Yes.

However:

North America
South America
North and South America
market share (sing.)

yes, we have the Carolinas and the Virginias, as well as the Dakotas within the US
and in a larger scale we also have the Americas

Wobei das mir exklusiver US-amerikanischer Gebrauch zu sein, wo "America" ja in aller Regel die USA bezeichnet. Wenn man dann ausnahmsweise den ganzen Kontinent (ist ja wie jeder auf dem Globus sehen kann nur einer) meint, dann hat sich halt "The Americas" etabliert. Auf deutsch kämen mir "die Amerikas" aber einfach falsch vor.

Americas hoert man oft, und ich wuerde es entweder als "Nord-, Mittel- und Suedamerika" oder einfach "amerikanischer Kontinent" uebersetzen. Habe auch schon "Gesamtamerika" gehoert, aber das klingt mir dann doch eher nach "all-American".

Also ich würde bei "die beiden Amerikas" nicht zurück zucken, sondern an den Nord- und Süd-Amerikanischen Kontinent denken.

@Rex: mit den americas wäre ich vorsichtig; solange Texas für United-States-people in Südamerika liegt...

"The Europes" (wir haben sogar fünf davon: West-, Ost-, Nord-, Süd- und Mittel-) dagegen sagt keiner!

Auch "the Africas" und "the Asias" sind unbekannt. (von "the Australias" ganz zu schweigen).

Hmmm...

Es drängt sich der Schluss auf, dass der Begriff "the Americas" entstanden ist, weil man das eigentlich eindeutige "America" (für den Kontinent Amerika) irgendwann nur noch synonym für USA verwendet hat, sodass man ein Unterscheidungsmerkmal einführen musste, wenn man den Kontinent meinte.

Ein weiteres Beispiel für die Hegemonie der USA.

Don't forget Central America, it belongs to "the Americas", too!

Gero: There is some dispute about whether or not North and South America (the continents, NOT countries to which "the Americas" refers) are to be treated as one or two continents. In the US, they are taught as two, in many European countries one. There is no such dispute about Austrialia, Europe, etc., which is why we never say "Europes". (Though some geographers now consider Europe and Asia one continent, rather than two).
The same applies to Central America: it is not a continent. Hegemonic or not, the term "America" used to refer to the USA has never been the reason for the use of the term "the Americas", but rather the fact that there are two continents with the name America.

@jj.a: Das ist keineswegs US-exklusiver Gebrauch. "Las Américas" ist in Lateinamerika (moeglicherweise auch im europaeischen Spanisch) der uebliche Ausdruck, um beide Teile zu bezeichnen. Im deutschen ist "die Amerikas" allerdings in der Tat eher ungebraeuchlich.

a continuation of Selkie's comment:
in Latinamerica, "America" is taught as ONE continent too. I think it is only in the US that it is taught as two continents?

@Trader:
I thought central America was considered part of the continent South America.
Am I mistaken?

Gehört nicht Kanada auch zu 'the Americas'?

Ich meine, es gäbe sogar im 'Economist' eine Rubrik 'Americas' ... kann mich aber auch täuschen.

@pia: Dann fang mal oben auf dieser Seite an zu lesen.

@willi winzig: nein, wenn man Mittelamerika nicht eigenständig sehen will, schlägt man es Nordamerika zu.

"Die Amerikas" halte ich für eine grauenhafte Fehlübersetzung. Klingt m. E. schauderlich. Der "Summit of the Americas"/"Cúpula das Américas"/"Cumbre de las Américas" heißt auf deutsch ja nicht ohne Grund überall nur "Amerika-Gipfel" und nicht "Gipfel der Amerikas".

Man spricht ja auch nicht von "die Europas", wenn man West- und Osteuropa zusammenfassen will, oder zu Zeiten der Mauer von "die Deutschlands/Deutschländer". Es gibt nur ein Amerika.

@pia, Sophil, jj. a, Gero, etc:

Canada is part of *North* America (one of the .... would you have guessed this one right? ...*seven*) continents. South America, Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and Antarctica being the remaining six. America is a country in North America, its official name being 'The United States of *America*' The states of America are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, .... nothing hegemonial about this so far, or is it?

(Western) Europeans, in their eurocentric arrogance, lump both North and South America into one continent (and ignore Antarctica altogehther). The argument "wie jeder auf dem Globus sehen kann" is stupid because if this was the criteria, Europe wouldn't be a continent either. In fact, in some parts of the world (namely Russia and Eastern Europe), a six continent model is used (Antarctica, Africa, Eurasia, Nort Aerica, South America and Australia) and the concept of Europe and Asia as seperate continents is seen as a Western cultural convention. This is also the generally accepted convention amongst geologists, based on the fact that North and South America actually belong to two different tectonic plates while Europe and Asia, geologically speaking, one single landmass.

I guess my advise would be to get your facts right before you make snarky comments ...

@bike_helmut

it is sepArate, not sepErate!

For the rest: si tacuisses...

@wm: So you found a typo. What's your point?

I shouldn't speak for wm, but while "seperate" may have been a typo on your part, it is also an all-too-common spelling mistake among native English speakers (along with things like "infinate"), and I don't think it's necessarily inappropriate to correct it in a forum where people presumably care about correct language. It might be one of wm's pet peeves (it's one of mine)...not necessarily snarkiness.

@Benson:
You're right, there's nothing wrong with wm's correction and I didn't have a problem with it - *per se*. What I don't like is his snarky little "had you remained silent..." which is meant to say that my previous posting was a complete waste of space and not even worth a serious response. Apparently, my "atrocious" spelling is enough to disqualify my entire posting. Such arrogance is rarely justified and this thread serves as case in point: none of the contributors (except for Selkie, whose comment was spot on) even realized that half the world does *not* think the number of continents is five but were ever so quick in pointing out American 'ignorance' and lust for 'hegemonial power'...

Okay, I've forgotten almost all the Latin I learned, but I can imagine "si tacuisses" meaning "if you would just shut up"...I don't see anything about atrocious spelling, though. And if half the world doesn't know it: many of us are raised thinking there are seven continents. It's really pretty arbitrary. Personally, I don't quite care how many "continents" there are. And yes, the US has become a "hegemonial" power...I don't know how one could deny that.

Benson: Perhaps you missed the point of bike_helmut's comment. The question about the use of "Americas" has nothing to do with the hegemonic power of the US, however one might see it. That is a different question altogether. The fact that some posters felt the need to mention it here shows that they did not understand the question at hand, or decided to take the opportunity to hop up on a well-worn soapbox for a little lecture.
And however one feels about the question of one or two American continents, the fact of the matter is, that while Australia is simply Austrlia, there is a South America and a North America (and perhaps the isthmus Central America while we are at it) on all the maps and this is why we say the Americas. This, astonishingly enough, cannot be ascribed to (the indisputable imho) US arrogance or lust for power, however fun it might be to be able to blame all the world's evils on them. (That final comment is general and not directed at you personally Benson).

bike_helmut, es geht hier doch überhaupt nicht darum, ob Amerika ein Kontinent ist oder zwei. Es geht darum, was die korrekte Bezeichnung für die gesamte zusammenhängende Landmasse dort ist. Und die lautet im Amerikanischen "the Americas", im Deutschen "Amerika". Ob das nun ein oder zwei Kontinente sind ist eine völlig andere Frage, über die man stundenlang streiten könnte, einfach weil es keine klare Definition gibt, was einen Kontinent ausmacht. Das hat mit "eurocentric arrogance" überhaupt gar nichts zu tun, sondern ist ein Konflikt zwischen geographischen, soziokulturellen und historischen Kriterien.

Auch für die gemeinsame Landmasse von Europa und Asien gibt es einen Begriff (Eurasien). Warum sollte es also keinen für Süd- und Nordamerika geben?

Zur Vertiefung:

http://www.google.de/url?sa=X&start=0&oi=defi...

http://www.google.de/url?sa=X&start=0&oi=defi...

Im englischen Eintrag falsch: Zumindest in D wird meines Wissens ausschließlich das 6-Kontinente-Modell gelehrt. Mit Kontinentalplatten allein hat es auch nur bedingt 'was zu tun. Sonst wäre Island zur Hälfte in (Nord-)Amerika. Und es gibt vier amerikanische Platten.

Insofern folge ich Sophil.
The Americas = (der) Amerika(nischer) Kontinent (gültig für D)

Eigentlich zählt doch Nord-,Mittel- und Südamerika als EIN Kontinent.

@Thorwald
in D meist ja. aber anderswo eben nich, davon reden wir ja die ganze Zeit.
Der Rest steht doch ziemlich deutlich in meinem ersten Wiki-Link.

But the original question was about English, was it not?

So the answer is of course, yes, it's perfectly correct. In English, North and South America are two continents, and it's also correct to speak of the Americas. In fact, it would be incorrect to use 'America' in English to mean both continents, since the singular normally means the United States. (Whether it was fair or logical of the U.S. to have appropriated the word for its own nation is a historical question, as is whether it was fair or logical to have named the place after Mr. Vespucci in the first place. But language isn't necessarily fair or logical, and at this point, those issues are no longer open to change.)

As for the rest of this discussion, there seems to be some confusion about the concepts '(contiguous) land mass' and 'tectonic plate.' Continents aren't defined, as far as I know, by tectonic plates. Isn't it true that at the time human geographic knowledge expanded enough to make maps of the globe and define continents, tectonic theory was still largely unknown, because it depends on knowledge of features that aren't always visible from the surface?

But continents are (at least partly) defined as large unitary land masses, and North and South America are definitely two separate land masses, in a way that Europe and Asia definitely are not.

However, some continents are also defined by cultural differences, not just by geography. So in that sense, Europe and Asia are indeed distinct (and smaller continents such as Australia or Antarctica may not be so much). If we used a similar criterion on this side of the pond, Mexico and Central America would probably belong to South America rather than to North America, but they don't.

In any case, I agree with Selkie that it's shortsighted (not to say hegemonic) of Europeans to assume that the way of defining and naming continents that's most familiar to them is somehow inherently better than other ways.

With regard to the term "English": I'd really like to know now what they teach you in the UK and elsewhere like NZ, Singapore or SA.

This issue has obviously nothing to do with the language itself. I just wonder now whether they also used a different system in GDR before 1989?

@ hm: What is your point? It's become quite clear in this thread that even more than two models exist. That's what you have to keep in mind when translating from AE to D-German or the other way round. And that's it.

Ich schlage auf Deutsch "die Ameriken" vor. Wieso sollte der Plural von Amerika auf Deutsch -s sein?

Zitat: Man spricht ja auch nicht von "die Europas", wenn man West- und Osteuropa zusammenfassen will, oder zu Zeiten der Mauer von "die Deutschlands/Deutschländer". Es gibt nur ein Amerika.
Sophil

Die Deutschländer gabs schon mal, zumindest auf französischen Karten bis 1871.
Auf französisch zumindest.

The original question has in fact been answered with a clear YES.

However, the German translation of the sentence "We intend to gain market shares in the Americas" would be "Wir beabsichtigen, auf dem amerikanischen Kontinent Marktanteile zu gewinnen".

"The Americas" = "der amerikanische Kontinent" because in Germany there is generally no distinction between North and South America when talking about continents. The German assumption that there is only on American continent may be contestable (in thread there are good reasons why one should say there are two American continents) but nevertheless German language is based upon it and thus, "die Amerikas" is completely unheard of in the German language.

16,900 times in Google: "die Amerikas"

For example:
Tag der Amerikas: Februar 2000 - [ Translate this page ]Gerda Haßler und Studierende: Mit Spanisch durch die Amerikas.

Der Amerikagipfel von Mar del Plata bedeutete wohl das Ende des ... - [ Translate this page ]... (Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas – Bolivarische Alternative für die Amerikas, OM) gegenüber der internationalen Öffentlichkeit propagiert. ...
www.ila-bonn.de/artikel/ila291/naftamercosur.htm