English Vocabulary in Use Pre-intermediate and Intermediate » Unit 5: Country, nationality and language

Word List
  • Africa
  • American
  • Arabic
  • Argentina
  • Argentinian
  • Asia
  • Australia
  • Australian
  • Brazil
  • Brazilian
  • British
  • Cantonese
  • capital [city]
  • Caribbean
  • China
  • Chinese
  • come from
  • continent
  • Egypt
  • Egyptian
  • English
  • Europe
  • Far East
  • first language
  • France
  • French
  • German
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Israel
  • Israeli
  • Italian
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Mandarin
  • Middle East
  • Poland
  • population
  • Portuguese
  • Russia
  • Russian
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Saudi Arabian
  • Scandinavia
  • South America
  • South Korea
  • Spain
  • Spanish
  • Swiss
  • Switzerland
  • Thai
  • Thailand
  • Turkey
  • Turkish
  • UK
  • United States of America
  • USA
Exercises

5.1 ‣ Answer the questions.

  1. What nationality are people from Poland?
  2. What nationality are people from Thailand? _____
  3. What language is spoken in Spain? _____
  4. Where do people speak Hebrew? _____
  5. Where do people speak Mandarin? _____
  6. What language is spoken in Brazil? _____
  7. What language is spoken in Egypt? _____
  8. What nationality are people from Germany? _____
  9. Write down three countries whose first language is English. _____
  10. Write down three languages spoken in Switzerland. _____

5.2 ‣ What parts of the world are these countries in? Write the continent, e.g. Europe, or the area, e.g. the Far East.

  1. Germany
  2. Japan _____
  3. Saudi Arabia _____
  4. Italy _____
  5. Jamaica _____
  6. Argentina _____

5.3 ‣ Write the answers.

  1. Bangkok is the capital of .
  2. Ankara is the capital of _____.
  3. Seoul is the capital of _____.
  4. Moscow is the capital of _____.
  5. Buenos Aires is the capital of _____.
  6. Athens is the capital of _____.

5.4 ‣ Complete the sentences with the name of the people from the country on the right.

  1. I've worked a lot with . (FRANCE)
  2. I know lots of _____. (GERMANY)
  3. We do a lot of business with _____. (JAPAN)
  4. I used to know a lot of _____. (ISRAEL)
  5. I have always found _____ very friendly. (BRAZIL)
  6. People often say that _____ are very reserved. (BRITAIN)
  7. _____ are very organised. (SWITZERLAND)
  8. I met a lot of _____ on my trip to Moscow. (RUSSIA)

5.5 ‣ Over to you

Over to you

Answer the questions for you, then ask a friend – if possible, someone from a different country – and write their answers.

  1. What’s your nationality?
    _____
  2. What’s the capital city and population of your country?
    _____
  3. What’s your first language?
    _____
  4. What other languages do you speak?
    _____
  5. Which countries have you visited?
    _____
  6. Which countries would you like to visit?
    _____
Answer Key
A ‣ Who speaks what where?

countrynationalitylanguage
AustraliaAustralianEnglish
BrazilBrazilianPortuguese
ChinaChineseMandarin (and Cantonese)
EgyptEgyptianArabic
FranceFrenchFrench
GermanyGermanGerman
GreeceGreekGreek
IsraelIsraeliHebrew
ItalyItalianItalian
JapanJapaneseJapanese
(South) KoreaKoreanKorean
PolandPolishPolish
RussiaRussianRussian
Saudi ArabiaSaudi ArabianArabic
SpainSpanishSpanish
SwitzerlandSwissSwiss-German, French, Italian
ThailandThaiThai
TurkeyTurkishTurkish
the UK (United Kingdom)*BritishEnglish
the USA (United States of America)AmericanEnglish


*the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)

I come from Argentina, so I’m Argentinian and my first language is Spanish. The capital is Buenos Aires, which has a population of more than 10 million people.

Common mistakes

He’s English. (NOT He’s english.); We ate French food. (NOT We ate France food.)

I went to the USA. (NOT I went to USA.) I also visited the UK. (NOT I also visited UK.)

B ‣ Parts of the world

The continents in the world are Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, Australia [Australia and New Zealand] and Antarctica.

We also use these terms for different parts of the world:
the Middle East (e.g. United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia), the Far East (e.g. Thailand, Japan), the Caribbean (e.g. Jamaica, Barbados), Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland).

C ‣ The people

When we are talking about people from a particular country, we add ‘s’ to nationalities ending in ‘-i’ or ‘-(i)an’, but we need the definite article (the) for most others.

Brazilians/Russians are ...
Thais/Israelis are ...

The British / The French are ...
The Swiss / The Japanese are ...

With both groups we can also use the word ‘people’, e.g. Brazilian people, British people, etc.

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