As a Brit I feel it’s obvious where these are and I’d never say “Barcelona, Spain” or “New York, USA” or even “Los Angeles, California.” Not to be mean but people know where they are lol. Just one the weird things that annoys my bitter British arse I guess.
Edit: Thank you for educating me on all the Parises and Londons you have. I’ll go back to my life in England, UK, Europe, Earth now lol.
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We like to be specific, I guess? Some places do share names.
I frequently hear simply “London” or “Paris.” Where are you frequently hearing otherwise?
I wonder where you foreigners get these weird ideas about us from.
I don’t think I’ve ever really heard people say that. Not to say it *doesn’t* happen, but the vast majority of the time I just hear people say London or Paris.
I don’t, but I understand if people want to make it explicitly clear as there are other less known cities with the same name. There is a London in Ontario in Canada if I remember correctly.
This really isn’t a thing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone specify that they were going to “London, England”.
Because of London, Ohio; Rome, Georgia; Moscow, Idaho; Paris, Texas, and so many more.
That isn’t as common as you think it is. You find it annoying, so the times its done that way stand out to you more than the far, far more common instances where it isn’t.
Also, it isn’t a uniquely American thing.
Also, the nearest decent sized city named London near me isn’t London, UK.
We’d typically just say “London” or “Paris” unless there’s some reason to specify. There are a bunch of places named London or Paris. The defaults are in the UK and France, but if you’re near Paris, Texas you might want to be specific.
There are towns in America and Canada called London and Paris.
Nearby towns and cities here in NY include Paris, Barcelona, Greece, Rome, and Ithaca, just off the top of my head. If someone says they get something “in Paris” it’s more likely they mean the one just down the road than across the ocean.
So that the person I’m speaking to doesn’t think that i’m talking about London, Minnesota, located about 45 miles away. Same reason I’d say ‘Austin, Texas’
So we don’t get confused with the much larger and more famous London, ON or Paris, TX.
Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t hear it often but it sounds like people say the country to add emphasis.
Well there are two (edit: were two, only one of them is still about) “London”s in Canada and ten of them in the United States…
Most of the time we just say the city. It really depends on where you’re at though. I go to a lot of OHL hockey games and there’s a team from London, Canada, but in context we know which London we’re talking about. There’s also several towns in America callled London. Same for Paris, for example there’s a Paris, Michigan, a Paris, Tennessee, a Paris, Illinois and so on. So to be clear we might say which one we’re specifically talking about to avoid confusion.
You’re assuming a thing not in evidence. We actually have rules about begging the question, here.
I personally only use those things when in situations where London, Ontario or Paris, Texas might be relevant.
To differentiate from London, ON
Um, actually it’s pronounced “London Eng-uh-land” if you must know…
I think we need to make a rule for this sub that requires a minimum of three documented non-TV observations before asking us to explain something.
We have cities by those names here.
I should add it’s assumed by context. If someone says “they went to London” or “they went to Paris” with some sense of awe or joy, they’re probably talking about overseas.
Or if they include “Big Ben” or “the Louvre,” too.
You might enjoy the film *Paris, Texas* by Wim Wenders btw.
Unless I was in an area where the clarification was needed, I’d just say Paris. I grew up near a town called Manchester, so one would assume that was the location being talked about unless specified, no one things ManU plays in Michigan.
There is an episode of the podcast Radiolab about this very thing, except it relates to cities in the States with the name Lebanon.
Excerpt from the website:
This is a story of a road trip. After a particularly traumatic Valentine’s Day, Fadi Boukaram was surfing google maps and noticed that there was a town called Lebanon… in Oregon. Being Lebanese himself, he wondered, how many Lebanons exist in the US? The answer: 47. Thus began his journey to visit them all and find an America he’d never expected, and the homeland he’d been searching for all along.
I don’t think people say that unless it’s a smaller city. Maybe they are making sure they are being clear as to where they are going to untraveled people — like they would not say Paris, France, but they might say Nice, France
Once in Europe my friends band was introduced as being from “Seattle America”
Google cities in Texas named after foreign cities. That’s just one state.
I live approximately 70 miles from Athens, GA. Whenever someone talks about Athens, it is generally the case that they are not talking about the one in Greece
There’s a small city about a hundred miles from Los Angeles called Perris. So you can see where one might need to be specific.
There’s also a Las Vegas resort called “Paris.” They even have their own scale model Eiffel Tower.
London, TN. Paris, TN, Paris, GA. Cairo, Il…
And on and on.
Issue is “You guys” think there’s only one .
So “we” are not the confused ones 🙂
I live 2 hours driving distance from a London (Kentucky) and a Paris (Tennessee)
There are small towns called Paris, London, Egypt, Greece, and many other European city names in many states.
If someone said they went to Greece without any context, I would think they meant they went to the suburban shopping mall near me.
The city I live in is also called Rochester. There are 3 other Rochesters that I know of in the US alone. Plus Rochester, UK.
There was a town named London near where I grew up so people sometimes were more specific which London they were talking about.
I don’t think it’s all that common.
The real reason is so no one gets confused between the minor city in the UK and the mighty metropolis of New London, NH.