when do you use -n, -ese, -ian, -vite, etc suffices in english

Question

As in Mexican, Canadian, Balinese, Muscovite, when describing someone’s nationality or ethnicity in english? How do you know which suffix to use to specific nationality?

In: 443

Answer 1

You don’t. You learn the word. Demonyms are really just conventions because they entered the language at different times, from different languages, through different channels, and then were mounded, shaped, squeezed and beaten half to death to fit the use in English. So you just learn that someone from Mexico is a Mexican, someone from Brazil is Brazilian, someone from the Netherlands is Dutch etc