nacionalidades
/naθjonalidades/from spelling rules
The English phrase "nationalities" is translated into Spanish as nacionalidades.
The term refers to the status of belonging to a particular nation.
How does it change in a sentence?
nacionalidades is a feminine noun. Because of this, any adjectives used to accompany it must also be in the feminine form. The singular form of this word is nacionalidad.
How do you pronounce it?
/naθjonalidades/
What mistakes should you avoid?
Avoid capitalizing nationalities when writing in Spanish. Unlike English, nationalities are written in lowercase in Spanish.
Did you know?
- While most nationalities follow a pattern, some gentilicios are completely unexpected. For example, people from Costa Rica are called costarricenses and people from Cuba are cubanos, but the term for someone from Madrid is madrileño.
- The word nacionalidad can be used in legal contexts to refer to citizenship, but in casual conversation, people often prefer to say soy de followed by the country to avoid sounding overly formal.
- Spanish possesses a specific category of words called gentilicios to express nacionalidades. This is a distinct linguistic classification that does not have a direct one-word equivalent in English.
Examples in context
- Ten cuidado: En inglés las nacionalidades, los días de la semana y los idiomas se escriben con mayúscula inicial.Be careful: We capitalize nationalities, days of the week, and languages in English.This sentence is useful for highlighting the difference in capitalization rules between English and Spanish regarding the word nacionalidades.Tatoeba #5221063 by Ricardo14, translation #3709578 by Ricardo14
- ¿Eres italiano/ italiana?Are you Italian? (male/female)
- Soy mexicano/ mexicana.I am Mexican. (male/female)
- Es costarricense.He/she is Costa Rican.
- Somos chilenos/ chilenas.We are Chilean. (male/female)
- Soy español/ española.I am Spanish. (male/female)
- Son vascos/ vascas.They are Basque. (male/female)
- El cuestionario pregunta por las nacionalidades de los invitados.The questionnaire asks for the nationalities of the guests.
- En este curso estudiamos las diferentes nacionalidades del mundo.In this course, we study the different nationalities of the world.
Example conversation
Alejandro and Sofía are discussing a global cultural event.
- Alejandro¿Qué información necesitas para el evento?What information do you need for the event?
- SofíaNecesito saber las nacionalidades de todos los asistentes.I need to know the nationalities of all the attendees.
- AlejandroPuedo enviarte esa lista por correo ahora mismo.I can send you that list by email right now.
- SofíaGracias, Alejandro, eso sería de gran ayuda.Thanks, Alejandro, that would be a great help.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
