The continent of South America is the fourth largest continent but is composed of just 12 countries (plus the French territory of Guiana on the mainland and the UK self- governing dependency of the Falklands Islands in the South Atlantic). These countries are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
As a result, the continent possesses some of the geographically largest countries in the world, including the fifth biggest (Brazil), the eighth (Argentina), the 20th (Peru) and the 26th (Colombia) – South Africa ranks 25th. Bolivia, which looks quite small on a map of South America, is actually the 28th-largest country in the world.
South America must not be confused with Latin America – the former is a continent, the latter a cultural region. Guyana and Suriname are not Latin countries, while most of the countries of Central America (Anglophone Belize is the exception), some of the Caribbean islands and Mexico (which is part of North America) form part of Latin America. Brazil speaks Portuguese, Guyana and the Falkland Islands English, Suriname Dutch, Guiana French and the rest Spanish.
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