"تامِر مِن هولَنْدا."

Translation: Tamer is from Holland.

[HzrKurdistani]

Why does it consider "Netherlands" incorrect?

[ConchiCastillo]

Actually, 'the Netherlands' should be the correct term, since Holland is a region, not a country.

[Eromeon]

But in Arabic are both the same word? Or is there a distinct way to call the Netherlands?

[ConchiCastillo]

According to the dictionary, they use the word هُولَنْدَا for 'the Netherlands'. In fact many people around the world still (erroneously) refer to that country as 'Holland'. I also found the name الأَراضي المُنْخَفِضة, but wonder whether it is normally used. In Spanish, too, we often choose the shorter name 'Holanda' instead of 'los Países Bajos', which is more of a mouthful.

[furat-A]

Well, Arabic DuoLingo also refers to the USA as (America) ;)

[IzhharM]

I wrote tame instead tamer by typo and it counts as wrong lol. On the other hand, you know the saying.. Al mawt li Amerika..I think it is more convenient that way

[benton.1]

Countries don't usually call other countries by the name the country calls itself. For instance, how many countries call Japan "Nippon" and Greece "Hellas"?

[benton.1]

Conchi, Things are not as "cut and dry" or as simple as they might seem. The Dutch call their country "Nederland" not the Netherlands. Are we "allowed" to call them "Dutch"? That's not what they call themselves. Of course we are. "The Netherlands" means "the low lands". Belgium, Holland, and Luxemburg are all part of "the low lands". Are we going to get people saying "Why do they get to call themselves 'the low lands'? Belgium and Luxemburg are also 'the low lands' they shouldn't get to call themselves 'the low lands!' ". Even though English speakers do use the term "the Netherlands", they have called the country "Holland" since around the 9th century. "The Low Lands", like other regions of the world, have "changed hands" many times over the centuries and have been divided in different ways and have had different names.

Countries get to call themselves what they want to call themselves and other countries also get to refer to them the way they want to in their own language. Germany calls itself "Deutschland" Spanish speakers call it "Alemania". Should others insist Spanish speakers change what they call Germany and other countries, for instance?

[TNT917722]

So Tamer is from the region then. This makes perfect sense to me ... being from a region and a country myself.

[YoshiPablo]

I've found the trick: if you type "the Netherlands" Duo marks you right. So, bare "Netherlands" is not accepted in English. "Holland" is formally wrong but linguistically right.

[Zhomas]

Audio is a bit buggy on this, sounds like "He-Hollanda"

[Aziza982477]

I thought Tamer is from America. In the other lessons they said Tamer is American not from Holland (should be called Netherlands though