Five uses of “Taiwanese” as a noun in one thread by one person. You are not “a Taiwanese.” You are a Taiwanese person, a Taiwanese citizen, a Taiwanese ______ (fill in the blank with any other noun you wish to describe with the adjective Taiwanese).
He is a Canadian.
He is an American.
He is an Italian.
He is an Australian.
He is a New Zealander.
1 Like
Correct. But not “He is a Taiwanese.” You can say “He is Taiwanese,” without the “a” but the “ese” suffix makes a word an adjective, not a noun.
It concerns me that some of you all teach English. 
2 Likes
Why is Taiwanese so different from American?
What rule specifies that the suffix disqualifies it from being a noun?
Where did I say I teach English?
And,
Journalists and news organisations frequently use nationalities as nouns.
Excerpt from the ABC. The good one, not the US one.
It is comparatively clunky because -ese nationalities have no plural, but it’s not wrong.
4 Likes
For what it’s worth, chatgpt only strings words together based on what the majority wrote. You really should be asking a linguist or English grammar professors on this.
If chatgpt said the sky is blue I will look outside to confirm.
4 Likes
That annoyed me too, but if we’re worried about being accurate the word “naturalized” should be in there and we don’t need to spoil his fun
From Dictionary.com:
–TAIWANESE Definition & Usage Examples | Dictionary.com
From the Cambridge online dictionary:
–Taiwanese | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
From Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary:
8 Likes
LOL! A Taiwanese wrote a sentence in Taiwanese that suggested being Taiwanese created a problem using words like “Taiwanese”.
Some nationalities can also function as nouns, in addition to their adjectives. However, adjectives ending in ‘~ish’ like English, British, Polish… tend not be used like that.
However, grammar is descriptive as much as it is prescriptive. So who knows in a few years? After all, we no longer speak like Shakespeare, Dickens or even the Queen. Things change.
6 Likes
Just adding sample sentences using the phrase a Taiwanese, in which Taiwanese is a noun:
–from Robert Marsh, The Great Transformation
–from Christopher Knowles, The Red Line: A Railway Journey Through the Cold War
–Frank Chiang, The One China Policy: State, Sovereignty, and Taiwan’s International Legal Status
1 Like
Yes, “the Chinese” is correct usage to refer to the Chinese people. Same for the Taiwanese. That’s correct. “A Chinese” or “a Taiwanese” isn’t correct unless followed by a noun.
I find it odd that you don’t know this. Maybe English is not your first language?
Well. The reason I don’t ‘know this’ is that there is no reason to know this because it’s wrong.
It is perfectly acceptable to describe all nationalities as a noun. The demonym does not have suffix rules.
They are countable even if they don’t have plural versions.
And the deluge of ‘English Teachers’ and ‘Non native speakers’ you have used as insults above have already proven you wrong.
5 Likes
Fixed that for ya! 
1 Like
That’s a good point. “Ish” is similar to “ese” in that regard. And yes, language does evolve, but that’s not a common usage (yet?), at least among native English speakers. If I were proofreading/editing I would correct that.
3 Likes
Common or uncommon doesn’t mean correct or incorrect.
If I was an English teacher, I wouldn’t dock someone for using ‘seldom’ and its derivatives just because I, and the people that I grew up with prefer the use of ‘rare’.
And the Taiwanese love the word ‘seldom’.
2 Likes
This thread could be used as a template for any posts in Forumosa 
Title of Taiwanese… but …
First spins off to USA…
Then spins off to a grammar discussion…
Wonder what next is?
3 Likes
Lol dumb native speakers strike again. This is “chicken burger” is wrong all over again.
1 Like
Tell me more
2 Likes
Can’t really be bothered getting into this today, but I agree that “a Taiwanese” is awkward, at least in formal writing, as with any others ending in “-ese” I can think of. If nothing else, the “a” indicating a noun is unnecessary and it’d be easy to just omit it and use the adjective form.
I think it’s the lesser of the two mistakes in the thread title though. 
(“What is it” not “What it is” – the latter isn’t a question.)
3 Likes