[General] Brussel or Brussels

[Nathalia Nafarin]

I hear people say : the Brussels airport.
And ... do we say :
he's running for 20 km of Brussel or he's running for 20 km of Brussels ?
And ... why is it so ?
Thanks in advanced for the answer.

 

[SoothingDave]

If you mean the city in Belgium, it is "Brussels."

I don't know what you mean by "running for 20 km of Brussels."

 

[Rover_KE]

I notice that your current location is Belgium, Nathalia. In that country you will hear 'Brussel' a lot.

Dutch (Flemish) speakers in Belgium call the capital 'Brussel', French speakers call it 'Bruxelles' and German speakers call it 'Brüssel'.

The pronunciations are virtually identical (the final s in Bruxelles is not pronounced).

'Brussels' (with a sounded final s) is the anglicised name of the city. That's what English speakers call it.

Rover

 

[Nathalia Nafarin]

Thank you so much, Rover_Ke.
Your answer has been very helpful.
Good day and till later.

 

[Nathalia Nafarin]

Thank you for your reaction.
Yes, it is the city in Belgium.
And "running for 20 km of Brussels" is a name of an activity organized in Brussel (or 'Brussels'/Eng) once a year.
This sentence - running for 20 km of Brussels - is mentioned in the exercise in our English class. That's it.
Have a good day and till the next opportunity, SoothingDave.

 

[Rover_KE]

Ahh! Got it! You're talking about the Brussel's half-marathon or the 20km of Brussels (click on the underlined link).

So we'd say 'He's running in the 20km of Brussels' or more likely 'He's running (in) the Brussels 20K'.

Rover

 

[SoothingDave]

I notice that your current location is Belgium, Nathalia. In that country you will hear 'Brussel' a lot.

Dutch (Flemish) speakers in Belgium call the capital 'Brussel', French speakers call it 'Bruxelles' and German speakers call it 'Brüssel'.

The pronunciations are virtually identical (the final s in Bruxelles is not pronounced).

'Brussels' (with a sounded final s) is the anglicised name of the city. That's what English speakers call it.

Rover

To further confuse things, you will typically hear people refer to "Brussel sprouts" because the "s" at the end of "Brussels" runs into the one at the start of "sprouts."

 

[BobK]

I notice that your current location is Belgium, Nathalia. In that country you will hear 'Brussel' a lot.

Dutch (Flemish) speakers in Belgium call the capital 'Brussel', French speakers call it 'Bruxelles' and German speakers call it 'Brüssel'.

The pronunciations are virtually identical (the final s in Bruxelles is not pronounced).

'Brussels' (with a sounded final s) is the anglicised name of the city. That's what English speakers call it.

Rover

Incidentally, the s is a trace of a locative case. English frequently treats French place-names in this cavalier fashion: B Eng 'Lyons'/French Lyon,
'Marseilles'/Marseille. No doubt, in a fit of pique, the burgers of Lutetium renamed their city in a way that we couldn't mess up - although in speech we do when we say 'Paris'

b

PS My last two sentences are a joke; I'm sure nothing like this really happened. ;-)

 

[emsr2d2]

Though in spoken BrE we don't pronounce the "s" at the end of either "Lyons" or "Marseilles", whereas we do with "Brussels".

Edit: Come to think of it, I've never seen "Lyons", only "Lyon".

 

[BobK]

You young things. ;-) I'm sure older maps/atlases all used the s.

b

 

[emsr2d2]

The word "Lyons" just makes me think of this:



:-D

 

[Rover_KE]

Ems and Bob, you're both right, according to Wikipedia:

Lyon ... traditionally spelt Lyons in English, is a city in east-central France...

It says the same about the spelling of Marseille/s.

 

[BobK]

Some readers may need an explanation of that one*: J. Lyons and Co. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

b

PS *=#11 (now)

 

[EnglishFix]

[h=2]Brussels[/h]

 

[emsr2d2]

This is a very strange thread. I can't help but think there are at least two posts missing from it!

 

[Rover_KE]

It was dealt with here.

Nathalia, please don't start a new thread to say 'thank you'. Just click the Like button.

 

[Tdol]

This is a very strange thread. I can't help but think there are at least two posts missing from it!

I've merged them.