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France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

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Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#71

Post by traceroute66 »

estimator7292 wrote: post #69
Mindless2112 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The demonym for France is "French," so it's not wrong (even if it doesn't sound right.)

Technically yes the demonym is "French", but "I'm a French" just doesn't work in English. The word 'French' is almost exclusively used in English as an adjective or the name of the language. It is never used as a noun for anything else. So in context, it reads as an adjective without a paired noun. In English, you have to disambiguate be adding a noun: French person, French citizen, or Frenchman if you're old and inc…

> "A Brazilian" or "a Spaniard" are acceptable.

Well, context is important on the Brazilian front. ;)

"I had a brazilian at my house" could have other connotations.

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#73

Post by mistrial9 »

traceroute66 wrote: post #66
Mindless2112 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The demonym for France is "French," so it's not wrong (even if it doesn't sound right.)

No. "French" is adjective or a collective noun, but don't use it as a countable noun. Trying to say "as a French" makes about as much sense as thinking "as a American" is correct. As has already been said ... "a French (wo)man","a French person","a French citizen" is the correct way to go. The reason you can say " an American" is because America starts with a vowel. Same reason why you would not say "a British" but y…

a French; an American; a Brit, or a British

sounds casual but correct to me

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#74

Post by japanoise »

Mindless2112 wrote: post #55
Toine wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"As a French" ne veut rien dire en anglais. Il faut rajouter man, person ou quelquechose. Frenchman, French person, French citizen.

The demonym for France is "French," so it's not wrong (even if it doesn't sound right.)

It's not completely wrong, it will be understood, but it is ungrammatical and a clear marker that the speaker is not native, similar to getting adjectives in the 'wrong' order ('a big tasty sandwich' sounds more natural to a native speaker than 'a tasty big sandwich', even though the latter makes sense and will be understood).

Demonyms for historical neighbours of England have irregular forms when speaking of a particular person from there. Scotland has 'Scot' and 'Scotsman'; Wales has 'Welshman'; Spain has 'Spaniard'. Other countries indeed need a second word, such as 'person' or 'citizen' ('a Chinese' sounds offensive to me; I would say 'a Chinese person' in all cases). The only country I can think of where using a bare demonym is grammatical when speaking of a single person from there is Germany with 'a German' - probably because it has the suffix -man.

Edit: A sibling comment pointed out that 'an American' is grammatical, and thinking about it, I think the suffix -an is what makes bare demonyms grammatical - you can say 'an Angolan', 'a Laotian', 'a Peruvian', 'a Moroccan', etc, but wouldn't say 'a Thai', 'a Swedish', 'a Sudanese', etc.

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#75

Post by traceroute66 »

mistrial9 wrote: post #73
traceroute66 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. "French" is adjective or a collective noun, but don't use it as a countable noun. Trying to say "as a French" makes about as much sense as thinking "as a American" is correct. As has already been said ... "a French (wo)man","a French person","a French citizen" is the correct way to go. The reason you can say " an American" is because America starts with a vowel. Same reason why you would not say "a British" but y…

a French; an American; a Brit, or a British sounds casual but correct to me

> sounds casual but correct to me

I don't care if it "sounds ok to me".

If you're going to make statements like that to go against what I've written then at least come up with some viable citations to grammar literature.

Honestly, in all my years on this earth I have never, ever heard anybody in any English speaking country I've spent time in say "a French" "a American" "a British".

And that amounts to a lot of time surrounded by people speaking VERY "casual" English.

P.S. I said "an American" was ok if you re-read.. an NOT a

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#76

Post by woodruffw »

traceroute66 wrote: post #66
Mindless2112 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The demonym for France is "French," so it's not wrong (even if it doesn't sound right.)

No. "French" is adjective or a collective noun, but don't use it as a countable noun. Trying to say "as a French" makes about as much sense as thinking "as a American" is correct. As has already been said ... "a French (wo)man","a French person","a French citizen" is the correct way to go. The reason you can say " an American" is because America starts with a vowel. Same reason why you would not say "a British" but y…

Demonyms don’t use the same rules as countable nouns. Both “French” and “British” are acceptable demonyms, they’re just not particularly idiomatic in American English (which likes to overcorrect with “person” like you’ve noted).

(There’s no particularly consistency with this, it’s just what sounds “good” to American ears. We’re perfectly fine with “as a German” or “as a Lithuanian.”)

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#77

Post by Ylpertnodi »

estimator7292 wrote: post #69
Mindless2112 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The demonym for France is "French," so it's not wrong (even if it doesn't sound right.)

Technically yes the demonym is "French", but "I'm a French" just doesn't work in English. The word 'French' is almost exclusively used in English as an adjective or the name of the language. It is never used as a noun for anything else. So in context, it reads as an adjective without a paired noun. In English, you have to disambiguate be adding a noun: French person, French citizen, or Frenchman if you're old and inc…

> or Frenchman if you're old and inconsiderate.

Or talking about a man that is French. Neither of which would be considered 'old', or 'inconsiderate".

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#78

Post by hn_throw2025 »

EinigeKreise wrote: post #56
roysting wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You forgot the part where the countries voluntarily join the organisation. By the way, the commission is subject to a vote of confidence by the parliament, which is directly elected. I'm pretty sure you don't get to directly vote for your cabinet members either, wherever you are.

> You forgot the part where the countries voluntarily join the organisation.

It might be worth examining the word “countries” there.

Both France and the Netherlands rejected the proposed EU Constitution by referendum in 2005. It was then regurgitated as the Lisbon Treaty (with only superficial changes) in 2007, which was ratified with no public vote.

The Irish people initially rejected both the EU-empowering treaties of Nice and Lisbon, and a followup vote was considered necessary. You get two bites of the democratic cherry if you have enough power.

A majority of the British people voted to leave in 2016, and in the three years that followed everything possible was done to reverse the decision.

You might be spotting here a difference in desires and power between the governors and the governed.

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#79

Post by Mashimo »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #60
Mashimo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a learning tool to quiz you.

Okay, and what value would that provide? I'm not interested in games.

The value is that you can have an effective tool to learn something new. I'm not quite sure I understand your question.

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#80

Post by Ylpertnodi »

traceroute66 wrote: post #71
estimator7292 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically yes the demonym is "French", but "I'm a French" just doesn't work in English. The word 'French' is almost exclusively used in English as an adjective or the name of the language. It is never used as a noun for anything else. So in context, it reads as an adjective without a paired noun. In English, you have to disambiguate be adding a noun: French person, French citizen, or Frenchman if you're old and inc…

> "A Brazilian" or "a Spaniard" are acceptable. Well, context is important on the Brazilian front. ;) "I had a brazilian at my house" could have other connotations.

How many did you have at your house?
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