Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Americas shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Americas offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Americas at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Americas? Wrong! If the Americas is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Americas then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Americas? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Americas and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Americas wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Americas then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Americas site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Americas, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Americas, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

The Americas are the lands of the Western Hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 14% of the human population (about 900 million people). The Americas may alternatively be referred to as America (disambiguation); however, America may be ambiguous as it can refer to either this entire landmass or just the United States.

History Formation South America broke off from Western Gondwanaland around 135 million BCE, forming its own continent.Starting around 15 million BCE, the collision of the Caribbean Plate and the Pacific Plate resulted in a series of volcanoes along the border that created a number of islands. The gaps in the archipelago of Central American filled in with material eroded off North America and South America, plus new land created by continued volcanism. By 3 million BCE, the continents of North America and South America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama, thereby forming the single landmass of the Americas.

Settlement Archaeological finds establish the widespread presence of the Clovis culture in North America and South America around 10th millennium BC. Whether this is the first migration of humans into North America and South America is disputed, with Models of migration to the New World holding that humans arrived in North America and South America as early as 40000 BCE.

The Inuit migrated into the Arctic section of North America in another wave of migration, arriving around 1000 CE.{{cite web]|url = http://www.civilization.ca/educat/oracle/modules/dmorrison/page01_e.html|title = Canadian Inuit History--> Around the same time as the Inuit migrated into North America, Norse colonization of the Americas began arriving in Greenland in 982 and Vinland shortly thereafter. The Viking settlers quickly abandoned Vinland, and disappeared from Greenland by 1500.

Large scale European colonization of the Americas began shortly after the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The spread of new diseases brought by Europeans and Africans killed most of the inhabitants of North America and South America, with a general Population history of American indigenous peoples occurring in the mid sixteenth century, often well ahead of European contact. Native peoples and European colonizers came into widespread conflict, resulting in what David Stannard has called a genocides in history#Americas of the indigenous populations.Staff. A review of American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (by David Stannard), on the website of the Oxford University Press (the publishers) Early European immigrants were often part of state-sponsored attempts to found colonies in the Americas. Migration continued as people moved to the Americas fleeing religious persecution or seeking economic opportunities. Many individuals were forcibly transported to the Americas as slaves, prisoners or indentured servants.

Naming The earliest known use of the name America for this particular landmass dates from April 25, 1507. It appears on a globe and a large map created by the Germany cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. An accompanying book, Cosmographiae Introductio, explains that the name was derived from the Latinized version of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, Americus Vespucius, in its feminine form, America, as the other continents all have Latin feminine names.http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-24-america-turns-500_N.htm?csp=34

Vespucci's role in the naming issue, like his exploratory activity, is unclear. Some sources say that he was unaware of the widespread use of his name to refer to the new landmass. Christopher Columbus, who had first brought the region's existence to the attention of Renaissance era voyagers, had died in 1506 (believing, to the end, that he'd discovered and colonized part of India) and could not protest Waldseemüller's decision.

A few alternative theories regarding the landmass' naming have been proposed, but none of them has achieved any widespread acceptance.

One alternative, first advanced by Jules Marcou in 1875 and later recounted by novelist Jan Carew, is that the name America derives from the district of Amerrique in Nicaragua. The gold-rich district of Amerrique was purportedly visited by both Vespucci and Columbus, for whom the name became synonymous with gold. According to Marcou, Vespucci later applied the name to the New World, and even changed the spelling of his own name from Alberigo to Amerigo to reflect the importance of the discovery.

Another theory, first proposed by a Bristol antiquary and natural history, Alfred Hudd, in 1908 was that America is derived from Richard Amerike, a merchant from Bristol, who is believed to have financed John Cabot's voyage of discovery from England to Newfoundland (island) in 1497 as found in some documents from Westminster Abbey a few decades ago. Supposedly, Bristol fishermen had been visiting the coast of North America for at least a century before Columbus' voyage and Waldseemüller's maps are alleged to incorporate information from the early English journeys to North America. The theory holds that a variant of Amerike's name appeared on an early English map (of which however no copies survive) and that this was the true inspiration for Waldseemüller.

Geography Extent The northernmost point of the Americas is Kaffeklubben Island, which is the northernmost point of land on Earth. The southernmost point is the islands of Southern Thule, although they are sometimes considered part of Antarctica. The easternmost point is Nordostrundingen. The westernmost point is Attu Island.

Topography , the highest mountain in the Americas|thumb|rightThe western geography of the Americas is dominated by the American cordillera, with the Andes running along the west coast of South America and the Rocky Mountains and other Pacific Coast Ranges running the western side of North America. The 2300 km long Appalachian Mountains run along the east coast of North America from Alabama to Newfoundland (island). North of the Appalachians, the Arctic Cordillera runs along the eastern coast of Canada.

Between its coastal mountain ranges North America has vast flat areas. The Interior Plains spread over much of the continent with low relief. The Canadian Shield covers almost 5 million km² of North America and is generally quite flat. Similarly, the north-east of South America is covered by the flat Amazon Basin. The Brazilian Highlands on the east coast are fairly smooth but show some variations in landform, while further south the Gran Chaco and Pampas are broad lowlands.

Hydrology With coastal mountains and interior plains, the Americas have several large river basins that drain the continents. The largest river basin in South America is that of the Amazon Basin, which has the highest volume flow of any river on Earth. The largest river basin in North America is that of the Mississippi River, covering the second largest Drainage basin on earth. The second largest watershed of South America is that of the Paraná River, which covers about 2.5 million km².

Demography Ethnology The population of the Americas is made up of the descendants of eight large ethnic groups and their combinations.

The majority of the people live in Latin America, named for its dominant languages, Spanish language and Portuguese language, both of which are descended from Latin language. Latin America is typically contrasted with Anglo-America where English language, a Germanic language, prevails: namely, Canada and the United States (in Northern America) have predominantly British roots and are quite different in terms of linguistic, cultural, and economic situation from other countries in the Americas.

Religion Much of the population of the Americas practices Christianity with 85% of North Americans and 93% of South Americans describing it as their faith.

The most popular Christian faith in the Americas is Roman Catholicism. Protestantism is the second most popular faith, and is especially popular in Canada, the United States, and some Caribbean nations. Many other religions are present in the Americas, Judaism is practiced by 2% of the population in North America, and 0.23% in South America, while Islam is practiced by 1.8% of the population of North America and 0.28% in South America. Atheists represent 9% and 4% respectively. Indigenous religions are also practiced. Populations of Hindu and Sikh adherents are extremely low.

Languages Various languages are spoken in the Americas. Some are of European origin, others are spoken by indigenous peoples or are the mixture of various idioms like the different creoles.

The dominant language of Latin America is Spanish language, though the largest nation in Latin America, Brazil, speaks Portuguese language. Small enclaves of French- and English-speaking regions also exist in Latin America, notably in French Guiana and Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast, respectively, and Haitian Creole language, of French origin, is dominant in the nation of Haiti. Indigenous languages of the Americas are more prominent in Latin America than in Anglo-America, with Nahuatl language, Quechua, Aymara language and Guaraní language as the most common. Various other native languages are spoken with lesser frequency across both Anglo-America and Latin America. Creole languages other than Haitian Creole are also spoken in parts of Latin America.

The dominant language of Anglo-America, as the name suggests, is English language. French language is also official in Canada where it is the predominant language in Québec and an official language in New Brunswick along with English. It is also an important language in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Spanish language has become widely spoken in parts of the United States due to heavy immigration from Latin America. High levels of immigration in general have brought great linguistic diversity to Anglo-America, with over 300 languages known to be spoken in the United States alone, but most languages are spoken only in small enclaves and by relatively small immigrant groups.

The nations of Guyana, Suriname and Belize are generally considered not to fall into either Anglo-America or Latin America due to lingual differences with Latin America and geographic and cultural differences with Anglo-America; English is the primary language of Guyana and Belize, and Dutch language is the primary language of Suriname.



Most of the non-native languages have, to different degrees, evolved differently from the mother country, but are usually still mutually intelligible. Some have combined though, which has even resulted in completely new languages, such as Papiamentu, which is a combination of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch (representing the respective colonizers), native Arawak, various African languages and, more recently, English. Because of immigration, there are many communities where other languages are spoken from all parts of the world, especially in the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Canada, four very important destinations for immigrants.

Terminology Colonization of the Americas. America/Americas In many parts of the world, America (disambiguation) in the grammatical number is commonly used as a name for the United States; however, (the) Americas (plural with s and generally with the) is not and is invariably used to refer to the lands and regions of the Western hemisphere. Usage of America to also refer to this collectivity remains fairly common.

While many in the United States of America generally refer to the country as America and themselves as #American,Burchfield, R. W. 2004. Fowler's Modern English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-861021-1) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; p. 48. many people elsewhere in the Americas resent what they perceive as appropriation of the term in this context and, thus, this usage is frequently avoided. "American." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X); McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 35."America." Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-541619-8) Fee, Margery and McAlpine, J., ed., 1997. Toronto: Oxford University Press; p. 36." America." Microsoft Encarta Dictionary. 2007. Microsoft. In Canada, their southern neighbour is seldom referred to as "America" with "the United States", "the U.S.", or (informally) "the States" used instead. English language dictionaries and compendiums differ regarding usage and rendition.

American English usage Whether usage of America or the Americas is preferred, American is a self-referential term for many people living in the Americas. However, much of the English-speaking world uses the word to refer solely to a citizen, Demographics of the United States, or Nationality of the United States of America. Instead, the word pan-American is used as an unambiguous adjective to refer to the Americas.

In addition, some Canadians resent being referred to as Americans because of mistaken assumptions that they are U.S. citizens or an inability—particularly of people overseas—to distinguish Canadian English and American English accent (linguistics).

Spanish usage In Spanish, América is the name of a region considered a single continent composed of the subcontinents of South America and North America, the land bridge of Central America, and the islands of the Antilles. Americano/a in Spanish refers to a person from América in a similar way that europeo or europea refers to a person from Europe. The terms sudamericano/a, centroamericano/a, antillano/a and norteamericano/a can be used to more specifically refer to the location where a person may live.

Citizens of the United States of America are normally referred to by the term estadounidense instead of americano or americana. Also, the term norteamericano may refer to a citizen of the United States. This term is primarily used to refer to citizens of the United States, rarely those of other North American countries. Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas:Norteamérica

Portuguese usage In Portuguese, the word americano refers to the whole of the Americas. But, in Brazil and Portugal, it is widely used to refer to the citizens of the United States. Sometimes "norte-americano" is also used, but "americano" is the most common term employed by people and media at large, while "norte-americano" (North American) is more common in books. The least ambiguous term, "estadunidense" (used more frequently in Brazil) or "estado-unidense" (used more frequently in Portugal), something like "United Statian" or "estadounidense" in Spanish language), and "ianque" - the Portuguese version of "Yankee" - are rarely used.

"América", however, is not that frequently used as synonym to the country, and almost exclusively in current speech, while in print and in more formal environments the US is usually called either "Estados Unidos da América" (i.e. United States of America) or only "Estados Unidos" (i.e. United States). There is some difference between the usage of these words in Portugal and in Brazil, being the Brazilians less prone than the Portuguese to apply the term América to the country. A well-known example of such use is the translation of the title of Alain Resnais' movie "Mon Oncle d'Amérique": "O Meu Tio da América".

French usage In French, as in English, the word Américain can be confusing as it can be both used to refer to the United States, and to the American continents.The noun Amérique sometimes refers to the whole as one continent, and sometimes two continents, southern and northern; the United States is generally referred to as les États-Unis d'Amérique, les États-Unis, or les USA. However, the usage of Amérique to refer to the United States, while technically not correct, does still have some currency in France.The adjective américain is most often used for things relating to the United States; however, it may also be used for things relating to the American continents.Things relating to the United States can be referred to without ambiguity by the words états-unien, étasunien or étatsunien, although their usage is rare.

Countries {||-| | width="20" || valign=top | | width="20" || valign=top | |}

Dependencies {||-| | width="20" || valign=top | |}

Multinational organizations in the Americas {||valign=top| | width="50" || valign=top | |}

See also {||valign=top| | width="50" || valign=top | |}

Footnotes

References

External links

The Americas are the lands of the Western Hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 14% of the human population (about 900 million people). The Americas may alternatively be referred to as America (disambiguation); however, America may be ambiguous as it can refer to either this entire landmass or just the United States.

History Formation South America broke off from Western Gondwanaland around 135 million BCE, forming its own continent.Starting around 15 million BCE, the collision of the Caribbean Plate and the Pacific Plate resulted in a series of volcanoes along the border that created a number of islands. The gaps in the archipelago of Central American filled in with material eroded off North America and South America, plus new land created by continued volcanism. By 3 million BCE, the continents of North America and South America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama, thereby forming the single landmass of the Americas.

Settlement Archaeological finds establish the widespread presence of the Clovis culture in North America and South America around 10th millennium BC. Whether this is the first migration of humans into North America and South America is disputed, with Models of migration to the New World holding that humans arrived in North America and South America as early as 40000 BCE.

The Inuit migrated into the Arctic section of North America in another wave of migration, arriving around 1000 CE.{{cite web]|url = http://www.civilization.ca/educat/oracle/modules/dmorrison/page01_e.html|title = Canadian Inuit History--> Around the same time as the Inuit migrated into North America, Norse colonization of the Americas began arriving in Greenland in 982 and Vinland shortly thereafter. The Viking settlers quickly abandoned Vinland, and disappeared from Greenland by 1500.

Large scale European colonization of the Americas began shortly after the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The spread of new diseases brought by Europeans and Africans killed most of the inhabitants of North America and South America, with a general Population history of American indigenous peoples occurring in the mid sixteenth century, often well ahead of European contact. Native peoples and European colonizers came into widespread conflict, resulting in what David Stannard has called a genocides in history#Americas of the indigenous populations.Staff. A review of American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (by David Stannard), on the website of the Oxford University Press (the publishers) Early European immigrants were often part of state-sponsored attempts to found colonies in the Americas. Migration continued as people moved to the Americas fleeing religious persecution or seeking economic opportunities. Many individuals were forcibly transported to the Americas as slaves, prisoners or indentured servants.

Naming The earliest known use of the name America for this particular landmass dates from April 25, 1507. It appears on a globe and a large map created by the Germany cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. An accompanying book, Cosmographiae Introductio, explains that the name was derived from the Latinized version of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, Americus Vespucius, in its feminine form, America, as the other continents all have Latin feminine names.http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-24-america-turns-500_N.htm?csp=34

Vespucci's role in the naming issue, like his exploratory activity, is unclear. Some sources say that he was unaware of the widespread use of his name to refer to the new landmass. Christopher Columbus, who had first brought the region's existence to the attention of Renaissance era voyagers, had died in 1506 (believing, to the end, that he'd discovered and colonized part of India) and could not protest Waldseemüller's decision.

A few alternative theories regarding the landmass' naming have been proposed, but none of them has achieved any widespread acceptance.

One alternative, first advanced by Jules Marcou in 1875 and later recounted by novelist Jan Carew, is that the name America derives from the district of Amerrique in Nicaragua. The gold-rich district of Amerrique was purportedly visited by both Vespucci and Columbus, for whom the name became synonymous with gold. According to Marcou, Vespucci later applied the name to the New World, and even changed the spelling of his own name from Alberigo to Amerigo to reflect the importance of the discovery.

Another theory, first proposed by a Bristol antiquary and natural history, Alfred Hudd, in 1908 was that America is derived from Richard Amerike, a merchant from Bristol, who is believed to have financed John Cabot's voyage of discovery from England to Newfoundland (island) in 1497 as found in some documents from Westminster Abbey a few decades ago. Supposedly, Bristol fishermen had been visiting the coast of North America for at least a century before Columbus' voyage and Waldseemüller's maps are alleged to incorporate information from the early English journeys to North America. The theory holds that a variant of Amerike's name appeared on an early English map (of which however no copies survive) and that this was the true inspiration for Waldseemüller.

Geography Extent The northernmost point of the Americas is Kaffeklubben Island, which is the northernmost point of land on Earth. The southernmost point is the islands of Southern Thule, although they are sometimes considered part of Antarctica. The easternmost point is Nordostrundingen. The westernmost point is Attu Island.

Topography , the highest mountain in the Americas|thumb|rightThe western geography of the Americas is dominated by the American cordillera, with the Andes running along the west coast of South America and the Rocky Mountains and other Pacific Coast Ranges running the western side of North America. The 2300 km long Appalachian Mountains run along the east coast of North America from Alabama to Newfoundland (island). North of the Appalachians, the Arctic Cordillera runs along the eastern coast of Canada.

Between its coastal mountain ranges North America has vast flat areas. The Interior Plains spread over much of the continent with low relief. The Canadian Shield covers almost 5 million km² of North America and is generally quite flat. Similarly, the north-east of South America is covered by the flat Amazon Basin. The Brazilian Highlands on the east coast are fairly smooth but show some variations in landform, while further south the Gran Chaco and Pampas are broad lowlands.

Hydrology With coastal mountains and interior plains, the Americas have several large river basins that drain the continents. The largest river basin in South America is that of the Amazon Basin, which has the highest volume flow of any river on Earth. The largest river basin in North America is that of the Mississippi River, covering the second largest Drainage basin on earth. The second largest watershed of South America is that of the Paraná River, which covers about 2.5 million km².

Demography Ethnology The population of the Americas is made up of the descendants of eight large ethnic groups and their combinations.

The majority of the people live in Latin America, named for its dominant languages, Spanish language and Portuguese language, both of which are descended from Latin language. Latin America is typically contrasted with Anglo-America where English language, a Germanic language, prevails: namely, Canada and the United States (in Northern America) have predominantly British roots and are quite different in terms of linguistic, cultural, and economic situation from other countries in the Americas.

Religion Much of the population of the Americas practices Christianity with 85% of North Americans and 93% of South Americans describing it as their faith.

The most popular Christian faith in the Americas is Roman Catholicism. Protestantism is the second most popular faith, and is especially popular in Canada, the United States, and some Caribbean nations. Many other religions are present in the Americas, Judaism is practiced by 2% of the population in North America, and 0.23% in South America, while Islam is practiced by 1.8% of the population of North America and 0.28% in South America. Atheists represent 9% and 4% respectively. Indigenous religions are also practiced. Populations of Hindu and Sikh adherents are extremely low.

Languages Various languages are spoken in the Americas. Some are of European origin, others are spoken by indigenous peoples or are the mixture of various idioms like the different creoles.

The dominant language of Latin America is Spanish language, though the largest nation in Latin America, Brazil, speaks Portuguese language. Small enclaves of French- and English-speaking regions also exist in Latin America, notably in French Guiana and Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast, respectively, and Haitian Creole language, of French origin, is dominant in the nation of Haiti. Indigenous languages of the Americas are more prominent in Latin America than in Anglo-America, with Nahuatl language, Quechua, Aymara language and Guaraní language as the most common. Various other native languages are spoken with lesser frequency across both Anglo-America and Latin America. Creole languages other than Haitian Creole are also spoken in parts of Latin America.

The dominant language of Anglo-America, as the name suggests, is English language. French language is also official in Canada where it is the predominant language in Québec and an official language in New Brunswick along with English. It is also an important language in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Spanish language has become widely spoken in parts of the United States due to heavy immigration from Latin America. High levels of immigration in general have brought great linguistic diversity to Anglo-America, with over 300 languages known to be spoken in the United States alone, but most languages are spoken only in small enclaves and by relatively small immigrant groups.

The nations of Guyana, Suriname and Belize are generally considered not to fall into either Anglo-America or Latin America due to lingual differences with Latin America and geographic and cultural differences with Anglo-America; English is the primary language of Guyana and Belize, and Dutch language is the primary language of Suriname.



Most of the non-native languages have, to different degrees, evolved differently from the mother country, but are usually still mutually intelligible. Some have combined though, which has even resulted in completely new languages, such as Papiamentu, which is a combination of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch (representing the respective colonizers), native Arawak, various African languages and, more recently, English. Because of immigration, there are many communities where other languages are spoken from all parts of the world, especially in the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Canada, four very important destinations for immigrants.

Terminology Colonization of the Americas. America/Americas In many parts of the world, America (disambiguation) in the grammatical number is commonly used as a name for the United States; however, (the) Americas (plural with s and generally with the) is not and is invariably used to refer to the lands and regions of the Western hemisphere. Usage of America to also refer to this collectivity remains fairly common.

While many in the United States of America generally refer to the country as America and themselves as #American,Burchfield, R. W. 2004. Fowler's Modern English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-861021-1) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; p. 48. many people elsewhere in the Americas resent what they perceive as appropriation of the term in this context and, thus, this usage is frequently avoided. "American." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X); McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 35."America." Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage. (ISBN 0-19-541619-8) Fee, Margery and McAlpine, J., ed., 1997. Toronto: Oxford University Press; p. 36." America." Microsoft Encarta Dictionary. 2007. Microsoft. In Canada, their southern neighbour is seldom referred to as "America" with "the United States", "the U.S.", or (informally) "the States" used instead. English language dictionaries and compendiums differ regarding usage and rendition.

American English usage Whether usage of America or the Americas is preferred, American is a self-referential term for many people living in the Americas. However, much of the English-speaking world uses the word to refer solely to a citizen, Demographics of the United States, or Nationality of the United States of America. Instead, the word pan-American is used as an unambiguous adjective to refer to the Americas.

In addition, some Canadians resent being referred to as Americans because of mistaken assumptions that they are U.S. citizens or an inability—particularly of people overseas—to distinguish Canadian English and American English accent (linguistics).

Spanish usage In Spanish, América is the name of a region considered a single continent composed of the subcontinents of South America and North America, the land bridge of Central America, and the islands of the Antilles. Americano/a in Spanish refers to a person from América in a similar way that europeo or europea refers to a person from Europe. The terms sudamericano/a, centroamericano/a, antillano/a and norteamericano/a can be used to more specifically refer to the location where a person may live.

Citizens of the United States of America are normally referred to by the term estadounidense instead of americano or americana. Also, the term norteamericano may refer to a citizen of the United States. This term is primarily used to refer to citizens of the United States, rarely those of other North American countries. Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas:Norteamérica

Portuguese usage In Portuguese, the word americano refers to the whole of the Americas. But, in Brazil and Portugal, it is widely used to refer to the citizens of the United States. Sometimes "norte-americano" is also used, but "americano" is the most common term employed by people and media at large, while "norte-americano" (North American) is more common in books. The least ambiguous term, "estadunidense" (used more frequently in Brazil) or "estado-unidense" (used more frequently in Portugal), something like "United Statian" or "estadounidense" in Spanish language), and "ianque" - the Portuguese version of "Yankee" - are rarely used.

"América", however, is not that frequently used as synonym to the country, and almost exclusively in current speech, while in print and in more formal environments the US is usually called either "Estados Unidos da América" (i.e. United States of America) or only "Estados Unidos" (i.e. United States). There is some difference between the usage of these words in Portugal and in Brazil, being the Brazilians less prone than the Portuguese to apply the term América to the country. A well-known example of such use is the translation of the title of Alain Resnais' movie "Mon Oncle d'Amérique": "O Meu Tio da América".

French usage In French, as in English, the word Américain can be confusing as it can be both used to refer to the United States, and to the American continents.The noun Amérique sometimes refers to the whole as one continent, and sometimes two continents, southern and northern; the United States is generally referred to as les États-Unis d'Amérique, les États-Unis, or les USA. However, the usage of Amérique to refer to the United States, while technically not correct, does still have some currency in France.The adjective américain is most often used for things relating to the United States; however, it may also be used for things relating to the American continents.Things relating to the United States can be referred to without ambiguity by the words états-unien, étasunien or étatsunien, although their usage is rare.

Countries {||-| | width="20" || valign=top | | width="20" || valign=top | |}

Dependencies {||-| | width="20" || valign=top | |}

Multinational organizations in the Americas {||valign=top| | width="50" || valign=top | |}

See also {||valign=top| | width="50" || valign=top | |}

Footnotes

References

External links



BBC NEWS | Americas
Visit BBC News for up-to-the-minute news, breaking news, video, audio and feature stories. BBC News provides trusted World and UK news as well as local and regional perspectives.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas
Headline news and in depth features about the American continent.

BBC World Service Trust.org | Trust Americas index
Sudanese, Simon Deng and Haitian, Jean-Robert Deng compared their lives as former child slaves at the Trust/MIT anti-slavery event in Boston.

Channel 4 - News - Americas
Americas ... From Baghdad to Berlin, Barack Obama prepares for his world tour »

Shell in the US - Shell Eco-marathon Americas
Mater Dei’s 2,843.4 mpg achievement stretches boundaries of fuel efficiency at the 2008 Shell Eco-marathon Americas. Read the press release.

Thomson Holidays - Holidays in The Americas
The Americas holidays with Thomson. From a full package to just a flight or a hotel throughout The Americas, Thomson has it all.

Americas
Sponsor a child with SOS Children in any of 124 countries: Americas ... Contact us | info@soschildren.org | 01223 365589 | Privacy Policy "SOS Children" refers to SOS Kinderdorf ...

The Independent | America Travel News | America Travel Guides and ...
travel the americas. our features expose must-see destinations in south america, central america and north america. ...

TribalEye Images: Galleries - Photos of the Americas
Jamie Marshall / Tribal Eye Images - Travel photographs, travel photography, ethnographic photography, tribal textiles, photos of The Americas, North America, Central America ...

Reuters AlertNet - Americas
AlertNet provides news, information and analysis for everyone interested in emergency relief. AlertNet is run by Reuters Foundation.

 

Americas



 
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