I use them interchangeably. I don’t think it matters.
“Usa” makes me think of “Gop.” In the English-language newspapers over here, the style is to cap only the initial letter if you pronounce the acronym as a word. Thus, it’s Nasa and Aids instead of NASA and AIDS. For a while, one of the papers was doing Gop instead of GOP when reporting on the US election cycle. Thankfully, someone finally clued them in and they stopped.
From a foreigner I have a very slight preference for US. From us I can live with almost anything but for some reason “American” always bothered me a little. I will admit to having used it myself, but something it always feels somewhat wrong. There are just too many other people, North and South American, for us to claim that title as our own.
The only accepted usage is “U-S-A! U-S-A!”. Remember that, foreigners, and we’ll get along fine.
Also, note that referring to Americans as USers has a history on this board and not a good one.
The only one I find annoying is Murikan. Since that’s not in the list, I think I’d be pretty okay with any you did list.
Agreed. I selected “the States” as being the only listed answer i would give, but I would also say “the US.”
Uh, no. Actually the opposite. I’ve always pronounced it as “Ram” and have heard it referred to as that. I did a quick check on Youtube and the first 2 videos I clicked both pronounced it as “Ram”. Link 1 and Link 2.
Other than putting “the” before most of your choices in your example sentence, it doesn’t matter a bit, except perhaps for “Usa,” which I’ve never seen or heard before. I’ve seen acronyms like NASA written out as “Nasa” (I believe some UK style guides do that), but not USA, since it’s not pronounced as “You-suh” or “Oo-suh.”
No, I wouldn’t be confused because everyone pronounces it “ram” like the animal and that doesn’t change no matter how many letters you capitalize. I’d be confused if you wrote rem for R.E.M., though, since the only people who pronounce that one as anything other than R-E-M are the members of the band Franz Ferdinand.
Technically, the only ones that actually fit your blank are “America” and “The States.” Of the two, I would find it a big awkward to use “The States” except from someone in the UK.
But I would prefer “the U.S.,” or possibly “the United States.” In print, I expect the periods (as I’d otherwise initially read it us “us”, plus it is what style guides recommend), and saying “U.S.A.” is just weird. “America” is okay, but there’s a slight accuracy problem–not enough to really matter to me in conversation, but “the U.S.” is better.
And “the United States of America” is just so formal as to sound weird, unless you’re being facetious. And Usa is some place in Asia.
The US is what I’d use, too. It’s more specific than “America” and easier to type.
While we’re doing this, I’d like to register my annoyance at Americans using “Britain” to mean “the UK”. They’re not the same thing and the correct name of the country is (for short) “the UK”.
This appears to be standard British English too. I’m not sure why you think it’s an Americanism.
Both English-language newspapers in Bangkok, The Nation and the Bangkok Post, both of which generally follow British style, have in their style guidelines not to use “UK” except in headlines. In the body of the stories, “Britain” is to be used and not “UK” unless it’s a direct quote from an English speaker.
I always say The Colonies myself.