The following is a list of adjectival and demonymic forms of countries and nations in
Englishand their
demonymic equivalents. A country adjective describes something as being from that country, for example, "
Italian cuisine" is "cuisine of Italy". A country demonym denotes the people or the inhabitants of or from there; for example, "
Germans" are people of or from Germany.
Demonyms are given in plural forms. Singular forms simply remove the final s or, in the case of -ese endings, are the same as the plural forms. The ending -men has
feminine equivalent -women (e.g. Irishman, Scotswoman). The
French terminations -ois / -ais serve as both the singular and plural
masculine; adding e (-oise / -aise) makes them singular feminine; es (-oises / -aises) makes them plural feminine. The
Spanish and
Portuguese termination -o usually denotes the
masculine, and is normally changed to
feminine by dropping the -o and adding -a. The plural forms are usually -os and -as respectively.
Adjectives ending in -ish can be used as collective demonyms (e.g. "the English", "the Cornish"). So can those ending in -ch / -tch (e.g. "the French", "the Dutch") provided they are pronounced with a 'ch' sound (e.g. the adjective Czech does not qualify).
Many place-name adjectives and many demonyms are also used for various other things, sometimes with and sometimes without one or more additional words. (Sometimes, the use of one or more additional words is optional.) Notable examples are
cuisines,
cheeses,
cat breeds,
dog breeds, and
horse breeds. (See
List of words derived from toponyms.)
In cases where two or more adjectival forms are given, there is often a subtle difference in usage between the two. This is particularly the case with
Central Asian countries, where one form tends to relate to the nation and the other tends to relate to the predominant ethnic group (e.g.
Uzbek is primarily an ethnicity,
Uzbekistani relates to citizens of Uzbekistan).
^There is no adjective or demonym that distinguishes the Republic of Ireland from the entire island of
Ireland. When distinction from
Northern Ireland is necessary, the colloquial Southern Irish or Southerner is sometimes used; some people may find this offensive, and others may find it equally offensive in not distinguishing the Republic of Ireland from the island. As an alternative, an
adjectival phrase may be used—for instance, "a law of the Republic of Ireland"—or, as a last resort, the name "Republic of Ireland" may be used as if it were an adjective (as in "a Republic of Ireland law").