 11:39 AM Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 at 11:39 AM But it being shorter doesn't explain why "I am an American" or "I am a Canadian" is ok but not "I am a Chinese". I still think it's the -ese Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestTexas Posted September 29, 2011 at 12:15 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 at 12:15 PM I think you are right, -ese just sounds more like an adjective, whereas -an sounds like a noun or an adjective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted September 29, 2011 at 12:33 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 at 12:33 PM Hello, I was born in Canada, but now live in England. I would NEVER say I am a Canadian or I am an English. It may be gramatically correct but sounds terribly pompus. I have never heard this used these days. It is very old fashioned and comes from a time when some people were treated as posessions. Therefore they were a "thing" so the use of "he is a Chinese" sounds derogetory to my ears. I wouldn't use it for this reason alone. I would stick to the more friendly "I am .........." Shelley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creamyhorror Posted September 29, 2011 at 12:42 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 at 12:42 PM I didn't even know "a Chinese" was a valid way to refer to a single Chinese person. To me, Chinese can be used as a group noun and as an adjective, but not for a single person. I don't think I've seen the single-person usage in any modern media. There's Hungarian, Brazilian, Indonesian, Englishman, Welshman - and then there's Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Lebanese. Matter of language rules or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted September 29, 2011 at 01:36 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2011 at 01:36 PM This has actually been discussed before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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