American to Canadian translations

Factual Questions
121

But they make up for it with Curry flavoured!

In BC, my daughter goes to a Secondary School - grade 10. If someone bumps into me they say sore-ee. If something costs $100 it is one hundred dollars but if something costs 100 cents is costs a loonie. 200 hundred cents is a two-nie.

The order of this is a pro-cess (not praw-cess). In fact everything which starts with pro is pronounced pro - not praw.

French fries are still french fries but if you’re not careful they’ll put gravy and cheese curds on them and call it potine.

My new house in fact does have a garbaratur in the sink. My master bedroom has an ensuite (a room with a toilet and bath attached) but down the hall is either a washroom or bathroom depending on who you’re speaking to.

I have not received my hydro bill yet - but it should arrive soon.

My neighbour just went shopping for a couch, chair and loveseat. I’ve not heard the term Chesterfield yet.

122

Heck, drive down to NC and just ask for “tea” and you’ll get sweetened iced tea. If they recognize your Yankee (yes, even though you’re Canadian) accent, they might double-check that yes, you want it cold, and yes, you want it to have been sweetened before it was iced, as God intended, and isn’t the abomination of unsweetened iced tea with some sugar spooned in afterwards.

123

Ah, ah, and Canadian university students are “first year, second year”, etc, not freshman, sophomore. More university things: you don’t ‘grade’ exams, you ‘mark’ them. Although you do receive end of term grades. And there is something between a bachelors and a masters program called a diploma program–like those extra damage control courses you take to get into a grad school program if you had the wrong undergrad major-- they have a term for it. “I’m a diploma student in X”
Do Canadians say “buck” for a dollar ever?

124

I thought of a couple more…

When you’re done eating you ask the waiter for the bill (not the check) which you can pay for with a cheque.

At my bank I have a Chequeing account. They gave me a little green card for ATM and to swipe at the store. This an Interac card not a check card.

There is a place up the street called the Medical Centre and I put my car in the parkade when I go there.

If someone says it is 25 degrees outside,. leave your coat behind. :slight_smile:

125

All of Kingston is west of the Cataraqui, or was at that time; now it incorporates Pittsburgh Township, which is east of the Cat, e.g. the Army base and RMC and points north of that, but Kingston as most people understand it - the downtown core, student ghetto, Queen’s, Rideau Heights, etc. etc. - is all west of the Cat; that was the old eastern border of Kingston before amalgamation in 1998, and the army base and RMC were technically in Pittsburgh Township.

I actually lived in both the City and the Township at various times. I grew up in Bayridge and Henderson Place and moved downtown when I moved out.

Judge Henderson just died recently.

126

(I lived East of the Cat)

127

Army brat?

128

You sometimes hear the word ‘serviette’ in old movies, like those of 1930s and 1940s vintage, though there it seemed to be a cloth napkin. The kyew-pon pronunciation has become so widespread that it probably can’t be called a mistake anymore, though I would never stoop to say it. It’s “kooh-pon”. How hard is that? I don’t know where people got this “kyew-pon” pronunciation from.

129

I use check or bill interchangeably, but I never yet saw a restaurant where I could pay with a check.

[quote]

At my bank I have a Chequeing account. They gave me a little green card for ATM and to swipe at the store. This an Interac card not a check card.
I have a checking account–just a different spelling.

That would have taken me awhile to figure out, and I’ve been in Canada. Not for very long, though…just stuck my nose into Vancouver for about 36 hours.

Unless you’re from southern California, then you might even think 25C cold. OK, I exaggerate, but not by much.

130

Yeah, I’ve learnt to ask for the “bill” now, although when I’ve asked for the check early on, the waitresses invariably correct me: “The bill? Sure.”

In America aren’t “check cards” those things that grocery stores give out so that they’ll cash your checks? I think they were in wide use before check verification systems were in use. I remember you’d always have to sign up for check cards or something like that. Otherwise I think we just call them ATM cards, right? Or do we really call them check cards? They’re only used as debit or credit, where by credit I mean “credit-card style transaction.”

I see these Interac terminals all over the place here. Is that something special beyond the same EFT debit system that we use in America? Is it a private trademark or a single company? Are they just really, really good at having their name out there? Back in America, no one really pays attention to Plus, Cirrus, or Interlink. They’re just universally-available debit transactions. I think most of us tend to look for Visa and Mastercard more often.

131

**RE: CUE **Off the topic a bit - but in Australia we queue - “should we go and order now?” - response - “hang on, I’ll check out how long the queue is first.”
A cue is one of those sticks you use to play pool, or it’s a hint or signal to someone to do something (like if it was time for them to do something on stage).

132

Hi…The O.P. here, dropping in to thank all of you for contributing to this discussion. When I last posted to this thread I thought that the list at the site Mk VII provided a link for back in post#21 was so exhaustive that nothing more could be added, but I was wrong – the discussions of the Canadian names for schools, etc., were fascinating and enlightening.

133

Maybe a long time ago but currently,

ATM card = a STAR and/or Interlink capable card linked to one or more bank accounts and requiring a pin.

A check card = a Visa/Mastercard/… capable card linked to a checking account. In every way like a credit card besides the ‘credit’ part.

Most new ATM cards shipped by banks are ALSO check cards. My Wells Fargo ATM card is also a VISA drawing from my primary checking account. Very convinient.

134

Holy Crap! These were always just “debit cards” to me, but now that I whip out my current iteration of mostly-unused Chase né BankOne né NBD ATM/debit card, it’s actually got “check card” sprawled across it. I actually kind of object to that wording, 'cos it implies it has something to do with writing a check (whether or not it’s linked to a “checking” account).

135

There is no substitute for a Dagwood .

136

Middle aged mid-westerner here:
TEA:

Hot tea in the 60’s and 70’s: Mom, I and sibs, always with milk and sugar, dad just with sugar, but he was mainly a beer guy anyway. Always in the afternoon or evening. Had to have coffee in the am (all of us).

Iced tea in the 60’s and 70’s: Make really really strong hot tea, pour over ice add sugar.

80’s till now: Micro-waves invented (YEAH!) Instant hot tea, just don’t forget to take the little tag with the staple off or it will get sparky, and forget the milk (extra calories ya know). I have since switched mostly to herbal teas with honey. Don’t need the extra caffiene.

I think sun tea was invented in the 80’s too: Put a bunch of tea bags in a pitcher of water and set it out in the sun, let it brew up and pour over ice.

Since moving to St Louis (which serves the best iced tea in the country all year round, imho) I have discovered the “Arnold Palmer”: 1/2 iced tea 1/2 lemonade. This is my preferred iced tea now but I always order it 3/4 tea, 1/4 lemonade.
Soft drinks:

Growing up (chicago area) we always called it pop. When I moved to St Louis (only 300 miles away) for the first time in the 70’s a boy asked me if I wanted a soda. Imagine my surprise when he returned and gave me a coke :dubious: I was like; where’s the ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and especially the cherry on top :confused: Having lived on both coasts and am back in StL I’ve given up and now call it soda.

ATM cards;

Yeah, maybe the bank calls them check cards, but whenever I hand one over to pay I’m asked “debit or credit?” I’ve always referred to them as debit cards.

137

Am I to understand that Americans don’t have flavoured potato crisps?

A lot of “Canadianisms” sound more like “Imperialisms” and would not go amiss here in South Africa.

Do you say “faucet” or “tap”?

138

Sure, but not such a variety!

Both, although for me (and it changes from region to region), the tap is where the water comes out of, and the faucet is the control valve. Together as a unit, it’s either a tap or a faucet. Actually, either one works separately two. Come to think of it, they’re completely interchangeable.

139

I use both faucet and tap… I’m not really consistent, but I think I’ll refer to a faucet in a bathroom, but call it a tap in the kitchen or at work. The water that comes from it, though, is always “tap water” when I need to clarify where it came from (as opposed to the Milli-Q distilled lab water, or not from the Brita pitcher, for example).

Interac is a debit program adopted by every bank in Canada. It is accepted pretty much everywhere (except Tim Hortons and Dollaramas!) and is a direct debit withdrawl from whichever bank account you choose. You can have the card link to a chequing account, or a savings account, or both, and the terminals in stores will let you choose. Most bank accounts will either give you a limit on amounts of Interac purchases per month, or you pay a fee for unlimited, or there’s a fee every time you use it - maybe 50 cents or something. These fees are not charged by Interac - it is the bank that determines them. I think Interac charges businesses a certain amount, which is why stores where purchases rarely exceed a few dollars won’t have it - it isn’t worth it for them. I have an unlimited Interac account, because I almost never carry cash anymore. The cash is taken from your account pretty much immediately - I can buy the groceries, go home, check my balance online, and the amount will be gone. It’s a fantastic system. Your Interac card is also your ATM/bank card. For both, you use a 4 or 5 digit PIN to accept the sale, or to bank with the ATM.

According to Wikipedia, since 2001, there are more Interac transactions being done than with cash. I believe it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interac The article also mentions cash-back… I do this a lot if I think I’m going to need cash in the next few days. I’ll make a regular purchase (say, groceries) and simply ask for an additional 20 or 40$ or whatever, and the store clerk just enters the larger amount into the terminal. Every store is an ATM! There’s also the mention of the fact that Interac allows users to get cash from any ATM from any bank… do Americans have to search for their own bank to get cash all the time? Of course, banks charge a fee for using another bank’s ATM, but it’s usually only a 1.50$ or so.

We do, also, have credit cards… Visa, Mastercard being the two most popular, also mostly issued from whatever bank you tend to keep your money in.

Banks in Canada are all regulated by the government (though someone else would have to explain what that really means) and apparently Canada has one of the soundest and safest banking industries in the world.

Also, in other threads, I believe we’ve covered the fact that Canadians are more likely to use “ou” spellings, such as colour, labour, neighbour rather than color, labor, neighbor.

140

Well, they do have a point, albeit a subtle one. When you ‘debit’ from your account using an ATM network and pin, your pin instantly authenticates a transfer of funds from your account to the merchant’s account. When you use your ‘check card’ to make a purchase without a pin, the transaction goes through the Visa/Mastercard credit system and it becomes, in a weird manner, ‘a promise to pay’ rather than a transfer. The transaction itself is an entity that can be changed in amount later (as in when gratuity is added to the receipt at a restaurant), reversed (such as during a return of a product), charged back or challenged (such as when the owner of the card claims the transaction is illegitimate) and many other subtleties. Using a check card as a credit card, the burden falls on the merchant to collect as much information as necessary to establish legitimacy of the transaction. They may choose to inquire about your zip code, require a signature or check ID, if allowed by the agreement they have with their merchant account. In this regard check transactions are a lot closer to paper checks than say ATM debit transactions or even electronic checks (which most of the time work as instant fund transfers).