[KAMSPioneer]

In my personal experience, people from Latin American countries will sometimes point out that they are American because they come from North or South America.

Which is, of course, true; however, in English conversation, it's often nothing more than pedantry. In Spanish it makes more sense, since there is a separate demonym for a US person that doesn't co-opt the term "American."

Outside of Romance language speakers born on the American continents, I agree that everyone seems fine calling US-born persons "Americans" without much confusion nor gnashing of teeth.

[lazide]

It’s even more amusing in some ways. A common way to refer to those from the USA in Brazil, for instance (even an official one!) is ‘Norte Americano’.

Which is all kinds of weird because - what about Mexico and Canada? And what about the ‘United states’ part?

It’s just to disambiguate from ‘Americano’ as in what others in South America sometimes use to refer to latin Americans and as a little bit of a FU to the USA, hahah.

[KAMSPioneer]

Ahh, I forgot about that...and to be transparent, I actually have no idea what French Guyana, Haiti, or Belize typically do to differentiate between people of the American continent(s) and US persons. I should have said Hispanoamerica, but oh well.

[kergonath]

> I actually have no idea what French Guyana, Haiti, or Belize typically do to differentiate between people of the American continent(s) and US persons.

In French, people from the Americas are américains. This includes, say québecois and Brazilians. When context matters, people from the US are états-uniens.

[umanwizard]

Perhaps in Haiti, I don’t know. But at least in France, “américain” means from the US 99% of the time.

[kergonath]

Probably because the US are much more mentioned than other American countries. But that’s not really the point, though. People from the US are américains, they’re part of the group of people living in America (which, in French and when it is not qualified, refers to all of them, North, Central, and South).

The point is that nobody would object if you refer to someone from anywhere else in the Americas as américain. Like my lab mate from Buenos Aires or friends from Montréal. And we’re definitely not in Haiti.

[lazide]

If I’ve learned anything in Brazil, it’s that it’s all good bro - as long as you aren’t Argentinian. Then we need to fight, or something hah.

[jandrewrogers]

North America also formally has two United States: Mexico and America.