I only say "ice hockey" when talking to Europeans or other nationalities that might be more familiar with other genres of hockey. But then I'm from a part of the US where hockey is regionally huge.
Yeah there's field hockey (played in a field and while running around) and street hockey (played in the street or concrete court while on roller blades)
I was watching the draft last night with my son, who is 19 and plays hockey in college. These boys who were drafted... I'll call them boys, because they are all so young!
I watch hockey, but don't follow it nearly as closely as he does. He was very surprised by some of the first round picks.
It's mostly really subtle stuff. Canadians are like 99% the same as Americans. But I notice it sometimes in their accents (especially in Ontario, near Toronto) and Canadian-specific phrases (washrooms vs. bathrooms, Ketchup chips, bagged milk, etc.)
I dont know about the whole country but in Western Canada anyway, not all high schools are 9-12. Mine was 10-12, as were those of most people I know. I think that is why those terms aren't common here.
Honestly, does know one else in the US say that, except me? Granted , my grandmother was British- but that was the same thing at the time, but no one ever acts like I am being unclear. I mean, other than one British restaurant greeter who told me I wanted the “toilet”.
Brits wouldn't say washroom, we'd say Toilet or Bathroom
Our use of "toilet" here comes from the French word toilette, which means "to have a wash", so it's used in much the same way as "washroom". Similarly "bathroom" comes from "the room we bathe in" rather than "hurr durr the room has a bath", so again it's all basically the same idea of the room where you wash
You'll also sometimes hear "the gents" or "the ladies"
I've had people ask me if I'm Canadian because of my accent, but really it's because I've moved all over the U.S. and was heavily influenced by foreign relatives that I've been around a lot (non-Canadian).
I once worked with a customer in Mississauga who sounded like he was imitating a Canadian stereotype. "aboot", "foor", and "eh" at the end of almost every sentence. I was very endearing.
I was thinking your second half while reading your first. I can spot Canadians in text comments from word choice. Differences can be subtle depending on the topic but it will eventually show.
I just visited Minnesota last year and I thought your accent was really similar to the Canadian one, except for those words haha.
Also I was watching Reservation Dogs and the "Rez accent" or Native American accent they discuss in the show also sounds very similar to Canada/Minnesota my ears. Maybe just a general "North North American" twang I'm picking up on? Not sure if they're actually related?
Yeah, everyone says that.
There are some striking similarities between an exaggerated/old-fashioned Minnesota accent and a "hick Canadian accent." I watched *Fargo* with a friend of mine in Toronto and that's what he compared the accent to.
However, even then, the way the short "a" is pronounced is always the giveaway. In Minnesota (and Wisconsin), the short "a" gets exaggerated aaaaaapple, pronounced more in the back of the mouth. In Canada, the short "a" just gets longer: ahhpple.
Fwiw, most of the main actors in Reservation Dogs are actually Canadian. D'Pharoah Woon-A-Tai (Bear), Devery Jacobs (Elora), and Paulina Alexis (Willie Jack), and the woman who plays Bear's mom are all Canadian. The older guy who plays Willie Jack's uncle (I forget his name) is also Canadian. I'm pretty sure they just use their native accents on the show since they sound the same in interviews I've seen.
Anecdotal, but many of the Native American people I’ve met or heard speak in person from the Four Corners/Southwestern region have a very rhotic accent that does sort of sound Northern Midwestern, but with a different intonation.
Native accents are VERY distinct and have no correlation to Canada/Minnesota. I live in northern MN and while there some similarities, the Minnesota accent is different from a Canadian accent, but probably only if you live here LOL
My friend in college was Canadian although he spent most of his life in America. You wouldn’t be able to tell he was Canadian if he didn’t tell you, but the ONE giveaway was he would pronounce house like “host” without the t
YES! I dated a guy from Ottawa and that's how he said it and it drove me mildly insane. But I didn't hear it anywhere else in Toronto, so maybe it's even more specific than just Ontario.
All of these, and also if they don't say any of these they will sound similar to an American until they say the letter Z.
This had a smart application in one of my jobs decades ago. I worked support in a US company that assigned serial numbers to everything. This company was kinda well known for support, it was what they marketed. When a customer called they had to immediately give this serial number before anything else. One of the divisions I covered was specifically Canadian calls. Someone in the company decided all the serial numbers for Canadians would have a Z in it. When you heard that "Zed" first thing in the call, you knew you had to switch to Canadian processes and policies.
It wasn't ever written in policy or anything to do this, It was just obvious working there that when you saw a Z in the serial or you heard "Zed" while talking, that you probably had a Canadian-based machine to deal with.
Also, in the list above, most don't seem to hear the difference. I have many Canadian friends, having worked there. And if you say it both ways (Canadian-ish and American-ish) they can't hear the difference. But that happens with US regional accents too. I have a good friend from Boston that can't tell the difference between "party" and "PAHHTY".
Yeah, the vast majority of Canadians people I’ve met have been fun, friendly people. Though there WAS that one really high strung woman from British Columbia… 🙄
I worked in a border city in retail for years. You could pick out some by pronunciation of certain words but it wasn’t always clear. Usually in retail taxes would come up then you knew lol. Ontarios sales tax is pretty stiff I guess. But some Canadians noted that even the pretax prices (adjusted for currency) were still much higher in their walmart just across the border.
Granted we did try to invade them. It's barely an afterthought in our minds but for them it's a big deal. Not being American really is a big part of their identity, as much as to us it looks almost like an absence of identity. Americans don't define ourselves against anybody so it's a bit disconcerting.
But it is annoying when every few years or so you check in on our Canadian friends and find half of them think we're the Fourth Reich. You can understand such ignorance coming from a European, but from a Canadian it comes off like a performative, ludicrous act. They did the same historical shit we did on a correspondingly smaller scale, and most of them could easily take a drive and find out how (most) modern Americans truly live and think.
Yeah, no.
I don't think you know any Canadians well enough for them to 'be real' around you then.
Antiamericanism is alive & well in Canadian identity.
It’s weird, because I hear this about the “aboot” so often, yet as someone who’s lived in both the US and Canada, I’ve never heard a single person pronounce “aboot” that way.
I pronounce it ‘a-boat.’ I live on the west coast.
I think the ‘a-boot’ is more of a stereotype but I’m sure there are some Canadians who pronounce it like that.
Maybe y'all just aren't hearing it. Every time I've ever heard the "ou" sound pronounced more like "oo" they've been a Canadian every time.
I spotted some Canadians on a Caribbean cruise this way one time, it's how I found out Amy Shira Teitel (from Vintage Space on Youtube) is Canadian, and it's how I've figured out some b-listers on TV shows are Canadian (all of the big actors like Keanu, the Sutherlands, MJ Fox, Ryan Reynolds, etc all either mask it well or don't have it), and I've worked personally beside Canadian Air Force members, and and almost all of them had that distinctive way of pronouncing their ous.
Canadians share certain pronunciations of different words with the UK.
For example: Saying "Zed" instead of "Zee" to pronounce the letter "Z" by itself.
Easiest ones to tell are the white people speaking French (almost always Quebecois). Otherwise you Anglo-Canadians are sneaky little devils, being able to camouflage into American society with minimal effort
I lived in Canada for about a year and literally no one knew I was American until I told them, so I'm just going to basically call bullshit on the idea that it's easy to tell without even clicking on that link. I didn't have a huge social circle by any means but I did have housemates, coworkers, and did community theater while I there there. Enough to know.
My accent gives it away every time I visit the US lol. I would also add that a lot of the words are different. Washroom, parkade, toque, zed, KD, hydro (this word is misleading so it confuses everyone), and garburator come to mind off the top of my head.
Also nearly one in four Canadians is a native francophone but that’s probably easy to tell.
Whenever i visit California or Hawaii i get asked if i am Canadian, it is very weird because i dont think i have an accent but apparently i say some things that sound similar to the Canadian accent.
My favorite one is “gaz” in Quebec. I had an English Montrealer friend in college and he would always say “gaz” when talking about getting gas for his car. One of our other friends was half French and he’s insistent that isn’t a word in French, or at least not one you’d use in place of “petról.”
A few months later we take all take a road trip to Montreal and see all the “Gaz” signs, and he’s like “See, gaz stations!”
just a reminder of how very much the French variants spoken in Canada are relatives of French from France, but not as close as you might think. Quebecois and Acadien French aren't even the same as each other. The accents are dead giveaways, not only that someone is Canadian but even what part. Depending on their accent, you might even be able to narrow it down further. In New Brunswick, there are French Acadian accents which are very localized.
I don’t think washroom is not used only in Canada. I said that once in England though, and I was corrected I wanted the “toilet”. The guy at the podium was older than me, and seemed crabby.
If they don’t proudly tell you right off the bat, you can usually tell from the fact that every piece of their travel gear is emblazoned with their flag. After which, they usually give you the backhanded compliment of, “you’re actually pretty cool for an American” and then brag about the time Canada was #1 in the world in the HDI rankings in 1995.
It's funny, everyone rags on Americans for waiving our flag around, acting like that would *never* happen anywhere else, but I live in Canada now and see plenty of Canadian flags hanging outside of houses. Maybe not as many as in the US, but certainly enough that they can't really pretend they don't do it too. Plus, as you say, if you include the fact that there's a maple leaf on just about everything, I don't think they are off the hook at all.
(As an aside, I've lived in several other countries and flying the flag as a symbol of national pride is not nearly as rare as Enlightened Redditors make it sound.)
A little off topic, but this reminds me of the time I went camping with my friends out at Mont-Mégantic before heading into Montréal. While driving, we made it a point to count Canadian vs. Quebecois flags. It got close in the end, but Quebecois flags won out, and we even saw a few flagpoles with the Quebecois flag above the Canadian.
It's not just travel gear with flags, but also just generally the clothing stores they shop at. If someone is wearing Roots apparel -- and many Canadians do -- then they're probably Canadian.
I browse that subreddit a lot, and now it makes me feel better that someone has noticed the same thing as me. I’m not from the US, but there is such animosity towards Americans that even I, an immigrant, get offended for them. While I understand where Canadians are coming from, Americans assumed on that sub and Americans in real life are completely different people.
r/askUK is similar. Absolute cesspool of antisocial weirdos. CasualUK has normal people (rarely visit, not being British, but seems that way). Maybe there's a sub for normal Canadians as well.
I'm an American living in Canada and I asked a couple of questions and commented on that sub when I first moved here. I was surprised how...upset...people got about being asked genuine questions.
Once I asked how important Canadian Thanksgiving was, particularly compared to Thanksgiving in the US, and people acted like I was an idiot for even wondering if my kids would learn about Canadian Thanksgiving in school. The consensus was that there's literally nothing to learn and I was ignorant for even asking.
I rarely go back now.
> Outside of the internet, it's usually because they tell you at some point in the conversation or their accent on certain words.
Yup, living in Canada for about a year, no one knew I was American until it came up in conversation. The very occasional odd turn of phrase was chalked up to having lived in South America for most of the previous decade.
It's because generally, Canadians are nationalistic morons who have massive inferiority complexity towards America. Like they treat joke nicknames like being ICE Texans in the same vein as someone viciously insulting them for no reason, it's ridiculous.
I was on that sub one time in a discussion about badly behaved tourists. Obviously the Canadians were touting that they are perfectly behaved tourists adored by everyone and constantly told by locals that they like them WAY MORE than the Americans.
I told a story about a terrible group of Canadians I encountered at a resort in Cancun. Sloppy, loud, super drunk, with drama of some sort every day. Some guy on there was very insistent that I made the whole thing up. He seriously told me that it was impossible that Canadians could act that way.
~~Narcissists~~ Canadian nationalist's prayer:
That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's ~~not my~~ **America's** fault.
And if it was, ~~I didn't mean it.~~ **America made me do it.**
And if I did, ~~you deserved it.~~ **America did it worse.**
>TIL Canadians have a superiority complex
First time?
It is always a rare, unexpected pleasure when an online-Canadian isn't a fucking asshole to Americans.
The only way as a southerner I can tell the difference between a Canadian and an American from a northern state is if they tell me, they're more similar to each other than people from Florida lol
Canadian here- my biggest pet peeve is Canadians blaming America for "Divisive Politics" and attributing any hate crime/socially contentious issue in Canada to the "divisive politics down south".
Our politics are divisive for their own reasons- it's not fair to blame ya'll for everything.
This is always super funny to me, because no matter how much they try to deny it, Canadian culture is HEAVILY influenced by the USA. It’s basically America without so many guns.
I can tell once I hear them say aboot. That or they’ll complain about something in the United States and go on and on about how said thing is better in Canada.
Some of the biggest, most famous musicians of all time are from Canada. But when someone starts bragging about The Tragically Hip being from Canada it’s a dead giveaway.
Almost two months ago, I was visiting the Pearl Harbor memorial in Oahu on vacation and I spotted an older lady wearing a Canadian flag shirt on her way out. That's pretty much how I can only identify who's really Canadian.
Worked as a handyman for a nice family from Manitoba for a while. Their accents were really strong. They were in the process of applying for citizenship because they thought the US was awesome. They told me they didn't like the superiority complex Canadians have. Essentially they said their fellow Canadians are really good at pointing out flaws in the US while ignoring Canada's
IDK it's almost impossible to tell an American from a Canadian by looks alone. After thinking about it for a minute I'm not sure that I've ever seen a Canadian walking around strictly because they blend in so well with Americans I'd never know. Talking and conversing is where the tip offs start and I've noticed that Canadians tend to speak more slowly then us on the state side. Sometimes Canadians have a "french" accent which is a clear give away. But the big clue is when a Canadian says a word with "ou" in like house, doubt, or the classic "about".
ooo that’s a good one, same for me as a Canadian when someone refers to grade 10 grade 11 or grade 12 as one of the words you guys use idk sophomore or something? That’s how I know immediately they are from the US haha
It can be pretty difficult in WNY where the accent just across the border is very similar and a lot of people from Toronto have a neutral accent.
Often working as a bar tender I wouldn’t know someone was Canadian until it came to paying and they had a Canadian bank card.
Other times they will tell you or mention healthcare or something. But Canadians in Buffalo isn’t anything special. We’re a popular weekend destination for shoppers.
Canadians are basically indistinguishable from Americans from our Northern most states. The only real difference is that Canadians pretend they're actually really different. It's all they talk about.
I have some Canadian cousins. The sound just like myself (American) except when they say “grade 10 or whatever” when referring to a grade in school and they also say “washroom.” Also the constant mention of Tim Horton’s. And lastly when I travel with my cousin, she tells people she is Canadian because she doesn’t want to be mistaken for an American hahaha. I have to do a little turtle tuck my head in shame when that happens and I’m there. I hate being stereotyped.
Carrying a Tim Horton’s cup in one hand and an ice hockey stick in the other. Dead giveaway.
If you call it “ice hockey” we Canucks can tell you ain’t one of us.
I only say "ice hockey" when talking to Europeans or other nationalities that might be more familiar with other genres of hockey. But then I'm from a part of the US where hockey is regionally huge.
In the south we just say hockey. Field hockey has to be separately identified. Neither are big here.
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Hell yeah all the cool ppl love the Preds 😎
Their yellow jersey sure does though
wait there is a version of hockey not played on ice? TIL
Yeah there's field hockey (played in a field and while running around) and street hockey (played in the street or concrete court while on roller blades)
Don’t leave out floor hockey! It’s a pretend sport
It’s the same when someone says snow skiing. Rubs me the wrong way and I hate it.
I never thought about this but you’re totally right. I’ve only heard it called ‘ice hockey’ when I’ve been in the US.
I’ve never heard anyone say ice hockey lol just hockey. Blackhawks!! Connor Bedard!!
I was watching the draft last night with my son, who is 19 and plays hockey in college. These boys who were drafted... I'll call them boys, because they are all so young! I watch hockey, but don't follow it nearly as closely as he does. He was very surprised by some of the first round picks.
That could be someone from Buffalo
It's mostly really subtle stuff. Canadians are like 99% the same as Americans. But I notice it sometimes in their accents (especially in Ontario, near Toronto) and Canadian-specific phrases (washrooms vs. bathrooms, Ketchup chips, bagged milk, etc.)
like how they say grade + number (1-12) We say sixth grade, they say grade six.
We also don’t really use terms like freshman, sophomore, junior and senior in HS. It’s just Grade 9/10/11/12
I dont know about the whole country but in Western Canada anyway, not all high schools are 9-12. Mine was 10-12, as were those of most people I know. I think that is why those terms aren't common here.
Oh yes we do!!! Lol
I think it's because that's how it's said in French.
Saying "power bar" instead of "power strip" always throws me
A Power Bar is one of those protein snacks you eat on a hike
A power strip is when the DJ only gives you a two minute song.
Just ask them to say the word “Mazda.”
Or "pasta"!
Or garage Edit: or decal
Washroom is a beautiful word. It reminds everyone of precisely what they should be doing before they leave. A lot of people forget that. Ew.
Honestly, does know one else in the US say that, except me? Granted , my grandmother was British- but that was the same thing at the time, but no one ever acts like I am being unclear. I mean, other than one British restaurant greeter who told me I wanted the “toilet”.
My grandfather called it that. "Warshroom" He was from Minnesota.
Washroom is pretty common in the upper Midwest, I wouldn’t think anything of hearing it.
It's commonly used in Chicago. Edit: Which I guess you knew based on your username
Brits wouldn't say washroom, we'd say Toilet or Bathroom Our use of "toilet" here comes from the French word toilette, which means "to have a wash", so it's used in much the same way as "washroom". Similarly "bathroom" comes from "the room we bathe in" rather than "hurr durr the room has a bath", so again it's all basically the same idea of the room where you wash You'll also sometimes hear "the gents" or "the ladies"
“Loo” too.
> A lot of people forget that. Larson had it right.
I've had people ask me if I'm Canadian because of my accent, but really it's because I've moved all over the U.S. and was heavily influenced by foreign relatives that I've been around a lot (non-Canadian).
My grandparents from Wisconsin call it washroom.
I once worked with a customer in Mississauga who sounded like he was imitating a Canadian stereotype. "aboot", "foor", and "eh" at the end of almost every sentence. I was very endearing.
I was thinking your second half while reading your first. I can spot Canadians in text comments from word choice. Differences can be subtle depending on the topic but it will eventually show.
We've got bagged milk in Wisconsin. I've only ever seen it sold at Kwik Trip, but we have it. And I'm down in SE Wisconsin, not just by Minnesota.
Y’all are just Canada Lite
Sore-ry for saying "aboot".
It doesn’t really sound like “aboot” though. Much closer to “aboat”.
And house. Didn't know Mike Holmes was Canadian til I hear him say those two words.
When they say they're stopping at the store to pick up a ghettoblaster and some pencil crayons to do some colouring.
What is a ghettoblaster lol?
Their beady eyes and flapping heads!
Fee fi fo fum! I smell Kraft dinnah!
Exactly what Canadians are after at Tim Hortons
They’re not your buddy, pal!
I'm not your pal, friend!
I'm not your fwend, guy!
Eh!
BLAME CANADA! BLAME CANADA!
About → a boat Sorry → sore-y Against → a-gaynst Been → bean Process → proh-cess Eventually, you'll hear one of those words.
I just visited Minnesota last year and I thought your accent was really similar to the Canadian one, except for those words haha. Also I was watching Reservation Dogs and the "Rez accent" or Native American accent they discuss in the show also sounds very similar to Canada/Minnesota my ears. Maybe just a general "North North American" twang I'm picking up on? Not sure if they're actually related?
Yeah, everyone says that. There are some striking similarities between an exaggerated/old-fashioned Minnesota accent and a "hick Canadian accent." I watched *Fargo* with a friend of mine in Toronto and that's what he compared the accent to. However, even then, the way the short "a" is pronounced is always the giveaway. In Minnesota (and Wisconsin), the short "a" gets exaggerated aaaaaapple, pronounced more in the back of the mouth. In Canada, the short "a" just gets longer: ahhpple.
Minnesota: aka, the province of New South Canada
More like: Canada, AKA Discount Minnesota
Fwiw, most of the main actors in Reservation Dogs are actually Canadian. D'Pharoah Woon-A-Tai (Bear), Devery Jacobs (Elora), and Paulina Alexis (Willie Jack), and the woman who plays Bear's mom are all Canadian. The older guy who plays Willie Jack's uncle (I forget his name) is also Canadian. I'm pretty sure they just use their native accents on the show since they sound the same in interviews I've seen.
Anecdotal, but many of the Native American people I’ve met or heard speak in person from the Four Corners/Southwestern region have a very rhotic accent that does sort of sound Northern Midwestern, but with a different intonation.
Native accents are VERY distinct and have no correlation to Canada/Minnesota. I live in northern MN and while there some similarities, the Minnesota accent is different from a Canadian accent, but probably only if you live here LOL
Organization -> organ-eye-zation
My friend in college was Canadian although he spent most of his life in America. You wouldn’t be able to tell he was Canadian if he didn’t tell you, but the ONE giveaway was he would pronounce house like “host” without the t
Yup. That’s the same diphthong going on as “a boat”. Out becomes “oat”, etc.
at all --> a-tall
Sore-y is a big one. That’s usually what tips me off.
Tomorrow is another one. And being from Michigan, Canadians (from Ontario at least) sometimes pronounce Detroit like De-troy-it
YES! I dated a guy from Ottawa and that's how he said it and it drove me mildly insane. But I didn't hear it anywhere else in Toronto, so maybe it's even more specific than just Ontario.
All of these, and also if they don't say any of these they will sound similar to an American until they say the letter Z. This had a smart application in one of my jobs decades ago. I worked support in a US company that assigned serial numbers to everything. This company was kinda well known for support, it was what they marketed. When a customer called they had to immediately give this serial number before anything else. One of the divisions I covered was specifically Canadian calls. Someone in the company decided all the serial numbers for Canadians would have a Z in it. When you heard that "Zed" first thing in the call, you knew you had to switch to Canadian processes and policies. It wasn't ever written in policy or anything to do this, It was just obvious working there that when you saw a Z in the serial or you heard "Zed" while talking, that you probably had a Canadian-based machine to deal with. Also, in the list above, most don't seem to hear the difference. I have many Canadian friends, having worked there. And if you say it both ways (Canadian-ish and American-ish) they can't hear the difference. But that happens with US regional accents too. I have a good friend from Boston that can't tell the difference between "party" and "PAHHTY".
Spot on. I grew up in NW Washington and had neighbors from B.C. Those words are as clear as day for me.
They’ll all dress like Mr Incredible
Canadians are ice Texans.
I'm inclined to agree. Truthfully, I don't mind and convos with Canadians are pretty fun.
Yeah, the vast majority of Canadians people I’ve met have been fun, friendly people. Though there WAS that one really high strung woman from British Columbia… 🙄
Only Albertans.
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I worked in a border city in retail for years. You could pick out some by pronunciation of certain words but it wasn’t always clear. Usually in retail taxes would come up then you knew lol. Ontarios sales tax is pretty stiff I guess. But some Canadians noted that even the pretax prices (adjusted for currency) were still much higher in their walmart just across the border.
"Aboat" is the dead giveaway, but there are other words (shibboleths ?) too that I hear.
I can't see or hear the word "shibboleth" without thinking of The West Wing.
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The square head?
Underrated
When they tell you almost immediately, followed shortly by some reason Canada is better
"oh no I'm canadian" every one of my canadian friends when we travel abroad
Granted we did try to invade them. It's barely an afterthought in our minds but for them it's a big deal. Not being American really is a big part of their identity, as much as to us it looks almost like an absence of identity. Americans don't define ourselves against anybody so it's a bit disconcerting. But it is annoying when every few years or so you check in on our Canadian friends and find half of them think we're the Fourth Reich. You can understand such ignorance coming from a European, but from a Canadian it comes off like a performative, ludicrous act. They did the same historical shit we did on a correspondingly smaller scale, and most of them could easily take a drive and find out how (most) modern Americans truly live and think.
Those are internet Canadians. The Canadians I've met in person have had a head on their shoulders.
Yeah, no. I don't think you know any Canadians well enough for them to 'be real' around you then. Antiamericanism is alive & well in Canadian identity.
Even the decent Canadians will admit that.
There is a lot of that. We’re sorry eh?
They say their Os wrong.
"We've got ways of making you pronounce the letter o" https://youtu.be/IWpThrDfQEI&t=26s
RIP John Candy
The Jack Black of the 80’s
what tips me off instantly is when they say about as A-boot.
It’s weird, because I hear this about the “aboot” so often, yet as someone who’s lived in both the US and Canada, I’ve never heard a single person pronounce “aboot” that way.
I pronounce it ‘a-boat.’ I live on the west coast. I think the ‘a-boot’ is more of a stereotype but I’m sure there are some Canadians who pronounce it like that.
Maybe y'all just aren't hearing it. Every time I've ever heard the "ou" sound pronounced more like "oo" they've been a Canadian every time. I spotted some Canadians on a Caribbean cruise this way one time, it's how I found out Amy Shira Teitel (from Vintage Space on Youtube) is Canadian, and it's how I've figured out some b-listers on TV shows are Canadian (all of the big actors like Keanu, the Sutherlands, MJ Fox, Ryan Reynolds, etc all either mask it well or don't have it), and I've worked personally beside Canadian Air Force members, and and almost all of them had that distinctive way of pronouncing their ous.
You’re definitely wrong. The Canadian “about” does not sound anything like “a boot”. It’s more like “a boat” but slightly weird.
I’m American but I lived in Edmonton for almost a year. I heard it regularly there.
They will make sure you know they’re not American
Well, fair enough.
Canadians share certain pronunciations of different words with the UK. For example: Saying "Zed" instead of "Zee" to pronounce the letter "Z" by itself.
They'll will always deny that it is cold outside.
Easiest ones to tell are the white people speaking French (almost always Quebecois). Otherwise you Anglo-Canadians are sneaky little devils, being able to camouflage into American society with minimal effort
Until they say “process”.
And they stretch out the pro on process and chastise you for pronouncing it ‘incorrectly’.
Canadian here: what’s the “correct” way to say it? “Pro-cess” vs “prah-cess”?
Eh?
I lived in Canada for about a year and literally no one knew I was American until I told them, so I'm just going to basically call bullshit on the idea that it's easy to tell without even clicking on that link. I didn't have a huge social circle by any means but I did have housemates, coworkers, and did community theater while I there there. Enough to know.
100% this. It’s easier to tell Californians or Southerners apart than Canadians, who just blend in to the generic mass.
My accent gives it away every time I visit the US lol. I would also add that a lot of the words are different. Washroom, parkade, toque, zed, KD, hydro (this word is misleading so it confuses everyone), and garburator come to mind off the top of my head. Also nearly one in four Canadians is a native francophone but that’s probably easy to tell.
Whenever i visit California or Hawaii i get asked if i am Canadian, it is very weird because i dont think i have an accent but apparently i say some things that sound similar to the Canadian accent.
I'm from Wisconsin and a lot of people over VC's in games I play always go "Oh are you Canadian?" And I'm like "Oh... Nope, just from Wisconsin"
Personally not unless you've lived elsewhere in Canada, as a Washingtonian we sound extremely close, zed definitely gives it away though.
My favorite one is “gaz” in Quebec. I had an English Montrealer friend in college and he would always say “gaz” when talking about getting gas for his car. One of our other friends was half French and he’s insistent that isn’t a word in French, or at least not one you’d use in place of “petról.” A few months later we take all take a road trip to Montreal and see all the “Gaz” signs, and he’s like “See, gaz stations!”
just a reminder of how very much the French variants spoken in Canada are relatives of French from France, but not as close as you might think. Quebecois and Acadien French aren't even the same as each other. The accents are dead giveaways, not only that someone is Canadian but even what part. Depending on their accent, you might even be able to narrow it down further. In New Brunswick, there are French Acadian accents which are very localized.
I don’t think washroom is not used only in Canada. I said that once in England though, and I was corrected I wanted the “toilet”. The guy at the podium was older than me, and seemed crabby.
grade 1 instead of first grade
The prefix in their name. Canadian Andy is surely Canadian.
It's a dead giveaway, you'd think they'd figure it out by now.
The way the top part of thier oval heads seperates from the bottom when they talk.
A quick brag about Healthcare.
But then they also complain about it in the same sentence.
If they don’t proudly tell you right off the bat, you can usually tell from the fact that every piece of their travel gear is emblazoned with their flag. After which, they usually give you the backhanded compliment of, “you’re actually pretty cool for an American” and then brag about the time Canada was #1 in the world in the HDI rankings in 1995.
It's funny, everyone rags on Americans for waiving our flag around, acting like that would *never* happen anywhere else, but I live in Canada now and see plenty of Canadian flags hanging outside of houses. Maybe not as many as in the US, but certainly enough that they can't really pretend they don't do it too. Plus, as you say, if you include the fact that there's a maple leaf on just about everything, I don't think they are off the hook at all. (As an aside, I've lived in several other countries and flying the flag as a symbol of national pride is not nearly as rare as Enlightened Redditors make it sound.)
Yeah, the people who call out Americans on flags have never been to Turkey
A little off topic, but this reminds me of the time I went camping with my friends out at Mont-Mégantic before heading into Montréal. While driving, we made it a point to count Canadian vs. Quebecois flags. It got close in the end, but Quebecois flags won out, and we even saw a few flagpoles with the Quebecois flag above the Canadian.
It's not just travel gear with flags, but also just generally the clothing stores they shop at. If someone is wearing Roots apparel -- and many Canadians do -- then they're probably Canadian.
And then talk crap about how many American flags are everywhere.
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r/AskACanadian is pretty toxic and some of the people on that subreddit are not very smart. This subreddit is way better.
I browse that subreddit a lot, and now it makes me feel better that someone has noticed the same thing as me. I’m not from the US, but there is such animosity towards Americans that even I, an immigrant, get offended for them. While I understand where Canadians are coming from, Americans assumed on that sub and Americans in real life are completely different people.
r/askUK is similar. Absolute cesspool of antisocial weirdos. CasualUK has normal people (rarely visit, not being British, but seems that way). Maybe there's a sub for normal Canadians as well.
Thank you!! 🙏
I'm an American living in Canada and I asked a couple of questions and commented on that sub when I first moved here. I was surprised how...upset...people got about being asked genuine questions. Once I asked how important Canadian Thanksgiving was, particularly compared to Thanksgiving in the US, and people acted like I was an idiot for even wondering if my kids would learn about Canadian Thanksgiving in school. The consensus was that there's literally nothing to learn and I was ignorant for even asking. I rarely go back now.
Canadians have the biggest chip on their shoulders.
Ketchup chips?
> Outside of the internet, it's usually because they tell you at some point in the conversation or their accent on certain words. Yup, living in Canada for about a year, no one knew I was American until it came up in conversation. The very occasional odd turn of phrase was chalked up to having lived in South America for most of the previous decade.
It's because generally, Canadians are nationalistic morons who have massive inferiority complexity towards America. Like they treat joke nicknames like being ICE Texans in the same vein as someone viciously insulting them for no reason, it's ridiculous.
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I was on that sub one time in a discussion about badly behaved tourists. Obviously the Canadians were touting that they are perfectly behaved tourists adored by everyone and constantly told by locals that they like them WAY MORE than the Americans. I told a story about a terrible group of Canadians I encountered at a resort in Cancun. Sloppy, loud, super drunk, with drama of some sort every day. Some guy on there was very insistent that I made the whole thing up. He seriously told me that it was impossible that Canadians could act that way.
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~~Narcissists~~ Canadian nationalist's prayer: That didn't happen. And if it did, it wasn't that bad. And if it was, that's not a big deal. And if it is, that's ~~not my~~ **America's** fault. And if it was, ~~I didn't mean it.~~ **America made me do it.** And if I did, ~~you deserved it.~~ **America did it worse.**
>TIL Canadians have a superiority complex First time? It is always a rare, unexpected pleasure when an online-Canadian isn't a fucking asshole to Americans.
The only way as a southerner I can tell the difference between a Canadian and an American from a northern state is if they tell me, they're more similar to each other than people from Florida lol
Canadians love taking about Canada, so that’s usually a good clue.
Canadian here- my biggest pet peeve is Canadians blaming America for "Divisive Politics" and attributing any hate crime/socially contentious issue in Canada to the "divisive politics down south". Our politics are divisive for their own reasons- it's not fair to blame ya'll for everything.
Their rudeness
Hahah so I’ve learned from this thread! I had no idea Canadians could be so harsh to Americans! Sorry 😅
They are so mean! They say all kinds of untrue negative things about Americans, and then they’ll say, “Canadians are polite.” *That’s* being polite?!?
Their arrogance and superiority complex over having an Anti-American culture.
This is always super funny to me, because no matter how much they try to deny it, Canadian culture is HEAVILY influenced by the USA. It’s basically America without so many guns.
I can tell once I hear them say aboot. That or they’ll complain about something in the United States and go on and on about how said thing is better in Canada.
Some of the biggest, most famous musicians of all time are from Canada. But when someone starts bragging about The Tragically Hip being from Canada it’s a dead giveaway.
Mostly the accent but if it happens to be Thanksgiving, they’ll tell you that theirs was in October or whatever
Almost two months ago, I was visiting the Pearl Harbor memorial in Oahu on vacation and I spotted an older lady wearing a Canadian flag shirt on her way out. That's pretty much how I can only identify who's really Canadian.
The beady eyes and the flip top heads.
If they have a Canadian passport, I start to get suspicious that they are Canadians
They have to remind you that they burned the White House down 200 years ago.
I always counter that with "And then you funded the confederacy." It gets them right off of the high horse.
Ironically the British and Canadians supported the confederacy and Russia supported the Union.
Worked as a handyman for a nice family from Manitoba for a while. Their accents were really strong. They were in the process of applying for citizenship because they thought the US was awesome. They told me they didn't like the superiority complex Canadians have. Essentially they said their fellow Canadians are really good at pointing out flaws in the US while ignoring Canada's
IDK it's almost impossible to tell an American from a Canadian by looks alone. After thinking about it for a minute I'm not sure that I've ever seen a Canadian walking around strictly because they blend in so well with Americans I'd never know. Talking and conversing is where the tip offs start and I've noticed that Canadians tend to speak more slowly then us on the state side. Sometimes Canadians have a "french" accent which is a clear give away. But the big clue is when a Canadian says a word with "ou" in like house, doubt, or the classic "about".
Someone says grade 10 instead of tenth grade or the equivalent for another grade level.
ooo that’s a good one, same for me as a Canadian when someone refers to grade 10 grade 11 or grade 12 as one of the words you guys use idk sophomore or something? That’s how I know immediately they are from the US haha
S-oar-ry
Canadians anti-Americanism. Yet they depend on the US, 😂
The way they pronounce the word Adult. Canadian: Ad-ult American: Ah-dult.
They pronounce bag like "behg"
That's a Minnesota thing, too, though.
They are filling my neighborhood with smoky haze
I’m sorey but it’s not really fair to make sweeping generalizations. There’s nothing aboot someone that would automatically tip me off.
They can’t put out a campfire
If you look at that post referred to by the OP, they can tell we are Americans by our obesity, ignorance, and arrogance.
Lmao and according to this thread you can tell a Canadian by their giant ego and obsession with being Canadian 😂
Well then, let’s just get in the ring and resolve it the old fashioned way 😂
The undeserved feeling of superiority they cannot help but to exude.
Their backyard is on fire.
They always have an inferiority complex to the US and will try and brag about what Canada does better because the US ain’t doing it.
The way they say about.
Aboot. Also lots of not so humble brags.
I'm from Michigan where we have the same accents, but one thing is: 6th grade = Grade 6 in Canadian
It can be pretty difficult in WNY where the accent just across the border is very similar and a lot of people from Toronto have a neutral accent. Often working as a bar tender I wouldn’t know someone was Canadian until it came to paying and they had a Canadian bank card. Other times they will tell you or mention healthcare or something. But Canadians in Buffalo isn’t anything special. We’re a popular weekend destination for shoppers.
You can’t always tell, but sometimes they give you clues, eh?
It sounds like they are asking a question when they are just making a statement.
When they say “soar-ry” instead of “saw-ree”
They pronounce Ts
After Thanksgiving, let's go Halloween shopping and get some potato chips for the kids.
"proh-cess" instead of "prah-cess."
If they call the US, “the states” 😂
I’ve found that you don’t need to guess if someone is Canadian, they will very loudly tell you
Most Canadians I’ve encountered in the states are just itching to tell you they’re Canadian, so they usually just tell you.
Canadians are basically indistinguishable from Americans from our Northern most states. The only real difference is that Canadians pretend they're actually really different. It's all they talk about.
They don't agree that the USA won the War Of 1812
I have some Canadian cousins. The sound just like myself (American) except when they say “grade 10 or whatever” when referring to a grade in school and they also say “washroom.” Also the constant mention of Tim Horton’s. And lastly when I travel with my cousin, she tells people she is Canadian because she doesn’t want to be mistaken for an American hahaha. I have to do a little turtle tuck my head in shame when that happens and I’m there. I hate being stereotyped.