2

Reading an article on Der Postillion, I came across this sentence:

Jetzt will das US-amerikanische Unternehmen einen neuen Markt erobern: Ab sofort wird das Sortiment um eine Kollektion neuartiger Plastik-Särge und -Urnen erweitert.

Why is there the need for the compound adjective US-amerikanisch? I would not have added the "US-" to further explain the adjective.

|improve this question
  • 1
    I'd say that's the only possible adjective. Amerikanisch sounds like slang. – c.p. Feb 4 '15 at 22:46
  • 1
    Slang? I certainly wouldn't go that far. – Ingmar Feb 5 '15 at 0:45
  • 1
    To some extent, it's political correctness. In ordinary speech, including business letters, you'd often just find "Jetzt will das amerikanische Unternehmen..." but when you are writing for wide population, you'd want to respect the other countries in North and South America. – Kevin Keane Jun 10 '15 at 16:03
8

US-amerikanische refers to the USA specifically, and amerikanische to South- and North-America. Even though most people will guess you are talking about the USA when you say amerikanische, it is clearer to narrow it down with US-amerikanische.

|improve this answer
7

Unlike Americans (i.e. citizens of the US) most Europeans generally use "America" to refer to the whole continent. This is not always strictly used, but if you want to remove any ambiguity you'll use "US-amerikanisch" in reference to the USA when you'd say "American" in English.

|improve this answer
5

Actually I can't recognize a compound. This is a cleanly formed adjective of the noun USA, expanding the trailing "A" of the abbreviation for better pronunciation and word-forming. It also makes perfect sense to refer to the country of a company instead of to the continent only.

|improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.