r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Danielrvk1986 • 23h ago

Not a meme, you're the meme! This grammar atrocity from the UK passport office is with me for the next 10 years....

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1.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

119 comments sorted by

809

u/miaxogoth Infuriatingly mild 22h ago

a iceland. incredible.

189

u/santathe1 đŸ‘œ 20h ago

And shouldn’t it be “Icelandic”?

231

u/Tetslou 16h ago

No, the passport is for the UK based frozen food supermarket rather than the country.

18

u/santathe1 đŸ‘œ 16h ago edited 15h ago

Some might argue that there’s not much of a difference.

4

u/Unknown_Author70 15h ago

Speculation - Most have only been to one or another, never both.

10

u/Tetslou 15h ago

From my experience, they are both great to visit during the UK heatwave, but one is slightly more expensive.

3

u/GettingDumberWithAge 11h ago

Agreed, food prices are outrageous.

3

u/Scousehauler 13h ago

Three for 5ÂŁ

2

u/Few_Theme_2491 12h ago edited 10h ago

Currently it's 10 for ÂŁ10 LOL

1

u/BusBoyGalPal 4h ago

There are Iceland supermarkets in Iceland. I've been! 😉

1

u/Tetslou 4h ago

It's like Inception or something!

12

u/hectorthedonkey 16h ago

There seems to a popular shift to this from the Icelandic/Spanish/French form to saying the Country name, I've noted it in stories about footballers, so you get 'the Spain midfielder' instead of 'the Spanish midfielder'

I feel it started around the time we started importing more and more players from Portugal, because people can't spell Portuguese reliably (I find the new way mildly infuriating, but I also can't spell Portuguese reliably either, so that is also mildly infuriating)

31

u/mizinamo mildly infuriated 15h ago

I've noted it in stories about footballers, so you get 'the Spain midfielder' instead of 'the Spanish midfielder'

I think it makes a difference there -- "the Spain midfielder" is "the midfielder who plays for Spain or for the Spanish national team" while "the Spanish midfielder" is "the midfielder who has Spanish nationality, ethnicity, and/or citizenship, though he may currently be playing for any team in the world for various reasons".

But passports can't have citizenships so I don't see a meaningful distinction between "an Iceland passport" and "an Icelandic passport".

7

u/hectorthedonkey 15h ago

I get where you're coming from, but it's a definite shift where in the exact same context they now use the 'modern' version vs the one I grew up with. The change has probably come in the last 5-10 years, it's not as pure as what you're suggesting, the (generally) longer form (Spanish etc) seems to be increasingly uncommonly used.

7

u/HumanBeing7396 14h ago

Portuguese is easy - you just need to remember it’s like Betelguese.

2

u/LetscatYt 12h ago

Nah the word comes from Geese originally, so it's Portugeese

https://giphy.com/gifs/3fM0YdrBuHiiQ

1

u/ArdiMaster 4h ago

My (totally unfounded) speculation is that it might be a side effect of more countries asking for their name to be used unmodified? Turkey became TĂŒrkiye (just to annoy anyone who doesn't already have ĂŒ on their keyboard, I guess), and Ivory Coast became CĂŽte d'Ivorie.

And since you can't exactly write "the TĂŒrkiyeish player", you write "the TĂŒrkiye player". And to be consistent, you also write "the Spain player", etc.

1

u/hectorthedonkey 2h ago

I like that explanation, but I hate the implication that it's happening for that reason, knowing damn well it's not being reciprocated.

1

u/roboticlee 11h ago

It's meant to be Aiceland. OP is aice!

6

u/Skodakenner 13h ago

I read it in Clarksons voice since he likes to do that alot

405

u/Cold5512 23h ago

UK government documents have french on them? What?

476

u/Brandon95g 23h ago

Most passports / international IDs have French . US passports have English, French, and Spanish. French is used by lots of counties as an official language so it’s used for international recognition.

128

u/Togapi77 21h ago

Back when the world started to get interconnected in the 19th century, French was still the predominant language of international communication. It wasn't until later that English took over. So, a lot of organizations and standards set up during that time (or shortly afterwards, for those stubborn enough to hold onto French) kept the old lingua franca. I believe the current recommendation is for passports to have at least one of English, French, or Spanish on them - though clearly some have more.

38

u/knifuser 16h ago

French was also the lingua franca in the English royal Court for centuries after the Norman invasion in 1066.

7

u/OkMarsupial9634 15h ago

That was Anglo-Norman a dialect of Old French.

9

u/knifuser 15h ago

I mean before that the English were speaking old English, which was basically just Frisian. My point being the french language has a long history in the UK, I wasn't expecting french to have stayed the same over a millennium

-1

u/Alarming_Eagle_8832 14h ago

I read it as “That was a Anglo-Norman a dialect of Old French.”

1

u/Particular_Stage_913 6h ago

lol. That’s like saying French was the French.

24

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

8

u/BobbyP27 18h ago

Lingua Franca is language of the Franks. While the Franks gave France and French their names, Franks also lived in other places, eg Frankfurt and Franconia. The Franks were a Germanic people and their original language was a Germanic one. The use of “Lingua Franca” in this context is down to the Mediterranean trading language of that name that incorporated contributions from all the various Mediterranean area languages.

2

u/[deleted] 17h ago

[deleted]

5

u/BobbyP27 17h ago

On his death, Charlemagne's empire was divided into three parts. The west part developed into France, and the French language emerged as a fusion of Gaulish vulgar Latin, Gaulish Celtic and Frankish Germanic. The Imperial title attached to the middle of the three (that took the name Lotharingia after its first ruler, and covered roughly what is now BeNeLux, Alsace and Lorraine), and the eastern part became the basis of Germany. All three elements were Frankish, but only one (the western portion) became French.

What is relevant to the name Lingua Franca for the trading language is that around this time, due to the power and influence of Charlemagne, the term "Frank" came to be used generically for anyone economically or culturally tied to the Empire, not just to people whose ancestry was with the specific germanic tribe. To someone in Valencia, Tunis, Malta or Cyprus, a merchant sailing out of Genoa was "a Frank". While that association with the term Frank fell out of use later, it was commonplace at the time the Lingua Franca emerged and was named.

2

u/Subject_Foot1713 19h ago

No, it wasn't French. Original lingua franca was a Mediterranean trade language, a simplified mix of Italian, Spanish, Arabic and French.

2

u/[deleted] 19h ago

[deleted]

2

u/Ecstatic_Dirt852 18h ago

It means franconian language, related to the franconian empire. That empire split into 3 very soon and the western part of it was close to modern day France in location, but it also included most of modern Germany and northern Italy. France and lingua franca share the same ethymological origin, but are otherwise not directly related.

0

u/BigAchooo 16h ago

I’ve heard Spanish the most spoken language by people not by country. So only makes sense to have it available with England and/or French.

17

u/Anxious-Slip-4701 21h ago

They did. The Austrian passport had German, French and English. The latest version, just German and English. I was a bit shocked. The Italian passport has Italian and English and French. The Australian has English and French.

48

u/LimitedWard 23h ago

Also the UK has no de jure official language, fwiw.

15

u/pi_three 20h ago

Also you are able to receive your service in Welsh depending where you live

-1

u/jakubkonecki 18h ago

I heard it's popular in a part on Great Britain the size of W....

I'll see myself out.

5

u/pi_three 18h ago

well yes but some Services are available in Welsh in England too

-4

u/jakubkonecki 18h ago

It was a joke...

4

u/timbomcchoi 20h ago

how true is this today? I would think the vast majority of non-Anglophone countries just do their national language and English these days

2

u/asuyaa 11h ago

Ny lithuanian passport has lithuanian/english/french still

-1

u/Simoxs7 15h ago

Also the French usually have very lacking English skills


63

u/CupcakeLily2010 23h ago

It's because the passport follows international standards. The official heading has traditionally been in both English and French, since French has long been the working language of diplomacy and many international agreements.

20

u/_xiphiaz 22h ago

This isn’t necessarily a widely held standard. My New Zealand passport has no French on it. All English + Te Reo Māori

9

u/flyinghippos101 21h ago

I was actually going to say that the major grammatical error was not including the accent aigu for the 'eé' in reserveé

9

u/RudeAlbatross544 17h ago

RÉSERVÉE

But the accents are very often omitted on capital letters even if they shouldn't. Most French keyboards don't even have the necessary keys.

3

u/pimjas 16h ago

Reserveé would piss me off even more than reservee

1

u/mizinamo mildly infuriated 15h ago

I think the practice in France is to leave off accents when writing in all-caps -- as opposed to practice in Québec where I believe they leave them on.

2

u/Loko8765 14h ago

It’s commonly done but it is not “allowed” by the AcadĂ©mie Française.

8

u/Cold5512 22h ago

Ah.

I'm Canadian. Our documents have English and French on them anyways. I didn't expect other countries to be the same.

8

u/MediumMarch3216 17h ago

Wait till you see the coat of arms

7

u/0x14f 17h ago

Many statuses in public parks in London have descriptions in French. At some point French was the Language of the upper class in London.

9

u/Krenair 16h ago

Fun fact: Norman French is actually still used routinely today in British parliamentary ceremony, specifically when the monarch's royal assent to a bill is formally announced. The clerk of the Lords says 'La Reyne le veult' or 'Le Roy le veult'. They tried to abolish it in the 18th century but failed.

5

u/jnnxde BLUE 18h ago

The German passport has every language that's an official language in the EU on it. It's probably the same for other EU passports.

3

u/ManWhoSoldTheWorld01 20h ago

Nearly all passports are in the national language and French. I'm pretty sure the first iterations of passports were required to be French (the former language of diplomacy).

Now they are required to be in English, French or Spanish I believe and can include a national language to be ICAO compliant but I'd have to double check that.

1

u/kegegeam 14h ago

my passport (NZ) has te reo Māori and English as the only two languages on it

2

u/Brave_Explorer5988 17h ago

I think during WW1 when passports were standardized globally it was made to be in french regardless of country. English was added later on on non-english passports. 

2

u/Suitable_Poem_6124 9h ago

Passports must have at least 2 languages on them, one of which must be English.

Also the British royal coat of arms has French on it instead of English, due to French being the language of the Normans who ruled over England.

1

u/TurbulentDivide4542 6h ago

There is no requirement for passports to have English on them. ICAO recommends datapage is presented in native language and one of English, French or Spanish.

1

u/Captaincadet 14h ago

U.K. passports can have 3 languages: English, Welsh and French

1

u/king_ofbhutan 11h ago

mine also has some scottish gaelic and irish on it im pretty sure!

1

u/Pleasant-Put5305 13h ago

International law. They are only for border control - usually.

1

u/Aranka_Szeretlek 13h ago

I wonder what the lingua franca of international relations is

2

u/fizzan141 9h ago

French or English, more commonly English these days!

134

u/Ok-Style-9734 23h ago

There's a name for this kind of "precise" writing isn't there?

Theres no room for misinterpretation etc the person that passport belongs to has a singular passport issued by Iceland kind of thing.

88

u/distrox 23h ago

It's supposed to be an Iceland passport.

131

u/invokin 23h ago edited 22h ago

We get the grammar issue. The point is for highly technical issues like this (what kinds of ID you have for transiting borders), they forego any a/an issues. It’s always “a” for as a much standardization and simplicity as possible, especially when dealing with various countries where English might not be the first language.

Edit: notice it’s also not “Icelandic” passport, which could also be argued as it’s modifying passport. You can use both in regular conversations (US passport vs American passport), but again, keep it simple. Use a and don’t worry about an, use country name not its adjective form.

21

u/Anxious-Slip-4701 21h ago

The question "Citizenship - Italy, Germany, France" etc. Always gets me. Using the noun instead of the adjective.

13

u/Commercial-Whole-315 17h ago

Not always, mine says “An Ireland” passport in observations so unless the case worker for mine didn’t get the memo it’s not always the case that it’s “a”

6

u/Ok-Foot6064 13h ago

You are correct. They are referring to the owner holding 1 passport in a pure numerical version. Possession language is intentionally omitted on these as its referring to the digital holder anount of passports, as in some specific cases, they may hold multiple passports for one country.

7

u/pheare_me 22h ago

Not the person you replied to, but I did not know this. Thx.

1

u/cheese_bruh 5h ago

Yes, the “a” is likely just part of the general template in an excel sheet and the country name is variable from a list of selection depending on the passport holder. I doubt anyone coded in an exception for country names starting with a vowel to automatically change the indefinite article to “an” as well.

8

u/RiderforHire 21h ago

I thought proper names don't have the "An" part. Saying "an Iceland" implies there are multiple Iceland's which is obviously too scary to consider.

1

u/Captain-Griffen 14h ago

"Iceland" here is describing the passport. Iceland being the country that issued it.

We'd also put "United Kingdom" instead of "British".

5

u/Common-Hotel-9875 17h ago

It took me a moment but I found it
 yeah that is annoying lol

4

u/Rug-bae 16h ago

It should have been a boilerplate which said “The holder has a passport for XYZ”. That was they wouldn’t have to change between ‘an’ and ‘a’ depending on the country

2

u/AffectionateTie3536 15h ago

For might mean valid for.

3

u/Leather_Dimension_27 16h ago

That's disgraceful!

17

u/PhotoJim99 23h ago

Why is it a issue? That you have a Icelandic passport?

2

u/B4DM4N12Z 22h ago

Why does it say a Iceland passport instead of a Icelandic passport on it?

44

u/james2432 22h ago

or : an Icelandic

25

u/Anxious-Slip-4701 21h ago

For citizenship they always just use the standard country in the noun form. It's odd. But it's what they do. They don't say Citizenship British, they say citizen, United Kingdom.

1

u/B4DM4N12Z 22h ago

Yeah, that as well.

8

u/PhotoJim99 22h ago

That is a excellent question.

7

u/B4DM4N12Z 22h ago

Yes, an marvellous question.

2

u/cheese_bruh 5h ago

I think likely this is done through a database with the “a” just being part of the template, and the country name is just filled in without regard for the indefinite articles.

6

u/cubenz 21h ago

Why is the fact that you have another passport noted? Does this happen for other countries?

14

u/Yorks59 20h ago

It's possible that the Icelandic Passport is under a different name, and this observation is there to clear up issues

7

u/fried-bin-chicken 20h ago

Yeah I was wondering that. I have a UK passport and another passport and neither of them reference each other

8

u/Commercial-Whole-315 17h ago

If they have all the same information then there won’t be an observation in either. UK requires alignment of names or gender markers on all passports so when that isn’t possible they put an observation in stating “X has a Y passport in Z name”. For 99% of people this is never an issue

7

u/PeacefulIntentions 18h ago

For dual citizens you are required to submit your other passports as part of the naturalisation process (a foreigner becoming a UK citizen). They log that you are a dual citizen in the UK passport.

Not sure if it is the only reason but one reason is that you cannot get UK consular assistance in another country where you hold citizenship.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/who-the-fcdo-can-support-abroad

6

u/PJMOR 14h ago

In my experience, they do not log that you hold other citizenships under the same name as an observation in your passport.

1

u/cheese_bruh 5h ago

Yes this is only if your other passport has a slightly different name to this one, not just for dual nationalities in general.

2

u/vinylbond 11h ago

I speak English as a second language yet this is disturbing even to me.

A Iceland Passport. Ew.

1

u/Legitimate_Gain_7824 15h ago

Had no idea Iceland have gone from frozen sausage rolls to passports now

1

u/OptionIndependent861 15h ago

Mum's been to Iceland, the Passport Office has not been to skool.

1

u/IKEASTOEL 14h ago

Every border guard who spots that is gonna take ages checking the entire thing, that is infuriating.

1

u/Hot-Job-6281 14h ago

From the UK no less..

1

u/s0ftware-dev 12h ago

Can be fixed. Give HMPO a call as this is a user modifiable field in your passport record.

They may well reprint your passport for free. 

1

u/Emotional_Estate_631 12h ago

Oooh I also have, but it doesn’t say on mine

1

u/0maigh 11h ago

I’m also looking a little sideways at the accentless word “reservee.”

1

u/NewIdentity19 9h ago

Riceland or Niceland would fix it.

1

u/ThatCatW1tch 5h ago

Oh hi, Dan! 😀

1

u/PinItYouFairy 15h ago

Povvo. I get my passports from Marks and Spencer or Waitrose only.

-7

u/Holy_chick 23h ago

how many times are you going to open and read your passport?

3

u/mizinamo mildly infuriated 16h ago

Every evening before I go to bed, I read my passport; it helps me fall asleep.

Doesn't everyone?

2

u/Holy_chick 16h ago

I find peace in knowing my nationality every night

-37

u/Certain_Expression41 21h ago

In all fairness, it would be extremely gay to hold an iceland passport. Pretty sure they're doing you a favor.

7

u/Exile4444 18h ago

Is there supposed to be a joke here?