"Poles" or "Polish people" - which is better to use?

Oh, I see

Or for anyone speaking Polish.

That's actually the opposite of the truth. What language get do you think people speak at home here in Poland?

I do know that the "Jewish" people in Israel now are not actually Jews (hence the "ish" on the end suggesting a similarity), and it makes make perfect sense considering the fact that Rome chased Isreals original Occupants (presumably ancestors of the Igbo tribe and also ancestors of a large % of "African Americans" residing in America today) out during the Roman era and replaced them with these Europeans that we see there today, however I have not heard anything in regards to the "ish" pertaining to Turks Poles Swedes etc, but that could just be for lack of research.

If someone called me a pole after I told them not to I'd beat them to the point I can drag their body to an actual pole on the side of the street, and I'd say watch your step you might fall on a pole and push them into it. Welcome to Poland the Polish Women and Men are nice. Polaks is less offensive to me. I'm not a thing you can hang lights, lock bike, stop cars with...

Homonyms and homophones must be very distressing for you generally.

He must be very confused when people talk about one of their eye's or being referred to as a female sheep.

I prefer say Polish people. Maybe its even not rude but I do not use Poles.

In English, "Polish people" sounds absolutely fine. Of course, we can also just as easily (and correctly) say/write "the Poles" or "the Polish", as one expresses the idea of "the Spanish", "the French", etc.

My preference would be "Polishmen" as in Englishmen and Frenchmen.

And of course, your "preference" would sound ridiculous in English, save for referring to a group of "Polish men" as opposed to women:-)

Polish people is too long. So, I stopped using it long ago. But I see that it is often used by foreigners.

This is true across a number of names for nationalities, "Spanish people" seems more common to me now than Spaniards (which sounds a bit old-fashioned) same with lots of others Italians is still pretty common but personally I can't imagine saying "Frenchmen" with a straight face.... French people or the French....

And politically incorrect, possibly? You know, Spaniards brutally colonised vast areas in Americas etc.

Yeh words like 'Spaniard' or ' Frenchman' are kind of obsolete.

I had to get rid of a Spanish person off my fb cos all he posted was stuff about the evils of British Empire and how stupid and undereducated Brits are.

I was like 'mate worry about your own savage colonial history and it's aftermath before crying about ours'. Lol.

The kind of person who think Britain still having Gib is 'wrong ' unarguably but see Ceuta and Mellila as ....just fine.

"Spaniard"and "Frenchman" are both perfectly acceptable! It's simply that we've al become so mired in the stranglehold of political (in-)incorrectness that what's right now looks wrong and the reverse.

When talking about specific men, yes. If falling out of use now.

Poles, Finns, Danes, Greeks, Kurds, Turks etc are still used.

But old fashioned.... my tendency is to mostly use "national adjective" and people in the plural "French people" "Spanish people"

In the singular I mostly just use adjectives "He's French" "She's Spanish"

I would mostly rephrase sentences to avoid Frenchman or Spaniard the same way I'd rephrase to avoid using 'one' (cause it's hard to use that without sounding like a pedantic twit - I don't mind sounding like a pedantic twit when occasion demands, but I don't like to make a habit of it...)

Chalk it up to personal taste, I suppose

@kubakhan
No more stupid than calling someone a Brit

I don't care.

You should. The addition of people ennobles the group which you address and you sound more polite and elegant. You don`t want to pass for a boorish simpleton, do you??? :):)

50-50.

Only a few nationalities have specific nouns (Finns, Danes, Swedes, Poles, Scots, Bretons, Spaniards) and they tend to be ones we like.

Also Jews and Turks.


Yes, we love them all.

Jews and Turks are great people

No word for the F word people, capital in Paris.

Either nomenclature is just fine with me.
Eternal debate seems merely hair splitting.

I just say Polish.
It is my understanding that when Pole is written in English there should be some kind of accent on the "e". Thus Pole should be pronounced "POL-lay". That would also be the plural. But it became so anglicized over time that Pole/Poles are common usage.

"Pollack", to me at least, is a derogatory term that belittles the Polish.

No.... Pole is pronounced exactly the same way as 'poll' or 'pole'.... which is one reason some people find it awkward in speech...

It's an English word and of course there aren't accents in English.

The Polish words are Polak and Pollka.


I've never heard that word; is it in a local form of English somewhere rather than in standard English?

In English, a pollock is a type of fish (a fairly low quality one rather like the Polish mintaj) however that of course is with an o rather than an a. It's also an English surname, probably as likely to be related to Pollard rather than Polak (though there was of course seventeenth and eighteenth century immigration from Poland to Britain.

It's American.... "Pollack" or maybe "Pollock" pronounced pretty closely to Polak but offensive (like Bohunk or Russkie or Mick...). It used to be more common but not so much used anymore (AFAIK)