États-Unis

See also: Etats-Unis and Ètats-Unis

French

Alternative forms

• Etats-Unis (see usage notes)

Etymology

états (“states”) +‎ unis (“united”), calque of English United States

Pronunciation

• (France) IPA^(key): /e.ta.z‿y.ni/

• Audio (FR)

  (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /e.tɑ.zy.ni/, /e.tɔ.zy.ni/

Proper noun

(les) États-Unis m pl (plural only)

1. United States (a country in North America)

   Les États-Unis sont un grand pays.

   The United States is a big country.

Usage notes

• Unlike the English equivalent, États-Unis is always used as a plural noun.
• In older French practice, capital letters did not take diacritics, so É becomes E. This was mostly done because of technical constraints. Formal orthotypography maintains the diacritics.

Derived terms

• États-Unien, états-unien
• États-Unis d'Amérique

Anagrams

• suintâtes