British Islands and British Isles - There's a difference!

Are Great Britain, the UK and England interchangeable? No! The diagram belows explains why, or you can read more on Wikipedia.



So in other words: the British Isles is a geographical term, the United Kingdom is a political term, Great Britain is a geographical term and England is a political term. The British Islands however, is a political term consisting of the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man (but not the Irish Republic). And even though in English, isle and island mean the same thing, within the British Isles you have the Isle of Man, the island of Ireland, the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Dogs, the Isle of Sheppey and the Channel Islands. But you can call Shetland either the Shetland Isles or Shetland Islands. And for the record, the Isle of Dogs is not an isle, it's a peninsula in London. Get it now? :)