Nationalities

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 443.

Adjectives

B. Adjectives referring to countries and languages

Learn by heart

With -ish: British Irish Flemish Danish Turkish Spanish

With -(i)an: Canadian Brazilian American Russian Australian

With -ese: Japanese Chinese Guyanese Burmese Maltese Taiwanese

With i: Israeli Iraqi Kuwaiti Pakistani Yemeni Bangladeshi

With -ic: Icelandic Arabic Some, adjectives are worth learning separately e.g. Swiss, Thai, Greek, Dutch, Cypriot.

Some nationalities have nouns for referring to people, e.g. a Finn, a Swede, a Turk, a Spaniard, a Dane, a Briton, an Arab.

For most nationalities we can use the adjective as a noun, e.g. a German, an Italian, a Belgian, a Catalan, a Greek, an African.

Some need woman/man/person added to them (you can't say 'a Dutch'), so if in doubt, use them, e.g. a Dutch man, a French woman, an Irish person, an Icelandic man.

Key expressions

Starting a conversation

Hi, I don't think we've met.

Hello. It's (Adriana), isn't it?

Hello, I saw you ... but I didn't have a chance to speak to you. I'm ...

Hello / Hi, I'm ... (from / based in ...).

Is this your first (company event)?

I thought I might see you (here).

How lovely to see you here. How are things?

Showing interest

Really? I see.

What a coincidence!

That's amazing!

That sounds interesting.

Oh dear...

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that.

Keeping a conversation going

By the way ... Well, ... Apparently ...

I've heard ... - is that true? In fact... So ... Don't you ...?

Ending a conversation

See you later.

It's been nice talking to you. Look, I have to go. Catch you later.

You don't mind if I go and get myself (a coffee)?