Der Union Jack ist eine Flagge

??

A flag is usually "flown".

NB the correct name for the British flag is the Union Flag. It's often inaccurately called the "Union Jack", but a jack is a small flag flown on a ship to demote its nationality.

Flags which bear the Union Jack

E.g. Bermuda, Turks and Caicos, St. Helena, Tristan de Cunha, Tuvalu, New Zealand, and the list goes on.

Antiseptic is no doubt right: U.K. friends tell me that Union Jack is inappropriate in reference to the national flag. Make it Union Flag.

(The Merriam-Webster dictionary contains Union Jack, but not Union Flag, evidently an error. The OED has both, but provides no guidance on usage.)

Niina: a union is "a device emblematic of the union of two or more sovereignties borne on a national flag."

So to answer your question: the Union Flag is a flag bearing the union (emblem) of the U.K.

(Bennett and Antiseptic: do you agree?)

Not sure that "union" is right here, Bob.

According to some sources, a union is an emblem in the top left corner denoting a union of sovereignties (but I can't find an example of one...!)

I think Bennett's spot on with this one, the source is referring to the Union Flag in the corner of some national & state flags.

Thanks, Antiseptic. I'm not equipped to dispute it!

I've tried, but can't see why "Union Jack" can't be used. If that's even in the original, why change it??????

carol, we don't really know what the "original" is! Possibly, Niina is writing something herself, so it would be useful to her to know correct terminology.

And then, of course, it is always useful to clarify these questions for all who chance upon this thread in the future.

It seems that the two terms "Union Jack" and "Union Flag" may be interchangeable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_jack

SD: it's very good to have the link you provide; however, at the very least it shows that these terms are the subject of debate, and it is not a matter of indifference which side you take. So I don't think we can quite say the terms are interchangeable!

This is what the British government says:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizen...

I get the impression that "Union Flag" is used more commonly in formal situations nowadays. When I lived in England, I believe "Union Jack" was the standard name at least among the general population. I don't remember "Union Flag" from those days.

Well, anyway, good work.

I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor of my block
And I sit at home looking out the window
Imagining the world has stopped
Then in flies a guy who's all dressed up like a Union Jack
And says, I've won five pounds if I have his kind of detergent pack

Möglicherweise inkorrekt, aber durchaus idiomatisch, it seems...

The British man in the street would always talk about the Union Jack and never the Union Flag.

The term Union Jack tends to be used by the common man when referring to the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I suspect the term Union Flag is used in more formal situations, though the two do at times seem to be used interchangeably.

It is also correctly used, as I said before, when referring to the same flag design which is itself incorporated into the top left-hand quarter of the flag of another sovereign country. Such countries tend to be members of the British Commonwealth.

But busses constipated me and there was always some old Union Jack with a rancid beard who snored.

Obigen Satz las ichn in Charles Bukowskis Roman "Pulp" (1994) und frage mich, wo und seit wann "Union Jack" auch als verächtliche Bezeichnung für eine Person gebräuchlich ist bzw. was in diesem Zusammenhang genau mit "Union Jack" gemeint ist (ich stelle mir einen alten, schnarchenden Penner vor).

Iam not young ,but I have never heard the phrase Union Flag. I suspect the man on the number 11 bus would think 'Union Flag referred to something from the American Civil War.

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