Article before nationality

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

The following sentence is from an English grammar website, explaining coordinating conjunction.
[color=blue]
John is Canadian, but Sally is English.

I feel that the sentence should be [color=blue]John is a Canadian, but Sally is an English, similar to [color=brown]John is a boy, but Sally is a girl. What is the difference between the original sentence and my version?

Thanks,

MG.

2

It depends. Both ways are OK. When you want to describe nationality, John is Canadian is just fine. You care more about nationality and not on the individual.
For example, when someone asks a group where they are from, someone can answer: “John is Canadian, Sally is English and I’m American”

When you say John is a Canadian, the focus in on John more than his nationality. In the other example, John is Canadian is equivalent to John is male instead of a male (or a boy).

3

Diverhank,

Thanks.
So ‘[color=blue]John is boy and Sally is girl’ is grammatically correct?

In one of my previous questions I had asked whether the following sentence was correct, and I was told that ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ need an article, ‘a’. Though I felt that since ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ are acting as predicate adjectives the article is unncessary. But I was not sure.

[color=brown]Assume that a person has two children; one of them is boy and the other is girl.

MG.

4

In your example in red, you’d want to use male and female without the article. The words boy and girl are not commonly used to describe people’s sex…they just don’t sound right. That’s why in my example I used “John is male”.

5

Hi Musicgold

The words “boy” and “girl” are used as nouns, not as stand-alone adjectives. That’s why you need to use an article with them.

Some words can be used both as nouns and as adjectives. The word “Canadian” can be used both as an adjective that refers to nationality, and as a noun which basically means “person from Canada”:

  • He is Canadian. (adjective)
  • He is a Canadian. (noun)

The word “English” can be used, for example, as an adjective that refers to national origin, or it can be used as a noun to refer to a language. The word “English” cannot be used as a noun that means “person from England”.

  • He is English. (adjective)
  • He is an Englishman. (noun)
  • He speaks English. (noun)

What I’ve written above is simplified, but I hope it helps you to understand.
Basically, it is a matter of learning the different ways each word can and cannot be used.
.

6

DiverHank and Yankee,

Thanks a lot.