European Place Names

PlaceNames   Sat Apr 14, 2007 2:10 am GMT
I've noticed that many Europeans tend to write place names backwards. Is this the usual method, or is it simply peculiar?

I've seen stuff like this:
DE, Berlin
Germany, Berlin
EU, FR, Paris
UK, London

Is this common usage? (as opposed to:
Houston, Texas
Helena, MT
Boston, Mass.
Portland, USA
greg   Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:05 am GMT
Je n'ai jamais vu qui que ce soit écrire « EU, FR, Paris » dans un texte. Tout le monde sait ce qu'est Paris. Par conséquent, « Paris » suffira.

En revanche, si tu veux écrire une adresse sur une enveloppe, tu peux écrire « 75.0XX Paris, France » ou « Fr — 75.0XX Paris » etc.
greg   Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:07 am GMT
Précision : « 75.0XX Paris, France » ou « Fr — 75.0XX Paris » si tu écris de l'étranger, car en France « 75.0XX Paris » suffit amplement.
Guest   Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:08 am GMT
" Is this common usage? (as opposed to:
Houston, Texas
Helena, MT
Boston, Mass.
Portland, USA "'


this is a tipical American usage, not "common usage"

In Europe we would just say Paris, London, Madrid, Rome... Because we suppose that people know they are in France, UK or Italy

I am always amused to hear in US news speaking of "Paris, France"... as if they were afraid that the people thought it was about "the Paris" in Texas...
Guest   Sat Apr 14, 2007 2:26 pm GMT
Well, Americans usually know where they are if they just look at a calendar. If it's Monday, it's Paris, if it's Tuesday it's Rome; if it's Wednesday it's still Rome, but this time Rome, England (the Roman ruins at Bath).
Sarcastic Northwesterner   Sat Apr 14, 2007 2:32 pm GMT
>> I am always amused to hear in US news speaking of "Paris, France"... as if they were afraid that the people thought it was about "the Paris" in Texas... <<

Well, it does happen. Here in North America we have many cities and towns named with the same name as cities and towns. I bet there is a city named after all the famous European cities. So, it's always important to specify. Is it Paris, Texas or Paris, France? London, Canada or London, England; Portland, Oregon or Portland, Maine? Ontario, Canada or Ontario, California? Vancouver, Washington or Vancouver, BC?
eu   Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:51 pm GMT
Sarcastic Northweterner is right. In Canada and USA as well, you will find almost all the names of the big and not only big European cities. That proves the European origines of their founders. See below only a few of this cities names:

- Beriln (after the WWII has been changed by Canadian governement into Kitchener)
- London
- Paris
- Oxford
- Cambridge
- Waterloo
- New - Hamburg
- New England
- New Holland
- New- York
- North -York
- Breslau
- Scarborough

and the lsit could continue

by seeing that, I realised how much these immigrants must have loved and missed their places of origine...they build cities (see New york) bigger and more famous than the original ones...just to take off the hat in front of them!
Andrew   Sun Apr 15, 2007 2:48 pm GMT
Well you see not a lot of people know of Paris Texas...it has what, 2,000 citizens? When people say Paris, France in the United States (which is rare, most just say "Paris") nearly 100% of them automatically think of Paris, city of lights!
Josh Lalonde   Sun Apr 15, 2007 3:14 pm GMT
<<Well you see not a lot of people know of Paris Texas...it has what, 2,000 citizens? When people say Paris, France in the United States (which is rare, most just say "Paris") nearly 100% of them automatically think of Paris, city of lights!>>

It depends on where you are, and what the context is. For example, if someone says 'London' here in Ottawa, it could mean London, Ontario or London, England. If you say "The international conference will be held in London," most people will assume you mean England, but if you say "I'm driving to London this weekend," it's obvious that you mean Ontario. Some contexts are more ambiguous and need to be specified.
Washingtonian   Sun Apr 15, 2007 5:31 pm GMT
Yeah, I think we have the same situation here: there are two Vancouvers, one in Washington state and one in British Columbia. Both are about equally distant from most other areas of the state, so you always have to specify which one. So when someone says that they are from "Vancouver", you have to ask which one. It also doesn't help that there's a Vancouver Island as well.
Andrew   Sun Apr 15, 2007 7:05 pm GMT
Josh Lalonde : Good point. In the US, the same applies for many big cities (Birmingham, many places in Louisiana that have French rooted names that are most likely in France also).
Guest   Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:35 am GMT
So, Europeans follow the American custom of writing place names then? City comma state/province/country?
Guest   Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:27 pm GMT
@Placenames

I'm from Germany and I've never seen it written like this:

DE, Berlin
Germany, Berlin

So where've you seen it?
Andrew   Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:52 pm GMT
C'est la vie
Guest   Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:58 pm GMT
" Sarcastic Northweterner is right. In Canada and USA as well, you will find almost all the names of the big and not only big European cities. That proves the European origines of their founders. "


Well, you have also a lot of villages called "montréal" in France, it doesn"t change the fact that we would say just "Montréal" without need to add "Canada", to think of the Quebecer metropolis.