Question for Canadians

I'm on nights and my brain goes to strange places and wonders silly things. Anyway, I saw the meme below and immediately thought of the language differences between England and the USA. Then my brain said "Hey, what about Canada?" Are there common things that Americans and Canadians use different words for?

 

Hello is one.

 

US: RV or travel trailer = Brit: caravan

 

Right, but I am asking about Canadians. I understand the differences between the USA and Britain's English.

 

Oops, Sorry, eh. I thought "chips" and "crisps" were British idioms.

 

They are. That meme was just my nightshift brain's segue to wondering if there were similar differences with our Northern neighbors.

 

Canadians (and some Canada bordering states): Eh
The rest of thee country: ?

 

The only one I can think of right now is soda vs pop.

Also, what you guys call Smarties are actually Rockets. Real Smarties are similar to M&Ms.

 

"Two-four".... think about it in terms of MacKenzie brothers gone gonger. Oh....."gonger" too and I'm not Canadian.....yet

 

This is a regional thing in the states as well
I grew up in MT calling it pop when I moved to the East Coast and asked for a pop people had no idea what I was talking about

 

What does gonger mean?

 

Smarties

 

Crazy I think. I know that Canucks that live near the AK border also call snowmobiles snow machines like Alaskans do.

 

I've heard snowmobile, snow machine and sled.

 

How about snow scooter?

 

Scooters are lame.

 

On an visit to Canada, I observed Canadians pronouncing the "ou" letter combination as "oo", as in "aboot", rather than "ow" as in "abowt", which is common in the US. It was interesting to me because I had previously met Virginians with the same speech pattern, and was told it was a regional dialect. I always attributed it to a pocket of Scotch settlers in Virginia. Any insight what's aboot, Canadians?

 

Fake news. No one in the real world talks like that.

 

Speaking of regional be thankful you don’t live in Pa where Pennsylvania Dutch gets mixed in such as saying “you all” it’s “youinz.” Can hear the banjo playing in my mind now.

 

Maybe, but a few once did, at least in Sarnia, Ontario...I heard them. I wasn't listening for it (had never heard of it), I just noted the similarity to my Virginia friend. Maybe that was also a regional dialect.

But...it's been decades. Maybe Canada has evolved over to that universal, bland, dialect-free, accent-less English spoken by actors, sports announcers, and all the younger people down here. Sad, you never hear the phrase, "You ain't from around here, are'ya?", anymore.

 

Maybe. One of my friends is originally from Sarnia and I never noticed anything like that. As you say, could be an age thing, too

 

The pronouncing of words is different for sure. I can't think of anything that they use a different word for like the UK example. I do wish I had a Tim Hortons in Southern California.

 

I chuckle that it took you half dozen posts for people to understand what you were asking.

Growing up along the Canadian border with many friends from BC and Calgary area, we always chuckled at the little differences.

Eh is a given
The “ow” sound being pronounced “oo” (as mentioned here)
Mum instead of Mom
Bum instead of butt
I heard cigarettes called fags more than a few times.
I also remember they had year round school, the chocolate tasted better, the licorice was green inside, and they had the screwiest flavored Old Dutch potato chips (though it was also where I first tried salt and vinegar that is still my favorite).

 

That's the bloody British and they're wrong (as usual). Left is sometimes called "steak fries" but fries is acceptable. Top right are fries. Bottom right are chips. What can you expect though from a group who drive on the wrong side of the road? Silly buggers.

The Brits also poorly influenced Canadian spelling and complicated it for no reason. Color, flavor, neighborhood etc all have the letter U in them; Colour, flavour, neighbourhood.

The letter Z is also pronounced Zed by a large number of Canucks. Zee makes way more sense imho, especially when some Canadian businessess like to advertise they do things the E-Z Way! The E-Zed way? Huh? Or when speaking about the African stripey horse, is it a Zee-bra or a Zed-bra? That's what I thought. Zed is wrong.

That's an eastern thing. Ontarians occasionaly, especially if they're not originally from Ontario but people from the Maritimes or Newfoundland are the ones that have the stereotypical Canadian accent and like that. They are to Canada what southern hillbilly rednecks are to the US. Wonderful people but you can't understand a word they say. LOL. The classic Bob and Doug Mackenzie are Newfies (take off eh, you hoser!) as far as I'm concerned.

There are a few other regional oddities in Canada. In Saskatchewan, a hoodie is often called a bunny-hug. Don't ask why. Half my family are from Sask and I still have never got a straight answer.

Snowmobile/Ski-doo/sled are interchangeable. Unless you're talking to someone who takes them seriously in which case calling a Polaris sled a Ski-doo is heresy.

Ciggarettes are sometimes called darts. That's an eastern thing.

Walleye out west. Pickerel out east.

Loonie = $1 coin

Toonie = $2 coin

2-4 = case of 24 beer

Pop = soda

Shows like Letterkenny and Bob and Doug Mackenzie really play up the stereotypes and are primarily based on the eastern dialect and culture. It's very different out West. I'd say anything west of Ontario has alot more in common as far as dialect with the States than with eastern Canada. When I've travelled in Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho I've fit in pretty well. Occasionally someone will pick up on a just a hint of something, or I'll drop an "eh". I'm also one of the few Canucks who uses "y'all" on a semi-regular basis though so I may not be a good test subject. My family did get plugged in Hawaii as being Canadian though. Probably had to do with wearing t-shirts and shors when the locals were bundled up...

No Canadian who actually likes coffee drinks Tim Horton's.

 

Restroom vs Bathroom.

I remember as a kid, asking someone where the Bathroom was in Walmart. They had no clue that I was talking about.

 

Even their donuts suck and don't get me started on them never having stock of more than 2 donuts at a time. I miss Robins, they are going under all over town and had great donuts, made fresh in house.

 

I haven't actually had Robins. I'd say Krispy Kreme for the win when it comes to chain stores. They're pretty scarce in Canada though, I think the only one out west is in Delta, BC. If you ever find yourself in the GP area, get yourself some Crooked Creek donuts. Local Hutterites make them. Best I've ever had.

 

On my many numerous gas stops in Canada while cruising up to AK, I noticed many of the Restrooms were labeled "washrooms".

 

Klicks = kilometers.

Biffed = fell down, ate shit.

Tap = faucet

Knapsack = backpack. Only people who liked being bullied called it a knapsack.


Oh, and if you want to start a fight in Canada...begin the debate between metric and imperial.

 

I thought it was called the washroom in Canada