Yīngjílì hǎixiá shì Yīngguó hé Fǎguó zhījiān de shuǐyù.
The English Channel is the body of water between Britain and France.
Tips
history
A Qing-era transliteration of 'English/England'. Modern Chinese contracts it to 英国 ('Ying-country'), keeping just the first syllable. 英吉利 survives in fixed terms like 英吉利海峡 (the English Channel) and in historical writing.
memory
Three characters, three syllables - 英 (Eng) + 吉 (lish, approximating /gli/) + 利 (the trailing vowel). It maps the foreign word onto auspicious-sounding characters: 英 'hero', 吉 'lucky', 利 'profit'.
