total_alk

total_alk t1_j69dynj wrote

I don't understand how English works--and I'm a native speaker. It's perfectly proper English to say "The French", "The English", or "The Dutch" when referring to the people of those countries. But it is not proper English to say "The American", "The German", "The Canadian" when referring to people of those countries. Am I missing something? Is it a simple matter of the words ending in an "h" vs. "n"?

The grammar is confusing.

Edit: to be clear, my comment is about grammar, not whether it is appropriate to use those terms to refer to people groups.

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