Over a year has past since moving from Canada to the United States, and yet I still confuse my fellow Americans with Canadian terminology. When I travel back to Canada for a visit, I catch myself equally confusing my fellow Canadians with American terminology. (Thanks for being patient, everyone! ;))
It has taken me some time and thought to think of the nuances between Canadian culture/language and American culture/language that wouldn’t be obvious to the common traveler passing through Canada or the U.S.A. Hope you will find this list useful in your travels or move to/from Canada/United States.
| Canada | United States | |
| washroom | restroom | whereas toilet is the common term throughout Europe and Asia |
| napkin | serviette | |
| back bacon | Canadian bacon | |
| garburator | garbage disposal | |
| iced tea | sweetened iced tea | iced tea in the U.S.A. is served unsweetened; sweetened iced tea usually means adding packets of sugar to the drink yourself |
| pop | soda | carbonated beverage |
| “single, single” “double, double” |
“1 cream and 1 sugar” “2 creams and 2 sugars” |
used when ordering a coffee and specifying cream/milk and/or sugar preference |
| Metric system | Imperial system | ** |
| personal cheque | personal check | |
| Check, please. | The bill, please. | used when requesting for the restaurant receipt |
| tuque / toque | beanie | |
| runners | sneakers | |
| theatRE, centRE colOUR, neighbOUR |
theatER, centER colOR, neighbOR |
— ** Canadians generally use the Metric system for describing units, like Celsius for temperature and meters for measurements, but Imperial units are sometimes used too. Please visit “Fahrenheit? I only know Celsius …” for more tidbits.
— For a list of Canadian/British and American spelling variants, Wikipedia has a comprehensive article posted at: List of Spelling Variants.
Wishing you a “Happy Canada Day”!
Silicon Valley Loonies 