Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Iceland

✨ Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Iceland ✨

20 March 2018

53588

Ireland 🇮🇪 and Iceland 🇮🇸 are both islands near the UK, and their names sound very similar, especially in common Thai pronunciation. They are very different though, so you should be careful not to confuse them. To avoid confusing them you should make sure to pronounce the 's' sound in Iceland, and you can pronounce Ireland as "Iyerland".

Ireland is actually two countries: Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK; and the Republic of Ireland, which is not. Often "Ireland" is used to refer to just the Republic of Ireland though. The whole of Ireland used to be part of the UK from 1801 until 1922, after which it restated independence, but Northern Ireland instead chose to remain part of the UK. Both countries speak English as a first language, and have a similar culture and climate to the UK.

Iceland instead used to be part of the Norwegian Empire, and the first language there is Icelandic, which is similar to Norwegian. This is where people often go to try to see the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis.

They're all great places to visit if you're in the UK, so here's our picture profile for the three countries...