Britain for Learners of English

Abstract

This is a book about Britain. But what exactly is Britain? And who are the British? The table below illustrates the problem. You might think that, in international sport, the situation would be simple - one country, one team. But you can see that this is definitely not the case with Britain. For each of the four sports or sporting events listed in the table, there are a different number o f national teams which might be described as ‘British’. This chapter describes how this situation has come about and explains the many names that are used when people talk about Britain.