Canterbury, England

Status
Not open for further replies.

aysaa

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
Hi,

-His father worked in Canterbury, England.

-His father worked in England, Canterbury.

I can't figure out which one is OK. Can you tell me which one is more natural to you as a native person?

Thanks.
 

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Normally, the city is given before the country/state. London, England. Paris, France. Houston, Texas.
 

konungursvia

VIP Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2009
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
Yes, and in general, in European languages, it goes from small to large, the opposite of East Asian languages, which go from largest to smallest (dates, addresses, family names, place names, etc.)
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
Same in BrE.
 

Grumpy

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Here's me sticking my neck out again...
In BrE, we wouldn't normally say "Canterbury, England", any more than we would say "London, England" or "Glasgow, Scotland". We would simply say "Canterbury", and assume that everyone knows that we are referring to the place in England, rather than the one in New Zealand [or anywhere else there are Canterburys]. I suppose it's because our Canterbury [or London, or Glasgow] came first, and so we consider them as primus inter pares in terms of geography. It's the same with our Armed Forces: we say "The Royal Navy" instead of the "Royal British Navy", and so on.
If we had to be absolutely specific about which particular Canterbury we were talking about, we would insert an "in", as follows: "Canterbury, in England".
 

konungursvia

VIP Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2009
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
Here in Toronto, we would refer to "Main Street" without saying "Main Street, Toronto" or any information context renders unnecessary. That doesn't change the fact that a learner was attempting to discover whether "Canterbury, England" is the grammatical norm as opposed to "England, Canterbury" the [Larger, Smaller] order many foreign languages require.
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Here's me sticking my neck out again...
In BrE, we wouldn't normally say "Canterbury, England", any more than we would say "London, England" or "Glasgow, Scotland". We would simply say "Canterbury", and assume that everyone knows that we are referring to the place in England, rather than the one in New Zealand [or anywhere else there are Canterburys]. I suppose it's because our Canterbury [or London, or Glasgow] came first, and so we consider them as primus inter pares in terms of geography. It's the same with our Armed Forces: we say "The Royal Navy" instead of the "Royal British Navy", and so on.
If we had to be absolutely specific about which particular Canterbury we were talking about, we would insert an "in", as follows: "Canterbury, in England".
:up: There are dozens of places called 'Victoria'. But if I got a train to Victoria I could manage without a passport!

Also, if your intonation made it clear that you were adding information you could say something like 'He was born in England - Canterbury to be precise'.

b
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top