It’s soda here in Jville Florida. I have gotten into fights with people who call it pop. POP IS A SOUND DAMMIT! So anyways what is it called where you live?
In much of the South (where I’m from) it’s “coke.” As in:
“Would you like a coke?”
“Sure; what kind ya got?”
“I got Coke, Sprite, or 7-up.”
It’s pop here in SW Ontario.
Most people are referring to a soft drink - such as Coke, Pepsi, etc - when they say pop. A few people I know use the term “a couple of pops” to refer to a couple of beers.
I’m with divemaster on this one. That’s how it is in TX, too.
I grew up with “soda” in New Jersey. I don’t think I’ve lived anywhere where it’s “pop”.
Of course, here in New England a lot of people still say “tonic” when they mean fizzy stuff like Coke and Pepsi. Makes it sound too medicinal for me. Worse yet, the old-time convenience stores are called “spas”. I just can’t take going to the spa for a tonic. It sounds too healthy.
It’s “pop” here in Wisconsin. Soda is that stuff you put in cookie batter or use to get rid of odors in your fridge.
And make it a Pepsi. I thought it was just another southern California colloquialism, but it looks like it is wider spread than I thought.
always pop. I have to admit, it sounds funny when I hear characters in movies ordering a SODA.
What’s the diff anyway? They’re both lazy forms of ‘soda pop’.
The only time I’ve heard beer refered to as pop, was as ‘barley pop’.
[story]
We were on vacation in San Francisco a couple of years ago, and a friend went on a trek across the city. She stopped at a Burger King to grab a quick bite and the ordering went something like:
“I’ll have a whopper combo.”
“What do you want to drink with that?”
“Uh, I guess an orange pop.”
An incredulous look, “You mean an orange SODA?”
“Okay…” she says, unsure about the clarification required.
[/story]
I grew up in San Francisco/Bay Area: Pop. We even bought it in bulk from the “Poppe Shoppe” (no longer in business).
Now, in the L.A. area: Soda.
I still say Pop.
And everyone looks at me funny.
SOFT DRINK!
In Los Angeles, that is a common term. (We had a simular thread several months ago, and a lot of the S. Californians chimed in and affirmed this.) All I know is that I was born and raised saying “soft drink” and never noticed anything different - except maybe some people called it “soda” - but among my friends and family, it was soft drink.
I remember having some friends who came from the Midwest, and they called it “pop”, a term which irritated me greatly, even as a child. I thought “What has ‘popped’?” I thought it sounded lame - I still feel that way, actually!
I recently moved to an area where everyone calls it “pop”, but it’ll always be soft drink to me.
Pop is the guy that helped bring me into this world, soda is the stuff ya drink.
'Least that’s how I remember it.
V.
Pop for me(Michigan), Soda (Washington DC) for long suffering boyfriend. BUT, to me, a MUCH more interesting question is “What version of the gross song did you have?” you know the one that goes “Great big gobs of greasy grimey gopher guts, mutilated monkeys feet” and here’s where the regional differences come in. I had “concentrated birdie’s Tweet”, long suffering boyfriend had the horribly WRONG " Petrified porpoise pus"… then we agree on “French fried eye balls swimming in a pool of blood and I forgot my spoon!”… I did a small survey years ago, and most had some version of birdie something…
Texas Gulf Coast checking in.
Yep, it’s coke.Not Coke as in ‘The real thing’ but coke as in:
Joe Bob,“I’m gonna run to the store and get a coke.”
Earl Ray,“Get me one, too.”
Joe Bob,“What kind?”
Earl Ray,“Dr.Pepper.”
Although I have to admit, I picked up ‘soda’ from my mom who was raised in Chicago.
And my step-son from East Texas (read ‘Deliverance’) says ‘pop’.But then again, he also says ‘yontu’ and ‘jeet yet’ and ’ fixin’ to’, lol.
I guess I’m a native Texan who goes against the grain…I’ve always used “soft drink”. Ask me for a coke, and I’ll give you a Coke. Of course, then I had to go to school among the heathens in PA where most of my friends use “soda” and the occasional (God forbid) “pop”. And we won’t even get into general Pittsburghese…
And I guess I’ve mostly run into “pop” here in Chicago too. Grr…I’m slowly getting my girlfriend retrained, though. She was raised in Texas, but both of her parents were Midwesterners, so she got indoctrinated in their ways. I’m working her to “soda”, and then we’ll see what happens from there.
Pop here in Vancouver, when we refer to it in generalities. Usually, we just as for a specific.
“Would you like a drink?”
“Sure, get me a Dew”
I was traveling in South Africa a few years ago and used “pop” to describe a fizzy drink. The friends I was with nearly busted a gut.
It’s “soda” in SA.
I now just say “drink” and then clarify that it is fizzy. 
-niggle
In Saskathcwan it’s pop. Soda always sounded a little exotic to me.
Keith
Oh, but of course it’s soda :).
No, but seriously. I lived in Georgia for a year, and everyone said coke. I thought it was rather wierd so I decided to ask for a Sprite if I wanted a Sprite and so on. A few years later I went to California, Bay Area. Everyone said soda, and so did I. One year ago I spent a few months in Vancouver and people said all kinds of things, soda, pop, soda pop, soft drink, drink etc. I still said soda.
Whenever I think of a sparkling sweet drink in English it’s soda, but here in Sweden I say läsk (rhymes with picturesque)
Saskatchewan too.
Here in Alberta I use pop usually sometimes soda I’ve never used soft drink. Whenever I say I want a coke usually that just means I want a coke.
This from close enough to DC I can bike there in under an hour.
It’s either Coke or soda, depending on who says it.
Personally, I go for Root Beer.