60 Nationalities in Spanish

In Spanish, most of the words for the people who hail from particular countries around the world look or sound very similar to the word for the country in English. For example, colombiano  is the word for a male hailing from Colombia and boliviana  is the word for a female from Bolivia. An interesting distinction that varies from English to Spanish is that words used for nationalities are not capitalized in Spanish. Nationalities Can Be Nouns or Adjectives As in English, the words  for nationalities can be used in Spanish as either adjectives or nouns. An example of the adjective form is I want a French  coffee or Yo quiero  un cafà © francà ©s. An example of the noun form is He is an Italian or Él  es italiano. Who You Are Addressing Usually Matters In Spanish, nouns, and adjectives usually, have a masculine form and a feminine form depending if the person being referenced is male or female. The masculine form is usually used to refer to more than one person of unknown gender. For example, They are American would be translated as Ellos son americanos, which is the masculine plural form. A majority of nationalities end in -o.The feminine form for nationalities ending in -o is made by changing the -o to an -a. For example, the word griego, for a person from Greece, changes to griega when referencing a female. Another common ending for nationalities is  -à ©s. Words ending in -à ©s  can be made feminine by changing the ending to -esa. Thus the feminine form of inglà ©s,  for someone or something  from England, is inglesa. A Few Nationalities Do Not Change with Gender There are some nationalities that do not change form with gender. Nationalities that have irregular endings, such as -ense, as in the  word  costarricense, used for Costa Rican, do not have a separate masculine or feminine form. The word remains the same when describing either gender. The same can be said for  nationalities that end in -a. These do not change, such as  croata  for Croatian, or  belga  for Belgian. The following sampling of 60 countries is listed with the masculine form of the nationality. Use the masculine and feminine rules to change the word depending on the person being addressed and the endings of the nationalities that are given. Related Grammar Rules Plural nouns and adjectives for nationalities follow the regular  rules for plurals., typically by adding an  -s  or  -es. The names of most countries as well as provinces, states, and regions is masculine. The main exceptions are those whose names end in an unstressed -a, such as Francia, Argentina, and Gran Bretaà ±a. Canadà ¡, which ends in a stressed -à ¡, is masculine. A few country names, the biggest of them being la India, cant stand alone and need the definite article. For some countries, such as (los) Estados Unidos, the definite article is optional., List of Nations and Nationalities Alemania (Germany) — alemà ¡nArgentina — argentinoAustralia — australianoAustria — austriacoBà ©lgica (Belgium) — belgaBelice (Belize)  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  beliceà ±oBolivia — bolivianoBrasil — brasileà ±oCanadà ¡ — canadienseChile — chilenoChina — chinoColombia — colombianoCorea del Norte (North Korea) — nortecoreano, norcoreanoCorea del Sur (South Korea) — sudcoreanoCosta Rica — costarricense, costarriqueà ±o (uncommon)Cuba — cubanoCroata (Croatia)  Ã¢â‚¬â€ croataDinamarca (Denmark) — danà ©Ecuador — ecuatorianoEgipto (Egypt) — egipcioEl Salvador — salvadoreà ±oEscocia (Scotland) — escocà ©sEspaà ±a (Spain) — espaà ±olEstados Unidos (United States) — estadounidense, norteamericano, americanoFilipinas (Philippines) — filipinoFrancia  (France)— francà ©sGales (Wales) — galà ©sGran Bretaà ±a (Great B ritain) — brità ¡nicoGrecia (Greece) — griegoGuatemala — guatemaltecoHaità ­ — haitianoHonduras — hondureà ±oHungrà ­a  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  hà ºngarola India — indio, hindà ºInglaterra (England) — inglà ©sIrak, Iraq — irakà ­, iraquà ­Irà ¡n — iranà ­Irlanda (Ireland)  Ã¢â‚¬â€ irlandà ©sIsrael — israelà ­Italia (Italy) — italianoJapà ³n (Japan) — japonà ©sMarruecos (Morocco) — marroquà ­Ã‚  (Moro is sometimes used but can be considered offensive.)Mà ©xico, Mà ©jico — mexicano, mejicano  (the first spelling is used in Mexico, while usage varies elsewhere)Myanmar/Birlandia (Myanmar/Burma)  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚  myanma/birmanoNicaragua — nicaragà ¼enseNoruega (Norway) — noruegoNueva Zelanda (New Zealand) — neozelandà ©sPaà ­ses Bajos (Netherlands) — holandà ©sPalestina  (Palestine) — palestinoPanamà ¡ — panameà ±oParaguay — paraguayoPerà º — peruanoPolonia (Poland) — polacoPortugal — portuguà ©sPuerto Rico — puertorriqueà ±ola Repà ºblica Dominicana (Dominican Republic) — dominicanoRusia — rusoSudà ¡frica (South Africa) — sudafricanoSuecia (Sweden) — suecoSuiza (Switzerland) — suizoTaiwan — taiwanà ©sUruguay — uruguayoVenezuela — venezolano Notes on Americano Estadounidense is understood everywhere to refer to U.S. residents, but in some areas it can seem overly formal. In parts of Latin America, norteamericano is preferred with speaking of the U.S., although in some places that term is understood include persons or things Canadian (but not Mexican). Americano can be understood to mean Latin American in some areas, but American in the U.S. sense in others. Quick Takeaways As in English, noun and adjective forms of nationalities in Spanish use the same words.Although names of countries are capitalized in Spanish, names of nationalities are not (except at the beginning of a sentence.)The most common endings for nationality names are -o and -es.