Correct terminology for States

[Disney Sue]

Hello from a cousin across the water.....

DS and I are currently working on a project for our holiday to WDW in August.

DS is fascinated by all your different States, so we are designing a card for each State which contains some basic facts about the area.
Our hope is that we will meet someone (probably CM's) from every State during our holiday, and we intend to invite them to autograph the relevant card.

An example of 1 of the facts we are using on each card is -
"Alaska is the 49th state; it became a State on January 3, 1959"
My question is, what is the correct way to phrase this fact
Did Alaska 'become' a State or did it 'join' the USA, or is there an alternative way to phrase it ?

I would hate to accidentally upset anyone by using the wrong terminology.

Thank you

 

[NMAmy]

"Became a state" is perfectly acceptable. What a fun thing to do!

 

[tinkntraining]

Hello, cuz!

I'm not sure there is one RIGHT way to put it -- maybe "Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959" ?? Or maybe that's just for the states that joined back in the years of the Civil War.

I, for one, would not be offended by something like that. In fact, I think it's a really cool project!

 

[3prettyprincesses]

"Became a state" sounds fine to me too. Such a cute idea! I'm sure people will think it is very fun to sign your little cards for the states.

Can I ask you a question? Do you have a different terminology for what we call 'states' here in America? I've always wondered how that works over in England. Are they called counties?

 

[OK!]

As far as I know, "became a state" would be perfectly acceptable.

What a great idea for a project! Have fun with it! And for what it's worth, as of a few weeks ago there was a very nice CM working in Guest Services at Downtown Disney who was from Missouri. Hopefully she'll still be there and you can mark us off the list easily.

 

[dejr_8]

Hello from a cousin across the water.....

DS and I are currently working on a project for our holiday to WDW in August.

DS is fascinated by all your different States, so we are designing a card for each State which contains some basic facts about the area.
Our hope is that we will meet someone (probably CM's) from every State during our holiday, and we intend to invite them to autograph the relevant card.

An example of 1 of the facts we are using on each card is -
"Alaska is the 49th state; it became a State on January 3, 1959"
My question is, what is the correct way to phrase this fact
Did Alaska 'become' a State or did it 'join' the USA, or is there an alternative way to phrase it ?

I would hate to accidentally upset anyone by using the wrong terminology.

Thank you

This is a trick question. How many US States are there? The answer is NOT 50.

 

[swald91]

Don't worry about offending anyone-that's a great idea! Especially for children to learn while on vacation You may even give the CM & anyone else knowledge they didn't have on their state!

 

[PatsMom]

Became a state sounds fine to me. It sounds like you have found an interesting project. Althought admitted to the union is also correct.

 

[momof1princess]

became a state is a good way to put it, i think here is a site that will help you with your project. http://www.50states.com/

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

This is a trick question. How many US States are there? The answer is NOT 50.

Okay Hmmmm...is it something tricky like Massachusetts is not a State, it's a Commonwealth?? So 49?

 

[Deb in IA]

This is a trick question. How many US States are there? The answer is NOT 50.

If you are excluding the states that are also called "commonwealths", then there are 46.

Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are commonwealths.

As for the terminology, I think either is correct. On Wikipedia, it says that Iowa became the 29th state, and on the statistics, it was it was "admitted to the Union" December 28, 1846.

 

[FireDancer]

If you are excluding the states that are also called "commonwealths", then there are 46.

Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are commonwealths.

As for the terminology, I think either is correct. On Wikipedia, it says that Iowa became the 29th state, and on the statistics, it was it was "admitted to the Union" December 28, 1846.

That can't be it, all of the commonwealths are also states. It is simply a naming convention and not a legal distinction. Commonwealth is a subset of the parent class state.

 

[dejr_8]

If you are excluding the states that are also called "commonwealths", then there are 46.

Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are commonwealths.

As for the terminology, I think either is correct. On Wikipedia, it says that Iowa became the 29th state, and on the statistics, it was it was "admitted to the Union" December 28, 1846.

Yep.

 

[Sonya]

This is a trick question. How many US States are there? The answer is NOT 50.

Just because we have some that call themselves commonwealths doesn't mean they aren't states.

 

[Sparx]

Hello, cuz!

I'm not sure there is one RIGHT way to put it -- maybe "Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959" ?? Or maybe that's just for the states that joined back in the years of the Civil War.

I, for one, would not be offended by something like that. In fact, I think it's a really cool project!

admitted to the union is the correct way to say it, but become a state also works too.

 

[Disney Sue]

:
Can I ask you a question? Do you have a different terminology for what we call 'states' here in America? I've always wondered how that works over in England. Are they called counties?

I was trying to work out what our equivalent to a State is, when I started on the project.
I would suggest that it is England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland that makes up the UK, as there are some slight differences to how they are governed - which I believe mirrors the States.

Counties are more about local government and geographical split. I hasten to add that this is just my personal opinion - and am happy to be corrected should a more knowledgable 'Brit' with a greater understanding of our history and politics care to offer a different opinion.

 

[Uuaww]

Don't forget about the territories!!!!

 

[golfgal]

I was trying to work out what our equivalent to a State is, when I started on the project.
I would suggest that it is England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland that makes up the UK, as there are some slight differences to how they are governed - which I believe mirrors the States.

Counties are more about local government and geographical split. I hasten to add that this is just my personal opinion - and am happy to be corrected should a more knowledgable 'Brit' with a greater understanding of our history and politics care to offer a different opinion.

That is about as close as you can get for a comparison. Not to confuse you more but the states are then made up of counties as well and it is the same, local government. In our state the counties are divided along geographical lines for the most part but they do try to equalize the populations in the counties as much as possible too.

At the national level the head of the government is the President and Vice President. Then we have congress which is similar to Parliament and a court system (Supreme Court and a federal court system). At the state level the head of the state is a Governor and Vice Governor. At the county level (in our state) we just have county commissioners. There isn't a single "head" of the county it is more of a board of people. then at the city level you have Mayors and a city council.


All states have to follow federal law but then they have state laws too. A state law can not be more lenient then the federal law. We have a federal law that drinking age is 21. A state could not lower the drinking age to say 19 but it could institute a drinking age of 22 if it wanted as one example.

 

[KramBerries]

That is about as close as you can get for a comparison. Not to confuse you more but the states are then made up of counties as well and it is the same, local government. In our state the counties are divided along geographical lines for the most part but they do try to equalize the populations in the counties as much as possible too.

Louisiana has parishes rather than counties, but I think they work the same way.

All states have to follow federal law but then they have state laws too. A state law can not be more lenient then the federal law. We have a federal law that drinking age is 21. A state could not lower the drinking age to say 19 but it could institute a drinking age of 22 if it wanted as one example.

That's not quite the way it works. The federal government is restricted to powers enumerated in the Constitution. Those powers don't include anything about setting a drinking age, so the states are free to set any drinking age that they want. The federal government passed a law in 1984 that withholds 10% of federal highway funds to states that don't have a minimum drinking age of 21. The states can still have a higher minimum drinking age or none at all, but they will have to forgo those highway funds.

 

[golfgal]

Louisiana has parishes rather than counties, but I think they work the same way.



That's not quite the way it works. The federal government is restricted to powers enumerated in the Constitution. Those powers don't include anything about setting a drinking age, so the states are free to set any drinking age that they want. The federal government passed a law in 1984 that withholds 10% of federal highway funds to states that don't have a minimum drinking age of 21. The states can still have a higher minimum drinking age or none at all, but they will have to forgo those highway funds.

Ok, yes that is technically correct. I was just trying to show an example of how that would work with the federal vs state laws and this was an easy example.