Terms for armies

[FierceKitty]

Philology more than tactics, but it's interesting that some national adjectives can be used as plural nouns (Down with the French! or Death to the English! or The Spanish are determined but undisciplined allies), but others can't. Here come the German! sounds absurd, and The Australian have no beer left may be tragic, but doesn't sound grammatical.

[Techno]

Oh....

I thought you were having a go at me. 

Cheers - Phil

[fsn]

An old Engish teacher of mine (Mr Brick, Hawarden High School, long time ago) used to say "complete the sentence".  Down with the French army! or Death to the English army! or The Spanish forces are determined but undisciplined allies). Here come the German forces!, and The Australian forces have no beer left.

[FierceKitty]

But the nouns he uses are completely interchangeable in those examples.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Oh....

I thought you were having a go at me. 

Cheers - Phil

Paranoia again Phil ??

[Leman]

Inca works as a singular or plural - we defeated the Inca army, we defeated the Inca. Doesn't work with Aztecs though.

[Raider4]

English is not a logically structured language. Who'd 'ave  thunk it, eh?

[FierceKitty]

Shocking.

[John Cook]

Australianorum consumpserat cervisia.  Just saying.

[Raider4]

Australians spent ale? (according to an online latin-->english translator)

I fear this could degenerate to a Monty Python sketch

[Leman]

Australianorum consumpserat cervisia.  Just saying.

Nope - just showing off your Boris Johnson style education.

Quote from Boris Johnson: I did Latin and Greek for 20 years and now I'm running the country.

Quote from me: And what a total pig's scrotum you're making of it!

[Norm]

Nope - just showing off your Boris Johnson style education.

Quote from Boris Johnson: I did Latin and Greek for 20 years and now I'm running the country.

Quote from me: And what a total pig's scrotum you're making of it!

I don't think any of that does this forum a service.

[John Cook]

Australians spent ale? (according to an online latin-->english translator)

I fear this could degenerate to a Monty Python sketch

Ah well, context is everything when a language has no definite articles

[Leman]

To be frank I am:
a) depreseed as f*** by the state this stupid bloody country has got itself in, and
b) depressed as f*** by those who wish to blithely ignore it.

Clearly time for me to really get my coat

DELETE

[Norm]

To be frank I am:
a) depreseed as f*** by the state this stupid bloody country has got itself in, and
b) depressed as f*** by those who wish to blithely ignore it.

Clearly time for me to really get my coat

DELETE

To be frank,
a) I come here to live in a small bubble and just talk about toy soldiers
b)I wait until the Six 'O Clock news comes on to do my ranting.

I think you should stay and post some more pictures of your nice tables.

[kipt]

Yours not the only country.

[d_Guy]

Would Germen work?

I never know whether to use Scots (army) or Scottish (army). Which is correct (if either)? Is there a better term?

[Raider4]

I never know whether to use Scots (army) or Scottish (army). Which is correct (if either)? Is there a better term?

Scotch . . .

[mmcv]

Interestingly you would say the German did this or the Italian did that when talking of an individual. But you wouldn't say the English or French did that, you'd say Englishman or Frenchwoman. It's interesting that for some the singular is also the possessive and others the plural is the possessive.

Could be something to do with the sounds at the end of the word. -ish and -ench are softer than the hard -an. So the softer ending English, Danish, Spanish, French, Dutch, etc vs the harder* German, Russian, Italian, Belgian, American (and many many more)

Other soft endings tend to follow the same pattern, e.g. -ese as in Chinese, Japanese, Sudanese, Portuguese.

...10 minutes down the etymological rabbit hole later...

Seems the harder -an style endings tend to come from the Latin names into English while the softer endings tend to come from German (ish) or Italian (ese). Presumably in other languages they use different patterns for singular vs plural possession depending where they get the national names from.

In answer to d_guy my understanding is Scottish is generally the correct term for the people. Scots I've only really seen used in relation to the language/dialect and in some archaic uses. Scotch meanwhile tends to relate to inanimate objects related to Scotland. So the Scottish people speak the Scots dialect while drinking Scotch whisky.


*No dirty jokes, I know what you lot are like...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

But do cults of celtic Celts support Celtic...