"We are British."
Translation:我们是英国人。
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英 (Brave/Heroic; [the pronunciation is similar to the “Eng” in England]) + 国 (Country/Nation/Kingdom) = England/Britain.
the USA is beautiful country, I'm not sure if it's covered in this lesson or not. Mei (beautiful) + 国 (Country/Nation/Kingdom) = USA
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美国 is the shortened form of 美利坚合众国 (美利坚 - a homophonic translation of 'America', 合众 - united, 国 - country).
Though when America is used when referring to the continent, the homophonic translation used is 亚美利加, so the America continent is 亚美利加洲, often shortened to 美洲. It doesn't come from beauty.
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Actually it is a translation by 'England' sound, which is not relate as its literally meanings.
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as there should be a 是 / si between women and yingguo ren. 我們英國人 = Our British / We Britons.
Can someone explain the placement of the characters so I can understand better?
我们= We (since 我= I and 们= pluralizes pronouns) 是= is/are 英国= England/Britain (英= means brave/heroic and sounds like "Eng" in England; 国= country/nation/kingdom) 人= person/people
Why are we lumping countries as british. I thought ying guo meant england. Lets just lump japan into china.
英国 by itself only means the country England. 人 means person, so by saying 英国人 you are saying "English Person." So in this case 我们是英国 would translate as "we are England" instead of "we are English."
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I think that means: We are Britain. You also need to add the character for people (rén) at the end.
That translates to "We are Britian". You need the ren to complete the sentence.
I think this would mean "we are Britain" ;) I believe the final "ren" does mean "person", so "Britain-person" means "British"
It's actually a contraction of a longer phonetic rendering of England approximated to existing Mandarin words. Ireland's translates as "love Seoul blue" as far as I remember.
Since 都 includes all subjects, which makes the sentence very sound and less generic, the following reported sentence
我們都是英國人。
is also correct.
I believe you can say 不列颠诸岛 (bu2 lie4 dian1 zhu1 dao3) for "British Isles" (and 不列颠 for "Britain.")
Cheers.
EDIT:
My original reply is above; I have added the following in light of other replies.
While there is a distinction in English between "England" and "Britain," in Chinese, 英国 really does mean either "England" or “Britain," but not in every word or phrase in which English would use either term.
All by itself, 英 can refer to British (-something), English (-something), or can be an abbreviation for England or Britain (an abbreviation for 英国 ); 英 also means "excellent," "outstanding," "hero," "flower," or "blossom" (that "double cross," at the top, that looks a little like ++ , that's the "grass" radical that explains the potential "flower" meaning).
In conjunction with other characters, 英 can mean "British" or refer to "Britain." For example, 英军 , the British Army; 英属维尔京群岛 , the British Virgin Islands, 英国广播公司 (or 英国广播电台 ), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 英国石油 , British Petroleum (BP). Note that 英国 designates "British" in the Chinese names for the BBC and BP.
If you want to specify Britain (rather than England), you can say 不列颠 , as in 不列颠诸岛 , the British Isles.
If you want to specify England (rather than Britain), you can say 英格兰 , as in 英格兰银行 , the Bank of England, or even 新英格兰 , New England, which is actually part of the United States.
英国 can be an abbreviation for England (a shorter version of 英格兰 ), or can refer to the United Kingdom, whose official, full name in English is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" (as of now), and whose full Chinese version is 联合王国 (but again, 英国 for short).
Accordingly, you really can say 英国人 to mean an English person or to mean a person of or from the UK (or, loosely speaking, a "British" person, but note that as a geographical term, "British" refers to the British Isles, not all of which belongs to the UK).
英联邦 is the Chinese word for the British Commonwealth of Nations (aka "Commonwealth of Nations," "British Commonwealth," or simply "the Commonwealth"). The British Commonwealth of Nations is actually much larger than just the UK; there are over 50 member states in the Commonwealth, nearly all of which were former parts of the British Empire, including Canada, Australia, India, and, again, about 50 others.
Speaking of the British Empire, 大英帝国 is the Chinese word for "British Empire."
I was taught that 英国 is Britain。 To say England specifically, the second character is something else, though I don't recall what st the moment.
could it also be written "我们都是英国人。"? What makes 都 optional here, but not optional when saying "我们都是学生。"?
Only major powers in the world have 国 at the end of their names. 美国-美利坚-America. 英国-英格兰-England. 法国-法兰西-France. 德国-德意志-Deutschland (Germany). Other countries only have Transliterated names.
It is like the oxford 's history of england which refers to the british islands.
