Americans, look here!

[johan]

I'm in a terminology discussion elsewhere.

In very relaxed and colloquial US English, is Canada included when the average American talks about North America, or do both terms North America and America refer to just the US? Does "I live in North America, not in Canada" come off naturally in your ears, as something an ordinary American in a bar might say?

Comments desired!

Comments

[mireille21.livejournal.com]

In common parlance in my experience, (if typical Australian usage is of any use at all) when people say "America" they are generally referring to the USA, perhaps having not thought about (or been aware of?) geography. Don't underestaimte some peoples' stupidity I have learned.

Using "North America" indicates that they not only know their geography, but are therefore by definition deliberately referring to Canada, USA and probably Mexico.

On a personal note, I dislike the egocentricity implied in using "America" so tend to say "The U.S." for my own purposes, although I still refer to "Americans."

And as a complete aside, it flips both ways as I discovered recently upon witnessing what became a slightly heated debate between Americans and Australians about what defined Australia, Australasia and the South-East Asian Pacific region.