# Soda pop, sodas, pop, floats - American terms vs. Canadian. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 15, 2006, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774 "2006-05-15T00:28:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/61 "2011-08-25T20:25:02Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > That’s because a true Southerner knows what you call “Coke” is actually “Co-cola.” Adopted Texan chiming in. It took me a while to get used to the vernacular here. It goes something like this: “You want a coke?” “Sure.” “What kind?” “A Dr. Pepper.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![longPath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@longPath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longPath)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/62 "2011-08-25T20:52:14Z")
Who wants Boston Coolers! 😉 ETA: Zombie Boston Coolers. ---
**Author:** ![gatorslap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gatorslap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gatorslap)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/63 "2011-08-26T06:27:08Z")
I grew up in California and I didn’t even know anyone called it anything other than soda until I was out of high school. :smack: If you call soda “pop”, do you call cream soda “cream pop”? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/64 "2011-08-26T16:13:14Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > RickJay writes: > > \> If you walk into a Canadian restaurant and look at the menu, French fries are > \> usually called fries, not chips - again, except as the dish “Fish and chips.” > > In the U.S., it’s also the case that when a menu offers this dish as one item, it’s nearly always called “fish and chips,” despite the fact that it’s French fries in any other case. It’s more of a cafeteria item (or occasionally a fast-food item) than a sit-down restaurant item. It seems to me that there’s a subtext when this item is called this that it’s a deliberate echo of the fact that it’s thought of as a British food item. Similarly, in the U.K., the fast-food restaurants that are part of U.S. chains put “French fries” on their menu, not “chips,” and this is a deliberate echo of American speech. American here (Virginia). Yes, we use “fries” in general to describe that food, but we use “fish and chips” as a set phrase when describing the traditional pairing with fish. Restaurants that serve it will normally call it “Fish and Chips” on the menu. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/65 "2011-08-27T08:09:46Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Dude! Any possible lingering doubt I may have had about the Net being the single greatest invention of human-kind has been settled. And I happen to live in that North western part of Arkansas that seems to have them all mixed in there. No wonder I can never decide what to call it. Heck, to my ears, sodapop even sounds hickish. BTW, I like that older map to the ones on the front page. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/66 "2011-08-27T14:40:06Z")
Two variants not mentioned yet: In a narrow belt of Illinois, with Peoria and Champaign-Urbana–sodypop. Central/northern Wisconsin, for a 7Up like beverage–white soda. This usage is dying out, if not dead. Northern Illinoisan by birth: I call fruit flavored soft drinks “soda,” root beer, ginger ale, Coke, and Dr Pepper “pop.” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/67 "2011-08-27T15:40:03Z")
Mot people call it a milkshake. In Rhode Island, it’s a cabinet, though nobody knows the origin of the usage. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/68 "2011-08-27T16:49:25Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > Local formal useage (restaurants, fast food, grocery signs, etc.) seems to be “soft drink”, possibly to avoid the whole pop/soda issue. Carbonated beverage. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/69 "2011-08-27T17:37:05Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Exactly. Native of Cleveland, went to college in St. Louis, I remember linguistic Pop Wars. I remember fellow homies there saying emphatically, “I’m from Cleveland and I drink _pop_!” " I, too, grew up in the Cleveland area – east suburb – and we always called it soda, never pop. Soda water with ice cream and a flavored syrup was an ice cream soda. My parents called a root beer float a “brown cow” (not black). We called them Boston Coolers – a name I’ve not seen anyone else mention. At college in Boston a milkshake was a frappe though there were enough non-Bostonians they’d usually ask if you ordered a milkshake before delivering to you flavored milk with no ice cream. I now live in CT and I’ve never heard anyone call it a frappe here. ---
**Author:** ![wei\_ji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wei\_ji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wei_ji)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/70 "2011-08-27T21:15:14Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > There’s also this link on (U.S. only) regional differences in non-alcoholic carbonated beverages > > [http://popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html](http://popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html) The map supports experience: My sister and I grew up in S.E. Alaska, where it was always “pop,” as the map confirms. Today, she lives in California and has taken to “soda,” as the map confirms yet again. Here’s a problem though: Some people where we grew up called it “soda pop,” a sort of soft drink ecumenism. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/71 "2011-08-27T22:52:24Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > (hmm… pommes is French for apple but German for French Fries while kartofeln are potatoes). “Pomme de terre” is the full French term for “potato” > [@](#): > > **Fries** – is there really a standard in the US? Yeah, we all know they’re french fries, but also just fries, home fries, buffalo chips/wedges, freedom fries, country fries, French-fried potatoes, shoe string potatoes, and the whole set of variations again with the word “taters.” “Home fries” are potatoes cut into cubes and fried on a griddle. Usually served as an alternative to hashbrowns on a breakfast menu. Similarly, I believe “country fries” or “country fried potatoes” are grilled rather than deep fried. Spuds cut into wedges and deep fried (often seasoned/battered before frying) are called “jo-jos” in these parts (Washington state), and are most commonly found in convenience store warmers. I have no idea why they’re called jo-jos. A lot of terms for french fries (shoestring, steak, crinkle) simply refer to the way they’re cut. They’re still “fries”. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/72 "2011-08-28T11:03:45Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > My parents called a root beer float a “brown cow” (not black). We called them Boston Coolers – a name I’ve not seen anyone else mention. For us in SE Michigan, a “Boston cooler” is a shake made with ice cream and Vernor’s ginger ale. It _must_ be Vernor’s. ---
**Author:** ![Molesworth\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Molesworth\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molesworth_2)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774/73 "2011-08-28T12:05:30Z")
The large number of posters from Cleveland in this thread has got me wondering what a “Cleveland Steamer” is called in other places. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soda-pop-sodas-pop-floats-american-terms-vs-canadian/356774.md?page=3)