are Sweden and Scotland Islands?

Hi la48,

An island or isle is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water.

Sweden is not an island:

"The Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige ? (help·info))
is a Nordic country in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. It is bordered
by Norway on the west, Finland on the northeast, the Skagerrak Strait
and the Kattegat Strait on the southwest, and the Baltic Sea and the
Gulf of Bothnia on the east."

Wikipedia: Sweden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden


Scotland is not an island:

"Scotland (Alba in Gaelic) is a nation in northwest Europe and a
constituent country of the United Kingdom. The country occupies the
northern third of the island of Great Britain and shares a land border
to the south with England and is bounded by the North Sea to the east,
the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and
Irish Sea to the south-west."

Wikipedia: Scotland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland


I hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Rainbow

Thank you for a very good answer that also gives me tools to use in the future.

Go to 

google.com

and type in 

map of scotland

or 

map of sweden

and choose the Lonely Planet entry.

In both cases, you can choose a "zoom out" button to the left of the
Lonely Planet map; this will bring up a map of Europe. To the right of
the map of Europe is a list of countries. If you put the mouse over
"Sweden"  or "Scotland," you will see the country highlighted.

It will be easy to make a decision regarding Sweden, but more
difficult for Scotland. The Scotland answer will depend on how you
define an island; Scotland is clearly not an entire island since it is
physically part of the same island as England. (The Lonely Planet map
of Europe is not too good here since it is hard to tell if England is
physically attached to England or not. You may have to go to another
map for that answer if you don't already know this.)

I was surprised that I couldn't easily get to a map of Sweden by going
to Google maps; it wants a street address; putting in "Sweden" alone
stymies it. (You can scroll over to Europe, though.)

If you have a Windows computer, you can download "Google Earth" and
type in "Sweden" or "Scotland" and get good views. (You'll need to
check the box for "borders," though to see where these entities begin
and end.)

Arrgghhh! (or however you spell it)

There was no answer when I started and I ended up commenting after the
answer was posted. (Why, oh why, don't I break this habit of looking
at Google answers and questions!).

Anyway, my comment was not a direct answer but was intended to show
you how to determine the answer for yourself. Rainbow's answer showed
you that you could get to the answer by going to Wikipedia; my
approach is just different. There are often several ways to get an
answer; the trick is to learn to use either of these methods for
yourself -- of course, some people just want "the answer."

I'm glad I could help. Thank you very much for the rating and tip.
Best wishes,
Rainbow

brix24-ga, even though Rainbow had already answered my question your
comment is chocked full of good advice that I will use.  I am
determined to become computer literate this year.  Thank you for your
insight.

Having driven from England to Scotland and back without crossing
water, I can attest that Scotland is not an island.

But to disagree with Rainbow, I believe that while both England and
Scotland are countries, neither are nations.

Sorwin is right that Scotland (where I live) is not an island,
but I wouldn't entirely agree that it isn't a nation (nor that England isn't).

For a start, they both participate in Six Nations rugby
http://www.6-nations-rugby.com/sixnations_history.htm

You will also see Scotland described as a nation on sites like
http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/
http://www.chartingthenation.lib.ed.ac.uk/
or the National Museums of Scotland:
http://www.nms.ac.uk/scotland/home/index.asp

Admittedly, the UK (comprising Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland)
is also sometimes described as a nation, but who says nations can't be nested?

The US describes itself as "one nation" in the Pledge of Allegiance, but it
contains others, such as the Cherokee Nation.

Definitions of words are always a bit fuzzy, but I'd say the case that
Scotland is a nation is at least as strong as the case that it isn't.