Malaysian, Vietnamese, Bangladeshi: adjectives of nationality for Asian countries.

Malaysian, Vietnamese, Bangladeshi:
adjectives of nationality for Asian countries.

In Japanese, I find it quite easy to talk about nationality (国籍). I know that China is Chugoku and that Korea is Kankoku. If I want to describe something from China I simply say Chugoku no..., and for something from Korea I say Kankoku no.... In other words, I simply add no to the name of the country.

English is a little more complicated. In English, I have to change the word. Something from China is Chinese; something from Korea is Korean. I think many students try to learn the nationality adjectives one-by-one. However, when we talk about countries in Asia, there are three main patterns we can use. I will describe each of them below.

Pattern One: '-an' nationalities

Please look at the following list of country and nationality words. The red vowel (or, in some cases, 'y') in each word is to show which syllable is stressed:

Country	Adjective
Cambodia India Indonesia Korea Malaysia Mongolia Syria Sri Lanka Tibet Laos Singapore Iran Jordan	Cambodian Indian Indonesian Korean Malaysian Mongolian Syrian Sri Lankan Tibetan Laotian Singaporean Iranian Jordanian

POINTS TO NOTICE:

Many countries whose names end with "-a" form their adjectives with "-an."
With some countries, there is a difference in vowel sounds between the country word and the nationality word: In Iran and Jordan the 'a' is like 'apple,' but in Iranian and Jordanian it is like 'lake.'

Pattern Two: '-ese' nationalities

Country	Adjective
China Burma Bhutan Japan Lebanon Nepal Taiwan Vietnam	Chinese Burmese Bhutanese Japanese Lebanese Nepalese Taiwanese Vietnamese

POINT TO NOTICE:

With '-ese' adjectives, the stress is on the final syllable.

Pattern Three: '-i' nationalities

Country	Adjective
Afghanistan Bangladesh Iraq Israel Kuwait Oman Pakistan Qatar Saudi Arabia	Afghani (also: Afghan). Bangladeshi Iraqi Israeli Kuwaiti Omani Pakistani Qatari Saudi (also: Saudi Arabian).

POINT TO NOTICE:

Notice the difference in stress between Israel the country and Israeli the nationality.

Comments and Study Tip

The three patterns I've given above will cover most nationalities in Asia. There is at least one other pattern. This is found with some of the Asian republics which were part of the old Soviet Union (ソー連). They include:

Country	Adjective
Kazakstan Kirgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan	Kazak Kirgyz Tajik Turkmen Uzbek

And, finally, two special cases:

The adjective for Thailand is Thai.
The adjective for the Philippines can be either Philippine or Filipino.

STUDY TIP ONE:
If you want to learn all these words, here's an idea: take some small cards. On one side write the country's name in black ink. On the other side write the nationality adjective in red ink. Put them on the desk in front of you, red-side up and see how many you can remember. This technique was explained more full in a previous one-point lesson: How to remember new words and expressions.

STUDY TIP TWO:
Today we have looked at the common patterns for adjectives of nationality in Asia. Why not take another continent like Europe, Africa, South America and see what patterns you can find there?

We hope you found this week's lesson useful and that it will help you to remember the correct form of most Asian nationality adjectives. There are plenty of other one-point lessons on this website. Please click here if you want to try some of them.