City, Country: Why do people say it like that?

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Mally Dangerous

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OK, I live in the US and I have often wondered why do people say...

Paris, France

or

Oslo, Norway

That's like me saying Atlanta, United States instead of saying the more natural Atlanta, Georgia.

Is this only a US thing or do people from other countries also say Paris, France etc?
 
Nogger said:
ok, If I say Djursholm / Uppland, would you have any idea of what I meant? This is a dumb question.
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I agree




Even though I have Prince Rupert, British Columbia instead of Prince Ruper, Canada for my location :lol:
 
Nogger said:
Or do people outside of the US actually say Los Angeles, USA. See what I mean?
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No, I wouldn't but if people said it like that in the first place I would. Get what I mean? My was question was, why do people choice to say city, country for non-US places. Or do people outside of the US actually say Los Angeles, USA. See what I mean?

Edited: typo
 
People in the US say city, country. Because almost all of the major cities have a city named after them in the states. So just by saying Paris, you risk the chance of the other person not knowing which Paris you mean.

On the ther hand this is not really a problem in Europe as there aren't alot of cities with the same names so we only say Oslo, London, Paris etc.

So yeah, it's only you guys on that side of the pond with this problem, and its commin gfrom the fact that you guys are all home sick emigrants :p
 
heh.

I'd much rather say San Francisco, California than SF, USA. But I think California should be its own country anyway. :p :lol:

Honestly, I think its a geography thing. The US is so diverse and large - San Francisco, USA kinda - well, no I guess it dosn't really.

I kinda like that now. . . hmm. :unsure:
 
Or do people outside of the US actually say Los Angeles, USA. See what I mean?
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Yes we do. Do you really think we know the states most US cities are located in?
 
How bout you just say all three...? Or modify it even:

Scranton, Pennsylvania -USA

But I guess for some people that would be too much "work", or a reuslt of illegal immigrants.
 
Mally Dangerous said:
I ask this because I have never heard a non-US person say "Oh, you are from Atlanta, USA."
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Well... there are also 34 different cities named Springfield in the US. So saying oh, you are from Springfield, USA. really doesn't say anything to anybody.
 
swek said:
Or do people outside of the US actually say Los Angeles, USA. See what I mean?
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Yes we do. Do you really think we know the states most US cities are located in?
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Cool, but that is a new one to me. I have friends in the UK, France, and Germany but none of them have ever said Atlanta, USA. They just say the city.
 
mmap said:
Mally Dangerous said:
I ask this because I have never heard a non-US person say "Oh, you are from Atlanta, USA."
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Well... there are also 34 different cities named Springfield in the US. So saying oh, you are from Springfield, USA. really doesn't say anything to anybody.
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That's true too.
 
Okay, I get you now. Of course no one would say New York, USA. Everybody knows New York. If you're talking about everyday conversation it would go like this:

A:"You know he's living in Bismarck now?"
B:"Huh, where?"
A:"The city in America."
B:"And where's that exactly?"
A:"No idea."

:p
 
swek said:
Or do people outside of the US actually say Los Angeles, USA. See what I mean?
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Yes we do. Do you really think we know the states most US cities are located in?
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but we all know that los angeles is in the USA, so we never say los angeles USA...at least i have never heard anyone use that.

i could however see why it would be useful for americans to have the country added after a european city... :roll:
 
ryosuke said:
but we all know that los angeles is in the USA, so we never say los angeles USA...at least i have never heard anyone use that.
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True. I wrote that because I thought he was wondering about the written form. Should read the posts first before hitting the reply button. <_<
 
Re: City, Country: Why do people say it like that?

Mally Dangerous said:
OK, I live in the US and I have often wondered why do people say...

Paris, France

or

Oslo, Norway

That's like me saying Atlanta, United States instead of saying the more natural Atlanta, Georgia.

Is this only a US thing or do people from other countries also say Paris, France etc?
Click to expand...

I think Bill Bryson wrote an entire column about this once.

He called it the "London, England" syndrome and blamed it on the US news media, mainly, for 'dumbing down'.

You could say Atlanta, Georgia, but to be honest my knowledge of American states is poor [I couldn't name them all, but I'd know one was a state if you named it at me], and so "Atlanta, US" makes more sense.

Then again, I only know of one Atlanta so just saying you were from Atlanta would be fine.

The news here do the same - they'll end their reports by saying "Thsi is John Smith, reporting from Tokyo, Japan". It's to do with the train of thought that goes 'treat the viewer like a 5 year old simpleton'. For some reason that train of thought results in Fox News getting a fair fistful of viewers.
 
I've never said 'Paris, France'. Nor have I said something like 'Los Angeles, USA'.

Same down here. I've never said 'I'm from Melbourne, Victoria', only once overseas I said 'Melbourne, Australia' because all other times the people could pick up the Aussie accent.

Sometimes you're speaking to someone from the outback and they'll just say the town, you'll only find out exactly where it is when you ask them "What state is that in?"

I'm guessing it's like what some other people have said, just the sheer enormity of the USA's geography but I'm not sure why they'd do it for European cities.
 
Uk has issues with a small number of towns, Newport being one (IOW, Mons, and loads of others) Hayes (Middx, Kent and probably some others) but unless the context of the conversation makes it difficult to understand to which Newport is being referenced then I don't think that the county would be mentioned. Truth be known when talking to Americans we would only tend to know the biggest Cities and Americans obligingly give us the additional detail of state to make it crystal clear which Springfield so no problems with that.
 
mmap said:
So yeah, it's only you guys on that side of the pond with this problem, and its commin gfrom the fact that you guys are all home sick emigrants :p
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As if :lol: There's no other country I'd rather live in....well, Canada comes close in some ways, but I'm thinking of moving south for nicer weather :p
 
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