I'm a young folk artist and this week I have a quick and dirty tip about the difference

between a citizen and a resident.

A meaty middle about the word lets and a tidbit about the word fangle.

Twitter user Bat Crew Ron 5 recently asked me to explain the difference between a citizen

and a resident.

He said he hears those terms mixed up even on good media outlets.

Here's the deal.

Everyone agrees that countries confer citizenship, so I'm a citizen of the United States.

It gets trickier when you get to the city and state level though.

The AP style book specifically says that states do not confer citizenship.

But Garner's modern American usage says that in the United States you can use citizen

or resident when referencing a state.

Since Brian Garner is a lawyer, I tend to think he knows what he's talking about for

this kind of stuff.

So at least in the legal realm, it's likely okay to call me a citizen of Nevada.

Further, the Oxford English Dictionary shows that the word citizen has a long history of

being used to refer to an inhabitant of a city or town.

Still, since the Associated Press specifically recommends against calling people citizens

of cities or states and the Chicago Manual of Style seems to agree, I'd still say that

in regular writing you should stick to using citizen for people in countries and resident

for people in cities and states.

I'm a citizen of the United States, but I'm a resident of Reno and Nevada.

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