# How do other countries refer to the events in America of September 11, 2001? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2007, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758 "2007-08-24T14:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [August 25, 2007, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758/41 "2007-08-25T22:20:37Z")
In Arabic generally, especially in Egyptian or Gulf Arabic, they say أحداث ١١ سبتمبر _ahdath hadi ‘ashar sibtambir_, which literally means ‘the events of September 11’. In Levantine or Iraqi Arabic they may alternatively say أحداث ١١ أيلول _ahdath hadi ‘ashar aylul_, using the name for September current in those countries. It grates on me to hear Americans referring to September 11 as “nine one one.” I recently heard someone on a radio talk show say that. Please knock it off! ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758/42 "2007-08-25T22:34:14Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] OMG. The joke has been taken seriously by someone in a position to get an article published. Sweet Jebus, what is this country coming to? Next come the articles assuring people that no matter how badly they might want to get two friends to turn the ladder for them, it really only does take one person to change a light bulb. [/QUOTE] hardly a joke: [http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/firstaid\_safe/emergencies/911\_p2.html](http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/firstaid_safe/emergencies/911_p2.html) As an aside, when car companies started installing emergency releases in trunks so that kids wouldn’t be trapped, the engineers wanted to use a glowing red handle. Child pychologists advised against it. Kids are taught not to touch such dangerous things. The handles are green. ---
**Author:** ![Intelligently\_Designed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intelligently_designed/32/20957_2.png) [@Intelligently\_Designed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intelligently_Designed)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758/43 "2007-08-25T22:43:48Z")
Like **severus** said, in French-speaking Canada it’s mostly _“les attentats du onze septembre”_ (attacks). Also used is _“les événements du onze septembre”_ (events), or simply _“le onze septembre”_. When used by itself, it is common to hyphenate — _“11-septembre”_ —, for example in the expression _“nous devons tout faire pour empêcher un autre 11-septembre”_, “we must do everything we can to prevent another September 11”. I might add that Ground Zero is not translated. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2007, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758/44 "2007-08-27T11:41:52Z")
[QUOTE=Bagistan] My Finnish is even worse, but the events title in Wikipedia is: Syyskuun 11. päivän iskut Semi-literal: September 11th’s strike. Hyper-literal: Autumn-month’s eleventh day’s stab. [/quote] i.e. Literal: the attacks on September 11th. 🙂 (Autumn-month? You don’t translate januari as “Roman-two-faced-god-month”…) “Isku” translates as “blow”, “strike”, or “hit”. > [@](#): > > Finnish short: > Normally _11. syyskuuta_ would be used to describe the day, but it seems the more formal _syyskuun 11. **päivää** _ is mostly used to reference the attack. Päivä means day. A possible translation of this expression would be “the day of september-eleventh” or “9/11-day”. “Syyskuun 11. **päivä** ” (“September 11th”, literally “the 11th day of September”) or “11. syyskuuta” is the standard way of referring to the attacks, since now everyone associates this date with those specific events. However, it’s basically just how we say a date, except usually we leave the “päivä” out of it; yesterday was “26. elokuuta” or “elokuun 26. päivä” (or “elokuun kahdeskymmeneskuudes” for short ;)). We don’t really use the “9/11” term because we write dates dd/mm/yy, but I’ve seen it used on message boards and such occasionally. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2007, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758/45 "2007-08-27T12:37:45Z")
[QUOTE=Intelligently Designed] Like **severus** said, in French-speaking Canada it’s mostly _“les attentats du onze septembre”_ (attacks). Also used is _“les événements du onze septembre”_ (events), or simply _“le onze septembre”_. When used by itself, it is common to hyphenate — _“11-septembre”_ —, for example in the expression _“nous devons tout faire pour empêcher un autre 11-septembre”_, “we must do everything we can to prevent another September 11”. I might add that Ground Zero is not translated. [/QUOTE] Exactly parallel in Mexico, in my experience. Usually called “el once de septiembre” (i.e., September 11), but occasionally something like “lo de las torres gemelas” (roughly, “That Twin Towers thing”). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2007, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758/46 "2007-08-27T12:42:56Z")
[QUOTE=Intelligently Designed] Like **severus** said, in French-speaking Canada it’s mostly _“les attentats du onze septembre”_ (attacks). Also used is _“les événements du onze septembre”_ (events), or simply _“le onze septembre”_. When used by itself, it is common to hyphenate — _“11-septembre”_ —, for example in the expression _“nous devons tout faire pour empêcher un autre 11-septembre”_, “we must do everything we can to prevent another September 11”. [/QUOTE] When watching the French news story about last month’s steampipe explosion in NYC, I heard “onze de septembre” and figured they were relating it somehow to September 11th. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758/47 "2007-08-27T16:18:27Z")
Incidentally, when I googled “onze de setembre” (Catalan for “September 11”), the first ten references were to the Catalan national day, commemorating a defeat in 1714, plus one reference to the coup in Chile in 1973. The Catalan Wikipedia article is entitled “Atacs terroristes de l’11 de setembre de 2001” (terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001). Apropos of nothing, it irritated me greatly last year to hear the newsbeings saying “it’s the fifth anniversary of September 11.” No, it _is_ September 11. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758/48 "2007-08-27T18:54:49Z")
[QUOTE=garius] Pretty much everyone else I know refers to it as “The London Bombings.” [/QUOTE] Doesn’t that risk confusion with [another incident?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_blitz) Sailboat [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-countries-refer-to-the-events-in-america-of-september-11-2001/416758.md?page=2)