Most Americans fast food restaurantsfood "McDonald's" are perceived as ordinary diners, where you can cheaply, and most importantly, a quick snack. However, for many residents of the post-Soviet space, these institutions continue to be exotic, in spite of the fact that they came to the domestic market more than 25 years ago. Despite such a long "cooperation", some even today do not really know how the McDonald's is written in English. Let's correct this annoying misunderstanding and find out not only how this is done correctly, but also consider the etymology of the word being studied.
Before considering how the McDonald's will be in English, it is worthwhile to learn the lexical meaning of this term.
This noun is the name of one of the mostknown in the world of fast food restaurants. Despite the fact that almost all the food offered in these establishments is known to be harmful to the human body due to the use of flavorings, flavoring agents and coloring agents, it has a particularly pleasant taste and smell. And an active marketing campaign, conducted by network owners for several decades, allows McDonald's to remain one of the leaders in the field of catering, despite the competition.
The name of this brand was formed from the nameits founders - the brothers Mac and Richard McDonald. In translation from the original language, the word "McDonald's" (as it is written - considered in the last paragraph) can be translated as "McDonalds" (genitive case). In this case, the name hints at the fact that the firm is the property of people or a person with such a name.
Considering the question of how to write McDonald's in English, it is worth paying attention to the features of writing this noun in Russian.
Today, two options are available:with "b" and without it. And both are acceptable. If you go to the official website of the company in the Russian Federation, there will be the name of this brand as "McDonald's", which corresponds to its English writing.
In this case, among the Russian-speaking population, the variant with "b" is also widespread, although this contradicts the original spelling and pronunciation of this term.
This is due to the fact that Slavic languages are not characterized by a combination of several consonant letters in a row, as here - "lds."
In this connection, in borrowed terms,the compatriots try to insert their own vowels or to change existing ones (for example, as in the words "scrupulous" or "colander"). Sometimes they simply add a soft sign, as in the case of the name "McDonald's".
Having learned the history of the appearance of the name of the studied brand, it would be nice to find out what the original surname of the founding brothers means in the original.
Like most of the names that beginwith Mac, this one also belongs to the Scots. In their tradition, such a beginning is an indication of the father's owner's last name. In other words, McDonald means "Donald's son".
According to official data, this name was first launchedused in the XVII century. Scottish settlers in the province of Ulster. Some scholars believe that this word is the anglicization of the Gaelic nickname MacDomhnall.
The origin of the term from Gaelic -a confirmed fact, just like the meaning of the word "McDonald" in it. In translation, it means "ruler of the world". And if you consider that a chain of restaurants with this name is the largest in the world in its field, you can consider such a translation - a prophetic one.
Considering the meaning and method of writing a namethis network of fast food, you should plunge a bit into its history. It begins its counting since 1940, when the Scottish emigrants, the MacDonald brothers, founded their first fast food restaurant in the Californian town of San Bernardino.
Their venture proved to be very successful, and already after 8years, their snack bar, despite its modest size, began to bring an excellent income. In addition, it was these enterprising guys who thought out and clearly formulated the basic postulates of the ideology of fast food, which all their colleagues are actively using to this day.
12 years after the discovery of McDonald'smet with a fifty-year-old traveling salesman of Czech descent, Raymond Krok. It was he who saw the potential of the fast food sector, bought out the brothers the right to open the same restaurants throughout America.
Thanks to the dexterity and foresight of thisin less than a decade the network of its restaurants has become one of the richest and most widespread in the country. This allowed Crocus to buy back from the founding brothers all the rights to the brand and develop it internationally.
Having considered the meaning, translation and history of the appearance of the term in question, it is worth learning about the main thing. So, how do you spell "McDonald's" in English?
The only correct option can be seen on the company's extended logo: McDonald's.
As already mentioned above, the letter 's at the end informs not about the plural of MacDonald founders, but about the fact that the restaurant chain belongs to them.
