Gentile

Content

• How are gentilices formed?
• The gentilices and their connotations
• Inhabitants of continents
• Country names
• Cities names

The gentilices are those adjectives that account for the geographical origin of an individual. For example: Mexican, Italian, Russian.

The gentilicio, like everythingadjective, describes a noun even though (often) it is omitted. The geographical origin can be a category as vast as a continent or much more specific, such as a province or a city. The most used gentilicio is that of the country, perhaps due to its direct association with the citizenship of the people.

The gentilicio shares with all the adjectives the question of the correspondence or concordance between gender and number with the noun it refers to (although some names do not distinguish gender).

Unlike what happens in the English language, the gentilices in Spanish start with lowercase. Furthermore, gentilic adjectives often take on the role of a noun. For example: The Argentine won the tournament again.

How are gentilices formed?

• When nouns end in a vowel, the ending ‘ano’ or ‘ino’ is used to indicate the gentilicio, while when the noun ends in ‘land’, ‘landia’ or ‘landa’, the ending ‘es’ is simply added. For example: Italian
• When the noun ends in a consonant like "d" or "l", Then the letter" Í "is usually added, although other times the name is created through the ending 'eño' or 'ero'. For example: Brazilian

The gentilices and their connotations

The existence of the gentilicio is proof of the different relationships that were established throughout history between different human groups from different places.

Although the name only describes an objective fact (it simply indicates where someone was born), many times within a community the name acquire special connotations, often derogatory or discriminatory or at least stereotyped, which are advised to avoid.

Qualifying any Spaniard as ‘Galician’ or any American as ‘Yankee’, in addition to being disrespectful, is a clear sign of ignorance.

Inhabitants of continents

Country names

Cities names