# Hey, give me a "A"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-give-me-a-a/83421>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 24, 2001, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-give-me-a-a/83421 "2001-09-24T00:10:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-give-me-a-a/83421/1 "2001-09-24T00:10:54Z")

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Over half the countries in the world have names that end in an “a”. China, India, Russia, Africa, Austria and Canada certainly represent the broad spectrum of linguistic history. How come the similarity in suffix.

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**Author:** ![xcheopis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xcheopis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xcheopis)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-give-me-a-a/83421/2 "2001-09-24T00:18:01Z")

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Well, those are the English names for those countries. Not all of them have the same names in the native language of that country.

Also, Africa is a continent, not a country.

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**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-give-me-a-a/83421/3 "2001-09-24T00:21:02Z")

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[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=83256](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=83256)

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**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-give-me-a-a/83421/4 "2001-09-24T00:32:12Z")

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If you go by the [UN Member States list](http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html), only about 74 out of 189 nations end in **A** , which is only 39% (still high, but not “over half”).

Arjuna34

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-give-me-a-a/83421/5 "2001-09-24T00:38:27Z")

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China — _Zhongguo_ (nope)  
India — _Bharat_ (nope)  
Russia — _Rossiia_ (check)  
Austria — _Österreich_ (nope)  
Canada — _le Canada_ (check)

That whittles it down pretty fast.

But to be nitpicky, the actual name of India in the original Sanskrit is _Bharata_ (or in full: _Bharatavarsha_). It’s the Hindi pronunciation that dropped the final -a.

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**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-give-me-a-a/83421/6 "2001-09-24T03:37:50Z")

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In Latin feminine singulars end in “a”. Country names are feminine in Latin. Romance languages are based on Latin, thus…