No, that’s midwestern. You’d never hear someone in the east call a bag a sack unless it was a “sack of potatoes”. We tend to think of “sack” as meaning something made of cloth, not paper.
And whoever said Americans would be puzzled by “washroom” is mistaken. I can’t imagine any region of the US where “washroom” wouldn’t be understood to mean “bathroom”, even if that term were not used by the locals.
I have enjoyed the occasional Dagwood. However, I have never seen a Dagwood described as being layered on anything other than sliced bread. The preceding list of sandwiches universally use a long bun, (under various names, but vaguely resembling a submarine hull or a torpedo) to hold the fillings.
As God is my witness, just three months ago I walked into a store in Phoenix, AZ and asked where the “washroom” was. The girl I was talking to, who did not seem to be retarded or hard of hearing, simply did not understand the question. I asked again, and again, and she repeated “What room? Wash-room? What?”
Finally, I clued in, asked where the “restroom” was, and was immediately pointed in the right direction.
Again, this was Phoenix - actually, I might have been in the City of Tempe.
I had a similar thing happen in Buffalo, NY last year, although in that case I didn’t have to switch to “Restroom” - the person I was asking picked up on my meaning after two or three tries.
I didn’t intend to infer that a Dagwood was a sub. I did want to point out that whether you are American or Canadian, there is only one word that describes …well… a Dagwood.
Do you still “knock someone up in the morning”
When I was a kid Canuck was an insult now its a hockey team.
The marketing campaign for that particular Visa product advertises it as being “just like writing a check”. Which it is, really, especially if you use the credit option, which doesn’t require a PIN.
No, they’re everywhere. I can buy cheddar; sour cream and cheddar; sour cream and chives; salt and vinegar; chile and lime; ranch; barbeque; jalapeno; and several other flavors wherever I go. (Granted, the proliferation of the “chile y limón” and jalapeno (and even habanero) flavors is probably related to my living about a half hour from Mexico.
Here, we drink “tap water” from a “water faucet” (which of course refers specifically to the faucets found in stores near the restroom; the kitchen model is a sink, without exception).
Same here.
Yes, but Dad was never posted there. My ex was promoted and posted there. McNaughton.
I still don’t like the term one tiny little bit. I won’t refer to anyone as Canuck unless they play for the NHL team in Vancouver.
That’s a Britishism. Unless you mean make them pregnant, which is what Canadians would understand that to mean.
Except maybe in Newfoundland. They speak their own version of English.
In the early 90’s I was in the Canadian Armed Forces. I was taking the Combat Leader’s Course (over on the Vimy side, Ginger, at CFSCE) which you need to pass to advance past corporal. Part of the course was learning how to teach a class, and so everyone had to prepare and teach two lessons. The second had to be on a military topic, but the first could be on anything. (My classes were on how to swing a baseball bat and how to treat a blunt force head injury. I figured if you didn’t pay attention in the first class you might need the second.)
A student from Newfoundland decided to teach her first class on how to wash a car.
Describing the process of rinsing the car off, she told us that you had to start at the “Bannett.”
Entire class, in unison: “The what?”
Confused, she repeated, “The bannett. The bannett. You should start rinsing the bannett, so the soap…”
Us: “The WHAT? What’s a bannett?”
Eventually, with some hand signals, we managed to deduce that she was referring to the hood of the car. “Bannett” apparently means “Bonnet,” which is a British term for a car’s hood. And a Newfoundland term too, apparently.
Do Americans call it the variety store?
When I was a kid in Ontario in the 70s and early 80s, there were convenience stores, which were completely milk-o-centric, and variety stores which had all the same stuff but with more of an emphasis on cigarettes, candy, dirty magazines and dust. The milk stores were like Becker’s and Mac’s Milk and even though you could still get cigarettes and candy there, they had less variety. You could also get milk at the variety store at that time but you would “trust” it less. I can remember when you’d see a milk store and a variety store side by side but they were increasingly just the same thing so you never see that anymore. Now Mac’s Milk is just called Mac’s and I think if people do make a distinction between convenience store and variety store, it’s that the variety store is a mom and pop convenience store. I wonder if that’s regional to where I grew up, or if it’s Canadian, or if Americans say “the variety” too and I’m just sheltered.
I think Canadian Tire refers to its gas station as a gas bar but that’s the only time I ever hear that one.
So, is it SAIR-viette, or SUR-viette?
I’m 57, and I learned at about 10 that chesterfield=couch=sofa=davenport. A love seat is a couch with room for two. Chesterfield was the brand of cigarettes my mom smoked.
Parkade is new to me. Yesterday, I would have guessed it was something spread with Parkay brand margarine. “Parkayed toast”
If hydro means electricity to the Canadians, I should mention that “hydrotherapy” is the use of whirlpool baths, not shock therapy.
If a high school graduate here is not quite ready for university, he can go to a “junior college,” sometimes called a “prep school.”
Bag=sack to me, though bag is more common. To “hit the sack” is to go to bed. To “jump in the sack with” is to have sex with. “In the bag” is drunk. “Letting the cat out of the bag” is exposing a secret.
The banking system in Canada is a matter of federal jurisdiction, not provincial (See: Constitution Act, 1867, s. 91(15). Since the federal government has consistently required strict rules on financial reserves, broad-based share structures, and detailed regulations, the Canadian banking system is very sound. Since the Depression, there have only been two federally chartered banks that failed.
I would think the exact terms would depend on the university one attends, but I’m not aware of a university that uses the British system. Some universities have gone away from the Latin terms and use an English equivalent.
At the university I went to, there were two streams for the B.A. - a three year program, and a four year honours program. In the three year program, for above average marks you got a degree either “with distinction” or “with great distinction” which I think corresponds to the “cum laude” and “magna cum laude.”
In the four year program, you had to take additional upper level classes and maintain a higher average - if you did that, your degree is B.A. (Hons.). If you earn an Honours degree with an even higher average, the degree is a “High Honours” degree, abbreviated B.A. (H.Hons.).
There is a subtle distinction between the two sets of terms. The terms “with distinction/great distinction” for the three year degree are a comment on the grades you got, but are not part of the name of the degree. For the honours degree, the “Hons./H.Hons” are actually part of the name of the degree.
And then there’s the terms for the regions. We don’t use the term-mid-western here - that’s an American term. The general terms are easterner, westerner, northerner, and occasionally central Canadian. (Note the lack of any term for a southerner, since the great majority of Canada’s population lives in the southern portions of the country.) Of course, there’s considerable regional variation to what those terms mean, depending on the perspective of the person using them.
Out west, we tend to think of everything east of Manitoba as “eastern.” (Leading to some angst when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are in the Eastern division, as they currently are. 
) But when you’re in Central Canada (Ontario and Quebec), “easterner” means someone from the four eastern-most provinces. And as one person from B.C. once told me, “To us, you’re all easterners.”
There’s also sub-sets, such as “from the prairies”, to mean generally someone from the lower portions of Manitoba, Alberta and especially Saskatchewan. You also occasionally hear the terms “flatlander” and “stubblejumper” for those areas.
Out east, there’s also the distinction between the three Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) and the four Atlantic provinces (those three, plus Newfoundland & Labrador).
SUR-vee-ett. Which is a paper napkin. A cloth napkin is a napkin.
Nope. Convenience store (or liquor store in [Southern?] California; those terms describe two different stores everywhere else, but one store here).
I don’t know about Indiana, but here a prep school is a high school, and “junior college” is fightin’ words on a community college campus.
And then there’s political terms. We don’t have a President, obviously. In English, the term for the political head of the federal government is the Prime Minister (often called the P.M.), and for the provinces, the Premier. In French, “premier ministre” is used for both. “The Government” is usually used to refer to what Americans would call “the Administration.” You occasionally hear the term “Ministry” used in this context as well, with the name of the P.M. (e.g. - the “Harper ministry”.)
“Lieutenant Governor” is not an elected office, but rather the term for the Queen’s representative as non-partisan head of state for the provinces (as distinguished from the political heads of government, the premiers.)
We don’t use the term “Capitol” at all, since it is a republican term. The Parliament buildings are located in the federal capital, Ottawa. Some provinces use the term provincial parliament, others use the term Legislature.
Members of the House of Commons (the elected branch of Parliament) are called “Members of Parliament” or “M.P.s”, even though Senators are also technically members of Parliament (similar usage to “Congressman” in the States to refer to members of the House of Representatives).
We name our electoral constituencies, rather than use numbers. The Prime Minister, Stephen Harper is the member for Calgary Southwest. The Leader of the Opposition is Bill Graham, member for Toronto Centre. The leader of the Bloc québécois, Gilles Duceppe is the member for Laurier-Ste-Marie. The leader of the New Democratic Party, Jack Layton is the member for Toronto-Danforth.
The Speaker of the Commons is required to be a neutral presiding office, not a party leader. The Speaker is elected from the members of the Commons, so got elected to the Commons as a member of a party, but is required to be neutral and does not attend party caucus.
Specifically, a prep school is a high school that is exclusively a “college prep(aratory)” school, where every graduate is expected to apply to college (and, in many cases, most are expected to be admitted to a prestigious college). There are rather few public prep schools (obviously) since public high schools admit all applicants and many students will never go on to college. (Exceptions would include the newer “magnet” schools or the older “tech” schools such as Detroit’s Cass Tech or NYC’s Stuyvesant where there may be some vo-ed courses (which are, themselves, highly technical), but the majority of classes are college prep.) Private high schools in the U.S. are nearly all prep schools.
I’m not sure when “junior college” became a pejorative (especially since my vague memory suggests that “junior” was the actual descriptor of the type of school that provided entrance for the larger system in the California University system). However, it is certainly true that the overwhelming majority of two-year colleges in the U.S. (awarding “associates” degrees) are run by states, counties, and cities and are known as “community colleges.” (Not to be confused with institutions such as the James A. Rhodes Junior College–the disparaging term aimed at Cleveland State University whose most lavish patron was Ohio’s most notorious governor.)
Your memory serves you well. Today, though, California’s community colleges are a little insecure about that kind of thing, and insist (rightly so, I might add, as a community college student) that the education you get is roughly equivalent to the lower-division education at a university. “Junior” implies inferiority and as such it’s not used. Especially at my college, half-jokingly nicknamed “Harvard on the Hill”, which clings desparately to its image as the best community college around despite serving probably the most uneducated part of the county.
Historically community college and junior college were interchangable (& occasionally city college, county college, etc). However in modern times community collge refers to a public institution while junior college a private one, but some publics still call themselves junior colleges. There’s a growing trend (particually in CA) for both to simply be called colleges. Private junior colleges are becoming rare and many are tranitioning to 4-years schools.
Educational terms are changing here in Michigan – is it the “all kids can learn” mentality? All of the J.C.'s are now “community colleges,” and if you say J.C., the younger set (hell, I’m only 34 I think) probably won’t mean you mean “junior college,” and the Canucks will be totally confused. What used to be “intermediate schools” are now “middle schools,” and most of the “junior highs” have become middle schools, too. The difference historically was that intermediate were grades 6-7-8 and junior highs were 7-8-9, and I think that middle schools can be either.
You automatically know who’s Canadian when they talk about University instead of college. On the other hand, the Ontario accent is identifiable on its own.
Oh, Canuck isn’t a pejoritive. That would be “hoser.”