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


jon357 74 | 22,087
2 May 2017 #152
Polak is reserved for within the Polish community

Or for anyone speaking Polish.
jon357 74 | 22,087
2 May 2017 #153
That's actually the opposite of the truth. What language get do you think people speak at home here in Poland?
ZODIAC
24 May 2017 #154
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.
Polish>polak>po l
16 Oct 2017 #155
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...
Roger5 1 | 1,448
16 Oct 2017 #156
Homonyms and homophones must be very distressing for you generally.
mafketis 36 | 10,971
16 Oct 2017 #157
He must be very confused when people talk about one of their eye's or being referred to as a female sheep.
PrinceDidier
17 Oct 2017 #158
I prefer say Polish people. Maybe its even not rude but I do not use Poles.
Lyzko 45 | 9,321
20 Oct 2017 #159
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.
mgrochowski
8 Nov 2017 #160
My preference would be "Polishmen" as in Englishmen and Frenchmen.
Lyzko 45 | 9,321
8 Nov 2017 #161
And of course, your "preference" would sound ridiculous in English, save for referring to a group of "Polish men" as opposed to women:-)
pawian 222 | 24,060
9 Jan 2021 #162
Polish people is too long. So, I stopped using it long ago. But I see that it is often used by foreigners.
mafketis 36 | 10,971
9 Jan 2021 #163
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....
pawian 222 | 24,060
9 Jan 2021 #164
than Spaniards (which sounds a bit old-fashioned)

And politically incorrect, possibly? You know, Spaniards brutally colonised vast areas in Americas etc.
rozumiemnic 8 | 3,861
10 Jan 2021 #165
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.
Lyzko 45 | 9,321
28 Jan 2021 #166
"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.
jon357 74 | 22,087
28 Jan 2021 #167
Spaniard"and "Frenchman" are both perfectly acceptable!

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

Poles, Finns, Danes, Greeks, Kurds, Turks etc are still used.
mafketis 36 | 10,971
28 Jan 2021 #168
Spaniard"and "Frenchman" are both perfectly acceptable!

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...)
Lyzko 45 | 9,321
28 Jan 2021 #169
Chalk it up to personal taste, I suppose
Proud Pole Missy
8 Jan 2023 #170
@kubakhan
No more stupid than calling someone a Brit
Alien 19 | 5,029
8 Jan 2023 #171
prefer to be called "Polish people" than "Poles"... :)

I don't care.
pawian 222 | 24,060
8 Jan 2023 #172
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??? :):)
jon357 74 | 22,087
8 Jan 2023 #173
The addition of people ennobles the group

50-50.

Only a few nationalities have specific nouns (Finns, Danes, Swedes, Poles, Scots, Bretons, Spaniards) and they tend to be ones we like.
pawian 222 | 24,060
8 Jan 2023 #174
Only a few nationalities have specific nouns

Also Jews and Turks.

they tend to be ones we like.

Yes, we love them all.
jon357 74 | 22,087
8 Jan 2023 #175
Jews and Turks are great people

No word for the F word people, capital in Paris.
Lyzko 45 | 9,321
8 Jan 2023 #176
Either nomenclature is just fine with me.
Eternal debate seems merely hair splitting.
marion kanawha 3 | 91
9 Jan 2023 #177
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.
mafketis 36 | 10,971
9 Jan 2023 #178
Thus Pole should be pronounced "POL-lay"

No.... Pole is pronounced exactly the same way as 'poll' or 'pole'.... which is one reason some people find it awkward in speech...
jon357 74 | 22,087
9 Jan 2023 #179
Pole is written in English there should be some kind of accent on the "e

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

The Polish words are Polak and Pollka.

"Pollack"

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.
mafketis 36 | 10,971
9 Jan 2023 #180
I've never heard that word;

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)


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