Marathon runners from various countries create an opportunity to look at ways of expressing nationality in English. The most typical way is to use the adjective derived from the name of the country, which is usually also the name of the language. So English people (who speak English) are from England, French people are from France, and German people are from Germany. Kenya is home to Kenyan people, Ukraine to Ukrainian people, Finland to Finnish people, and Slovakia to Slovak people (who speak Slovak).

The adjective form "Slovakian" is geographical, as in the East Slovakian Lowlands. Making nouns for nationalities is more tricky. Sometimes they're the same as the adjectives - the Kenyan, the Ukrainian, the German; sometimes they have their own form - the Pole, the Finn, the Spaniard, the Turk. Others are composites - the Englishman, the Frenchwoman. Saying "the English" or "the French" means ALL English or French people as a group.