How To Talk About Over 200 Nationalities In English

Learning how to talk about countries and nationalities in English correctly can be tricky, not least because there are over 200 of them!

So I put together a handy reference table you can use.

At the end of this post, you’ll also find different ways to talk about nationalities in English, and (very important!) some offensive terms you shouldn’t use when talking about people from a certain country.

Let's learn how to talk about nationalities in English!

Complete List Of Over 200 Countries & Nationalities In English

Here’s your table of nationalities in English organised in alphabetical order.

You’ll find the name of the country + the nationality adjective + the singular form of the noun + the plural one.

Remember that the adjective form is used to describe a noun (e.g., Italian food, Japanese cars, French people, etc.) while the noun forms refer to the people from a particular country (e.g., he’s an Italian, Brazilians are friendly, many Australians love surfing, etc).

Different Ways to Tell People Where You’re From

Let’s say you’re from Italy. 

What are some different ways to tell people about your nationality?

Here’s what you could do:

• You can use the adjective form.

Example: I'm Italian (more common than saying, “I’m an Italian”)

• You can use “from” + the name of your country

Example: I’m from Italy. 

• You can say where you were born, though this is often used when you want to add some extra personal info.

Example: 

• I was born in Italy but was raised in Australia.
• I was born and raised in Italy but moved to Australia in my 20s. I have dual citizenship now. (This means you have two passports: an Italian and an Australian one.) 

Remember that in English, nationality adjectives and nouns are always capitalized. (I’m Italian, NOT I’m italian.)

Check out my post on English spelling rules to learn more!

Nationalities In English FAQ

Final Thoughts On How To Talk About Nationalities In English  

I must warn you that some nationality nouns have become offensive over time. 

Here are a few examples of terms you shouldn’t use:

• Kraut: an offensive noun for Germans. 
• Jap: an offensive abbreviation for a Japanese person.
• Chink: an offensive noun used to insult Chinese people. 
• Paki: a very offensive word for a person from Pakistan. People from India or Bangladesh find it very offensive too.
• Gypsy: this is often considered offensive when referring to the Romani (or Roma) people.
• Aboriginies: the indigenous people of Australia prefer to be called First Nations people, not “Aborigines”.
• Eskimo: a member of a group of the indigenous people of northern Canada and parts of Alaska, Greenland, and Siberia. This word can be offensive, and these people usually call themselves Inuit, Aleut, Tlingit or Yupik. 

There may be more. 

Please don’t use them! 

Talk about nationalities in English using the table I put together for you.

Be a good citizen.

And have fun making international friends using English.

By the way, if you're interested in countries and nationalities, check out my guide to the 67 + English-speaking countries around the world. You may also like my posts about Australian slang, New Zealand slang and British slang.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.