Countries and demonyms in Spanish

Countries and Demonyms in Spanish

A demonym (gentilicio) is a word that shows a person is an inhabitant of a country, city, place, town, region, etc.

Examples:

España → español/-laSpain → Spanish

Colombia → colombiano/-naColombia → Colombian

We can also use these words to describe things and concepts as well as people. Grammatically speaking, it’s then an adjective not a demonym, but their form is identical, so the distinction isn’t too important.

Examples:

Soy de España.I’m from Spain. (country name)

Susana es española.Susana is Spanish. (demonym)

La comida española es famosa en todo el mundo.Spanish food is famous all over the world. (adjective)

How to form demonyms in Spanish

In Spanish, demonyms are generally formed by adding suffixes (endings) to a country’s name or the root of its name.

Unfortunately, there are no rules that tell us when to use which suffix, so we have to learn them by heart.

The table below shows the most common suffixes with examples.

Some places that share the same name have different demonyms to avoid confusion.

Example:

guadalajareño → from Guadalajara, Spain

guadalajarense → from Guadalajara, Mexico

Certain demonyms are derived from names that are no longer in use, meaning they can be difficult to identify on sight alone.

Examples:

abulense → from Ávila, Spain

lusitano → from Portugal

porteño → from Buenos Aires, Argentina

regiomontano → from Monterey, Mexico