nationality

Hello

What is difference between:
1. What is your nationality? and
2. What nationality are you?

and what is more common in daily usage?

Thanks for your help.

dolphin64 said:

Hello

What is the difference between:
1. What is your nationality? and
2. What nationality are you?

and which one is more common in daily usage?

Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

There is no difference. The second is more common in BrE.

Thank you for the quick reply.
Now one more.

Why are some words written in red, in my threat above? ( the , which one) Were that mistakes somehow? I can´t figure it out.

Thank you

dolphin64 said:

Thank you for the quick reply.
Now one more.

Why are some words written in red, in my thread above? ( the , which one) Were [STRIKE]that [/STRIKE] they mistakes somehow? I can´t figure it out.

Thank you.

Click to expand...

Yes, corrections/additions which I made are marked in red. I have done the same with this post (the word is "thread", not "threat", for example).

Oh silly me
Thank you, now I understand the way you work. That was a great help to me.

dolphin64 said:

Hello

What is difference between:
1. What is your nationality? and
2. What nationality are you?

and what is more common in daily usage?

Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) Just a cultural note that may interest you.

(2) If you visit the United States, be careful about asking someone about

his/her "nationality."

(3) For some people, this is just another way to ask about a person's

race. Most people do not want to ask "What is your race?" because it

sounds so direct and rude. So some people use (incorrectly) the word

"nationality."

I echo the above. I used to work at an airport where arriving passengers were required to complete a form.

In the box marked "Nationality" they were required to write the nation from which they held a passport (British, American/USA, Mexico, Malaysia etc). Mainly with American passengers, we frequently found such things as "Caucasian" or "African American" in that box, which in BrE would be "race" or "ethnic origin".

American travellers said that had the box been marked "Citizenship" they would have written "American".

So there is a difference in meaning depending on where you are. In BrE, nationality certainly has nothing to do with race or ethnic origin, it's entirely what passport you hold (or would hold if you had one).

Thank you all for your comments and notes. I think I got the point.

Good night from Germany

Dolphin

TheParser said:

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) Just a cultural note that may interest you.

(2) If you visit the United States, be careful about asking someone about

his/her "nationality."

(3) For some people, this is just another way to ask about a person's

race. Most people do not want to ask "What is your race?" because it

sounds so direct and rude. So some people use (incorrectly) the word

"nationality."

Click to expand...

It's a roundabout way to ask about race in some situations, but it really just means one's "ethnicity." Caucasians in the US will ask each other the question, expecting to hear something like "I've got German and Polish on my mom's side, and Scotch-Irish on my dad's."