For England, why do you put "country" in quote marks as if England is a pretend country? England is a real, actual country, one of four (real, actual) countries that make up the UK.
Just because England calls itself a country doesn't make it a country by international standards. The rest of the world usually defines a country as having the same definition as a sovereign nation (like this website), something which England is not. Basically the term country in the UK are the names of regions, like states in the US.
If that was true why would there even be the need for the word sovereign to make the distinction. Just because some people personally do not like it doesnt suddenly make them not countries. I could say I don't like it that estonia is a country, but it still is. Just because people somehow cant understand it, they want it to not be countries. Instead of accepting the truth they want to alter it, so that it fits their preferences..
by the same logic the netherlands wouldnt be a country either, yet you never hear anyone complain in that case, or say "country" (it is a united kingdom aswell,)
It's not about personal preferences or failure to understand, but about usage. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are countries in the same way that Tyrol, Bavaria, Saxony and Aruba are. They are semi-autonomous subnational divisions that incidentally also run under the name country. But let's say we're talking about countries and mention the United States, Australia, China... then the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria belong to this list, but not Scotland, Bavaria, and Tyrol. Your Netherlands comparison doesn't quite hold up because this name is applied both to the United Kingdom and to the country within that United Kingdom, so it's called country either way.
For some reason, Germans and Austrians never complain about this issue even though they have probably won many of Malbaby's Nitpicker awards, and German "countries" enjoy greater autonomy than the countries of the United Kingdom.
I agree, England is a country, and the UK is a sovereign state made up of a group of countries, hence the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That being said, I do recognise that our government controls the whole of the UK, not just England, however I maintain my stance that England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are all each individual countries, we just work together as a group.
"England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom.[4][5][6] It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west." "Status - Country" - Wikipedia
"The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain,[note 8] is a sovereign country in western Europe." - Wikipedia
How ironic that some can so eloquently explain that though Scotland, England,Wales and Northern Ireland are part of the UK, they are, nevertheless, countries in their own right, yet find it impossible to comprehend that Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten are countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, or that Saint Martin and Guadeloupe are "departements" of France and, therefore, an
@divantilya Maybe because Aruba/Curaçao/Sint Maarten are thousands of miles away from metropolitan Netherlands (and I don't consider those as countries), and Saint Martin/Guadeloupe are thousands of miles away from metropolitan France. By the way, Saint Martin is an overseas collectivity of France, not a 'departement'.
It's a country in the same way that Florida is a state and the Caspian Sea is a sea... that is what people call it and therefore it is what it is, but by some definitions it is not. The quotation marks don't mean that it is pretend it just means that it is a country (as some call it).
Fun fact: England is the only "country" in the UK which has no semi-sovereign government...Fortunately, England is soon a sovereign nation. All it takes is cutting these humiliating bonds imposed by the European Union and the United Kingdom. Then this eternal semantic debate comes to an end. :-)
Actually, it's more of an autonomous territory. Not even much people there consider themselves their own country, and some might even be offended if you say so
Even though I can deal with "East Germany", the"East Berlin" seems a bit unacceptable for me. It was never the official name of the city on either side of the wall. In the GDR it was called simply "Berlin".
I didn't grow up in the GDR, but in the FRG, we indeed used to make the distinction between West and East Berlin. Besides, if you want to point out East Germany's capital, you sure have to make that distinction, since West Berlin was not a capital - not even for West Germany.
It's rather nitpicky, but I agree that the German Democratic Republic considered the whole of Berlin to be its capital. In a similar way, Jetpunk accepts "Jerusalem", and not "West-Jerusalem" (not to speak of Tel Aviv...) as the capital of Israel, even though that can be, and indeed is, disputed.
I found that interesting too, I guess the person who made the quiz is from Western Europe :) although that did get me wondering why they called England a "country" rather than a country...
Country here is used in a 'regional' sense not as a sovereign state. Stay on jetpunk long enough and you will be well advised as to the status of UK and the "Countries" that make up the UK. ps. it is one of the favourite picks for our world beating 'Nitpickers' association.
If you're going to make "Evia" work for Euboea, you should put it before "Evian" in the list so that you don't get it accidentally before you've even read the clue!
The spelling chosen for the island of Evia is a problem in JP quizzes. I'm Greek and can never remember how JP wants us to spell it. NO ONE spells it like that.
I tried Evia 10 times and couldn't understand why it didn't work. In my opinion it should be added as an option. The conflict with Evian shouldn't determine that a proper (modern) spelling of the island answer is rejected: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euboea
That depends greatly on where you draw the border between Europe and Asia. The most common definition for the section of the border between the Black and Caspian seas follows the Caucasus ridge line (seen here, helpfully shown in white) which also forms much of the border between Russia and Georgia. Mount Elbrus is just north of that line, putting it on the European side.
The Espagne article is a disambiguation page linking to other entries. One of them mentions that "Espagne" is the French name for Spain. The Spanish article on Spain is called España.
Bruh... I have never seen that for La Manche Channel they call English Channel. And East Berlin was a bit confusion. And I guess Elbrus is also more Asian mountain not European. Nice quiz though.
by the same logic the netherlands wouldnt be a country either, yet you never hear anyone complain in that case, or say "country" (it is a united kingdom aswell,)
"England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom.[4][5][6] It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west." "Status - Country" - Wikipedia
"The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain,[note 8] is a sovereign country in western Europe." - Wikipedia
integral part of France.
After all they all partake in the "six nations" tourney...
https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/sweden/sesymbols.html
And somehow I still forgot East Berlin and facepalmed when I saw it