Well, first of all thanks to all those people that were nice and even thanked me all my ws. Sadly I uploaded a ws talking about nationalities. I wrote about many of them. The thing started when I received one sms telling me (in a good way first) I was wrong, that I couldn �t write �Germans are �.... or �Russians are �.... but �The germans are �.... or �German people are.... �, I mean I had to write the nationalities with the article at the beginning or writing �people � after the noun. Well, I was quite sure both ways were possible, but I doubted, so I looked it on the Internet and I found that nationalities with nouns instead of adjectives were without the article. So I wrote her back,first telling her I was wrong only when writing �French �, as I had to say French people and I told he also there was no need to write the article ... Then I Iooked up in Cambridge dictionary the word �French � and it says it is rather an adjective or a noun, so sadly I answered her again telling her that it could be �Frenchs � as well (although I wasn �t really sure yet) and sent her a link with the instruction I read.

Well maybe I am wrong, but I got tonigh a private mail that was really rude, in a really bad manner. I don �t think I said anything bad to her, and I don �t like feeling this way when all I wanted was to know actually the real way. If she is right we could know by many ways instead of telling me I don �t know anything and writing me so rudely. My English isn �t perfect, I know, but I believe I have quite a good level, indeed. However, I don �t feel like going on this way, but before I go, I wish someone (an English native if possible) could tell me if it is or not possible to say: English are... whatever; Russians are..... whatever... And what about French? Is it possible without the �the �? Or the reason it isn �t possible (if so) is because the adjective is the exact same word as the noun? 

Thanks in advance!

Good luck to you all

Bye! 

 

In English,

 

 

/The source: English Vocabulary in Use by Stuart Redman, Cambridge, printed in 2016/

 

I still have doubts as I go on finding forums like this one  https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/the-german-people-the-germans.2939368/ where they say "Germans are famous for being friendly" is correct. This is said by someone from Oregon (USA)...and he addes this is for people concerned in good writting. I am getting mad! ... LOL. The British member on this post also underlines the answer saying that depending on what you want to say....

Thanx for the answer, I hope some other people answer too so I get a deeper view of all this... 

Hey Aisha! Don �t take a rude pm to heart! The vast majority of us on here support and help each other. I once had a pm from a member, telling me that from my posts, I was obviously a nasty person!!!! I am quite nice, most of the time, but  - how could she possibly know? In any applecart, there will be at least one bad apple. My advice is to ignore this. 

As a native speaker, I know how to talk about nationalities, but I didn �t know the rule, so thank you Ruta and Les. 

Never leave this site! It �s the best!

 

Lynne  

OW! You made me cry!... Thanks so much! I love the site actually but it �s true since yesterday I am feeling really bad, however there are so great people here!!... That �s really true! 

Have a nice day �lynne�. 

Hi Aisha, 

 

I totally agree with Lynne, don �t take anything to heart and don �t reply to nasty PMs, it �s not worth it.  

 

Thanks to Kohai for passing on the rule!

 

Janet 

Grow up and cope with aggression, rudeness and the fact that there are not only saints out there - without whining publicly.

Sorry for being so blunt. I don �t seem to be able to express it any other way.

Kohai gave the rule so succinctly! That makes it really easy both to remember and to teach. Thanks for that.

 

Bruce 

Dear Aisha,

unfortunately there are quite a few "bad apples " on this web site (I had several  unpleasant  experiences myself), so I know exactly how you feel . It �s very hard to ignore rude comments. I personally don �t agree with elderberrywine. 

 "Respect other people �s feelings. It might mean nothing to you, but it could mean everything to them."