England is a country. The UK is a country.

People in the UK would refer to England as a country and most people would actually be confused if you referred to the UK as a country, even though it technically is. People in England don’t really think of the UK as anything other than “the UK”. People from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland have more nuanced takes.

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juntoalaluna 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

No one is confused if you can the UK a country, or if you call England, Wales, or Scotland a country.

You might get a tedious person saying something like "actually, Wales is a principality".

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arethuza 19 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I must admit I've never heard NI being called a country... wouldn't be the UK if there wasn't some horrible complication involved.

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sd9 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Maybe not in isolation, but if you call the UK and England both countries in the same conversation you’re going to be met with confusion.

	▲	Closi 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Maybe...? I mean not anyone I know but i'm in the UK to be fair. It's like if you put four boxes in a box, it's not too confusing that the outer box is still a box.

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leereeves 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I would be confused if someone called Wales a country. I thought Wales (unlike Scotland) was a region of England and had little autonomy. TIL.

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walthamstow an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm English and I don't think England or Scotland or Wales are countries. People get confused because of football and rugby. They're nations. The country is the United Kingdom.

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Blazara an hour ago | parent [-]

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are constituent countries of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is also a country. You can disagree, but you're disagreeing with the government and the international community.

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jpfromlondon 26 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Scotland, Wales, and NI have their own parliaments at least, so from a constitutional perspective one could argue England is not a country but a state, but that is only one narrow definition.

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walthamstow an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Not a problem, I disagree with the government all the time. Scotland has less sovereignty than US states, it's not a country.

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arethuza 23 minutes ago | parent [-]

The UK seems fairly relaxed about constituent parts leaving (Scotland was given a referendum, NI has option to leave if they want) - which I don't believe applies to US states?

	▲	walthamstow 4 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Scotland's referendum, and its parliament, were gifted by the UK Gov, they don't have any unilateral rights. US states can't secede unilaterally either (any more!), but at least they have a right to their own leadership and militia to do something about it.