The British

French Language

The British

Cathy 11/04/2008, 17:08

Today, I was at a horse riding school (in France) and there was a Northern Irish man, a Welsh lady and me, truly an English rose through-and-through Whistles [Www] . A French lady saw us and said: 'Ah, les Anglais'. I wanted to say that we were British but didn't know how. I told her (in French) that we were from different parts of Les Iles Britannique instead.

Is there a word for 'British' in the French language. I googled it and it came up Britannique but is this actually a word that is used?

Cathy
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Your children won't remember you ironing their pyjamas but they will remember you reading them a bedside story.

Re: The British

Benjamin 11/04/2008, 17:32
British = britannique

Northern Irish = irlandais du nord

Welsh = gallois(e)

I think Geeked [geek]

Benjamin

Snips, snails and puppy dog tails

Re: The British

5-element 11/04/2008, 18:40

"Les Britanniques" is what should, but is seldom, used. I have lost count of the number of times I have pointed out to French people that saying about a Scottish or or Welsh person that they are "anglais" would be a bit like confusing the French with the Swiss or the Belgians.

You would have thought that someone like president Sarkozy should know better, but no: I noticed him making the same mistake, referring to "les Anglais" when it should have been "les Britanniques". Which is almost unforgivable, IMHO.

Some things are truly hard to change.

Re: The British

sweet 17 11/04/2008, 21:31
Definitely, Britannique is correct. Our mairie used it first of all to us and about us and I have used it ever since without any French person correcting me. Donc, must be OK, n'est pas?

Re: The British

Compo 12/04/2008, 9:12

And I am very keen to emphasise whenever I can that this is the flag of les anglais...

And not this

In fact, I have found the flag as a very good way of getting free beer in many UK pubs from people whom I challenge to describe or draw the English flag for me. They almost always come up with the latter above. Americans are particularly gullible.

And perhaps it is also important to educate people that the second flag is called the Union Flag and not the Union Jack (unless, of course, it is on a ship).

Re: The British

allanb 12/04/2008, 12:51
It's our own fault; we haven't got the English language properly organized to describe our own nationality.

The sovereign state of which I am a citizen (and most of you too) is not Britain. It is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (if in doubt, see passport). This name, commonly abbreviated to "the UK", makes it officially clear that Britain does not include Northern Ireland.

Since the adjective "British" is clearly derived from Britain, the obvious conclusion is that "British" doesn't apply to all citizens of the UK. Actually we all know that it does include the Scots and the Welsh; but can you blame the French for being confused? At least if they use the word "English" they are correctly describing most of the British immigrants in France.

Incidentally, the UK name also implies that "Great Britain" is something different from "Britain", but that's another question. Perhaps it has something to do with the Isle of Wight.

Re: The British

NormanH 12/04/2008, 12:51
The nationality of everybody from the UK is "Britannique", and this should be used when filling in an official form.
Of course in conversation one is free to say "Anglais" "Ecossais" etc...

Re: The British

Compo 12/04/2008, 12:58

And while we are on this subject, please do not forget 23rd April is not far away...

Re: The British

5-element 12/04/2008, 13:03

allanb wrote:

"British" doesn't apply to all citizens of the UK????????????????????????????????????????????????

. Actually we all know that it does include the Scots and the Welsh; but can you blame the French for being confused? At least if they use the word "English" they are correctly describing most of the British immigrants in France.

On the whole, the French are NOT confused. They do know about pays de Galles and Ecosse, and Irlande du Nord.

They do know that not all "Britanniques" are "anglais". It's just that they fail to see that it would matter to the people concerned.

I can't see how "English" describes most British immigrants to France. You are what it says on your passport, which you then have to translate to fill in various French forms, i.e.:

Nationalité = Britannique...... not anglais, gallois, écossais.....

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