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They both mean `I am an American` but which is preferable in everyday speech
and in writing, and why? Is the former more formal than the latter?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-16T23:09:38.740
19550
2017-08-23T23:22:47.567
1346
question
words
私は米国人です vs 私はアメリカ人です
Honestly, I have almost always heard people from the United States use
"アメリカ人". I think "米国" can indeed be thought as more formal, and is used a lot
when it comes to guidebooks and such. I see it a lot in writing, and when
writing compounds:

  * 米文学｛べいぶんがく｝: American literature. Any other form, 米国 or アメリカ, can be used there.
  * 北米｛ほくべい｝: North America
  * 米州｛べいしゅう｝： The Americas

Keep in mind that they both have exactly the same meaning: the United States
of America.

  * 米国{べいこく} comes from 亜米利加｛あめりか｝ which is I think simply a juxtaposition of Chinese characters to get the actual sound.
  * Similarly, for France, フランス is always used in katakana except for French - Japanese dictionaries for which the chinese character 仏｛ふつ｝ is used. This one comes from 仏蘭西｛ふらんす｝. However, this only used when referring to "abstract" France, and never to refer to the country or to the people. You can also find it for example in the 仏検｛ふつけん｝, the French proficiency test for Japanese people.
  * For the English language, 英｛えい｝ is used, but this one comes from England, 英国｛えいこく｝, which itself is from 英吉利｛いぎりす｝.

So, they are the same but I tend to hear a lot more of "アメリカ" and see a lot of
"米国" written. If you have a look on Wikipedia though, you can see most pages
that have 米 in their name are redirected to their アメリカ counterparts which
would seem to indicate that アメリカ would even be more correct or at least more
frequent.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-17T02:58:27.877
19553
2014-11-17T07:53:01.267
2014-11-17T07:53:01.267
3614
19550
answer
Today people never say `米国人` in everyday speech and even in written form most
people express American as `アメリカ人`.

The obvious exception is on a newspaper. Writers there still express it as
`米国人`, for possibly two reasons:

  1. `米国` is shorter than `アメリカ`.

  2. Kanji is more suited than Katakana to vertical writing, which is still used in newspapers.

I also want to note that this tends to be applied to `英国`/`イギリス` as well.
Also, Kanji is often used to express each country (e.g. `仏`, `独`, or `伊` to
express `フランス`, `ドイツ`, or `イタリア`) even on the web news just because those are
shorter.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-17T05:09:31.077
19555
2017-08-23T23:22:47.567
2017-08-23T23:22:47.567
19550
answer