Teacher Discussion Forums

When should you use Australian v's Australians.

For eg:

Who are those people? They're Australians;

What nationality are you. I am Australian.

Does this work? Are 'Australians' or 'Americans' actual words?

You can use "Australian" as a noun or an adjective, which may be what's confusing you.

Adjective: He's Australian, They're Australian...
Noun: He's an Australian, They're Australians...

Works with "American/Americans" too, but you can't generalize it for all nationalities as sometimes the noun and adjective are different e.g. Spanish (adj.) vs Spaniard(s) (n.)