England? a part or the whole Britain?

[keannu]

When you say "England", I think it usually means the eastern part of UK, contrasted with Wales and Scotland, but do you sometimes use it for the whole UK as well?
Is it both part and whole? Or mainly part?

 

[emsr2d2]

When you say "England", I think it usually means the eastern part of UK, contrasted with Wales and Scotland, but do you sometimes use it for the whole UK as well?
Is it both part and whole? Or mainly part?

Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland and Wales.
The United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (it's actually officially "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland").

There is no simple answer to your question. When people are asked where they are from, they might say England, they might say Britain, they might say the UK.

"England" should not be used if someone is actually talking about Scotland or Wales, nor if they are talking about Britain or the UK. However, some people will use it.

 

[SoothingDave]

All that is true, but if you ask the average American who we fought for our independence, they'd say "England." Similarly, if you asked who Elizabeth II was, most people would say the Queen of England.

I know it's inexact, and Scots and Welshman may take offense, but no offense is meant. It's just how many Americans think of things.

 

[konungursvia]

It's a reasonable question for an East Asian, as most East Asian languages use the Chinese term for "England" (英國) in all of these cases.

 

[keannu]

All that is true, but if you ask the average American who we fought for our independence, they'd say "England." Similarly, if you asked who Elizabeth II was, most people would say the Queen of England.

I know it's inexact, and Scots and Welshman may take offense, but no offense is meant. It's just how many Americans think of things.

It seems like from the Englishmen's point of view, England is more a part of UK, while Americans think England can represent the whole UK. I think Englishmen's point of view is kind of related to it history and regional feeling toward one another. Also in Korea, we also have some feelings for other regions.

 

[Tdol]

It is complex and England is used sometimes by English people to refer to Britain, and I think this is what causes offence. If any Scottish or Welsh people take offence when a foreign speaker gets it wrong, they are being overly sensitive IMO. If I get it wrong, then they have a right to think I'm being presumptuous, careless or arrogant.

 

[SoothingDave]

Once upon a time I worked with a man from the UK. Both of our companies had similar software for analyzing measured parts. We noticed that he called his choice of system units "Imperial or Metric" where we Americans used "English or Metric."

I asked him why he didn't call them "English" units.

He replied indignantly "Because I'm Scottish!"