Thanks for asking Marnie,
I asked a few people while I was in England - I could not get a
consistent answer and even the answers I got were not stated with
confidence.
I got a kick when I asked Cotty the question :-)
César
Panama City, Florida
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
This is very OT, but it's an international list, so maybe someone can clarify
something for me.
I've never been sure when one is supposed to use the word England or the word
Britain.
Let's say I have a list in a software program (I am writing), and it has
countries listed by URL. So it has US, CA, JP, FR, DE, UK. But I want to turn
those URL abbreviations into country names so it's very clear to the user. Both
will be listed, BTW.
US United States
CA Canada
JP Japan
FR France
DE Germany
UK = ???
So...
UK Britain?
UK England?
Which is appropriate, i.e. which fits the list?
I mean, I don't think people literally turn that UK into United Kingdom
(which I think some USers wouldn't automatically get anyway.) It's got to be
clearer than that. And when is United Kingdom used anyway? Other than as a URL? To
me it sort of sounds like Middle Earth or some fantasy place. I don't think
it is universally recognizable, but maybe that's me.
Like I said, I've never really understood when one is supposed to use England
or Britain. So which should it be?
And I don't think United Kingdom is very clear, so I would prefer either one
or the other and not it. Unless people feel it really SHOULD be United
Kingdom. But if so, I would want one of the others in parenthesis after it to be
totally clear.
Any clarification would be helpful. Even if my question isn't as clear as the
answer I would like. :-)
Thanks, Marnie aka Doe
