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English with Lucy
British vs American vs Canadian ENGLISH Differences! (very different!) (+ Free PDF & Quiz)
British vs American vs Canadian ENGLISH Differences! (very different!) (+ Free PDF & Quiz)
English with Lucy
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18:59 · Aug 11, 2021
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(upbeat
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Hello
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with
Lucy".
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0:10
(upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome back to "English with Lucy".
0:14
I've got a great video planned for you today.
0:16
We are going to be comparing British English with American English and Canadian English.
0:23
And I have two fabulous guests on my channel
0:27
and I think you might recognise them. - Hey,
0:30
my name is Rachel,
0:31
I'm from the US
0:32
and I have a channel here on YouTube where I focus on all things,
0:36
spoken English with an American accent.
0:39
My accent is what I would call a standard American accent.
0:42
I grew up in Florida,
0:44
I went to school in the Midwest and since then I've lived in Boston,
0:49
New York and Philadelphia. - So we have Rachel representing the US and representing Canada,
0:56
we have Bob the Canadian. - Well,
1:00
hello Lucy and hello Rachel and hello to all of Lucy's viewers.
1:04
I'm Bob the Canadian from the YouTube channel,
1:06
"Learn English with Bob the Canadian" where you'll often find me out somewhere on
1:11
my farm,
1:11
teaching a short English lesson. - If you haven't met me before my name's Lucy,
1:16
I run this channel,
1:17
"English with Lucy" and I am from Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom
1:22
and I speak with a modern RP accent.
1:25
I'd just like to remind you
1:26
that there's a free PDF
1:28
that goes with this lesson.
1:30
It's got everything that we're going to talk about today plus a quiz at
1:34
the end.
1:35
If you'd like to download the free PDF,
1:37
all you've got to do is click on the link in the description box,
1:40
enter your name and your email address.
1:43
You then sign up to my mailing list
1:45
and the PDF will arrive automatically in your inbox.
1:48
From then on you don't have to subscribe again.
1:51
Every week you'll receive all of my lesson PDFs,
1:54
plus all of my news and offers.
1:56
By the way, this is a two-part video.
1:58
Today, we are looking at vocabulary and in the future,
2:01
there will be a part two with pronunciation where we will definitively find out
2:06
if Canadians say about
2:09
or not.
2:11
Okay, so I have sent Bob
2:13
and Rachel a list of pictures
2:16
and they are going to tell us how they say it where they're from
2:19
because there are going to be some differences.
2:22
Let's get started with this first one. - This first one is definitely the
2:26
letter Z.
2:27
Although as a child,
2:28
we watched the American version of Sesame Street
2:31
and they tried to get me to learn it
2:33
as the letter Z.
2:34
But this in Canada is definitely the letter Z.
2:37
X, Y, Z. - I would definitely call this letter Z. - Interesting.
2:45
For me in the UK and British English,
2:47
it is the letter Z as well.
2:51
I really relate to Bob on
2:52
that one because we used to watch loads of TV shows
2:56
and cartoons that were produced in the US
2:58
and they always used to say Z
3:00
as well and I remember finding it quite confusing
3:03
but yeah,
3:03
X, Y, Z, over here.
3:06
Okay, let's take a look at this next one.
3:09
What would they call this? - So this is definitely a bill in Canadian English.
3:15
When you're at a restaurant and when you're done eating,
3:17
you ask your server
3:18
if you can have the bill. - The check is the most common
3:21
but I would also call this the bill. - In UK this is always
3:27
the bill.
3:29
Can I have the bill?
3:30
And funny story, I worked
3:31
as a waitress when I was a teenager
3:33
and someone once said to me,
3:36
"Can I have the bill?"
3:36
But I misread their lips and I thought they said,
3:38
"Can I have some milk?"
3:40
And I brought them a glass of milk and they were just so confused.
3:45
Okay, onto the third, what would you call this?
3:48
And remember that you can write in the comment section below what you would
3:51
call these as well
3:52
if you say something different. -
3:55
So we call these either running shoes
3:57
or runners in Canadian English.
3:59
If you're gonna go out for a walk or a run,
4:01
you put on your running shoes
4:03
or you put on your runners. - There are lots of different terms I
4:06
might use for this,
4:07
tennis shoes or running shoes,
4:09
even though they might not specifically be for tennis or running.
4:13
Also sneakers. - Interesting.
4:16
We don't use any of those words in the UK.
4:19
We understand them, sneakers, running shoes, tennis shoes,
4:24
but I would say that running shoes would be specifically for running.
4:27
In general, we call these shoes trainers, trainers.
4:31
Okay, onto the next. - A long time ago in Canadian English we called
4:36
this a Chesterfield but now we just call it a couch.
4:39
Sometimes we might say sofa
4:41
but usually when we see something like this we say,
4:44
"I'm gonna go sit on the couch." - I would call this either a
4:47
couch or a sofa. - Funny,
4:50
okay, so we would hardly ever call this a couch.
4:54
That sounds very American and Canadian to me.
4:57
We would almost always call this a sofa or sometimes a settee.
5:03
A Chesterfield to me seems like an old fashioned leather sofa,
5:08
specific design. we do have a lot of Americanisms in British English
5:14
and we would say a couch potato,
5:17
not a sofa potato that doesn't work.
5:20
If someone's lazy, they're a couch potato so we have adopted that.
5:25
Okay, onto the next one. - The $1 coin in Canada has a looney
5:30
on it.
5:30
That's a bird that lives in Northern Canada.
5:33
So we decided we would just call this the looney.
5:36
Then when we decided to have a $2 coin,
5:38
we thought we would call it a tooney 'cause it's worth $2
5:41
and it rhymes with looney. - Slang for $1,
5:45
a buck. - I love the looney and then the tooney.
5:50
I think that's absolutely hilarious.
5:52
Yeah, I've heard of buck before.
5:54
So we don't have dollars in the UK.
5:56
We have pounds and our slang term for one pound is a quid.
6:02
And we haven't thought of a cool name for two.
6:04
We call it two quid.
6:06
One quid, two quid.
6:07
Another thing to note is when we have five pounds or five quid,
6:10
we'll call it a fiver and for 10, a tenner. - In Canada,
6:16
we would call this pop.
6:17
I think it's the second half of the word soda pop.
6:20
I think my American cousins use the first part of the word.
6:23
I think they call it soda
6:24
but we just call it pop. - Actually in the US we use either
6:29
soda or pop depending on the region.
6:32
I personally use soda. - Interesting, okay.
6:36
So there are definitely some clear similarities between those two unsurprisingly.
6:42
In the UK it's very different.
6:44
You will find some people, I think more up north saying pop,
6:50
but in general we call it fizzy drinks which doesn't sound as cool.
6:54
Now, the word soda to us is quite confusing
6:57
because a soda for us is fizzy water.
7:00
So I remember going over to the US
7:02
and I was offered a soda
7:04
and I thought,
7:04
oh, how boring.
7:06
No, I'll have something more interesting like a Coke please.
7:10
Okay, onto the next one. - In Canada,
7:13
we use the metric system so we measure distance in kilometres,
7:16
but that seems like a really big word.
7:18
So sometimes we just say clicks.
7:20
If you ask someone, "How do I get to Niagara Falls?"
7:22
They might say, "Oh, it's about 40 clicks from here."
7:24
Sometimes it's spelled with a C sometimes with a K. - I would call
7:28
that one kilometre.
7:30
But of course in the US we're much more familiar with miles. -
7:34
So we're quite boring here.
7:35
We would just call it a kilometre,
7:37
but sometimes when we're running or doing sport,
7:40
we would just shorten that down to K.
7:42
So I love running and I like to run a 5K and 10K,
7:46
five kilometres, 10 kilometres.
7:48
I've never heard of click before, that's quite cool.
7:51
For driving we do still tend to use miles.
7:54
Our speed is in miles per hour.
7:57
How weird is that?
7:58
I go running in kilometres but I drive in miles.
8:02
We need to sort that out.
8:04
All right, let's talk about this one.
8:06
This is what I actually celebrated this weekend that's just gone past. - In
8:11
Canadian English we would call this either a stag
8:13
and doe or a jack
8:15
and jill.
8:15
It's a party that a couple has about a month
8:18
or two before their actual wedding,
8:19
where they just invite friends
8:20
and family over just to have a good time to celebrate the fact
8:24
that they're getting married. -
8:25
That would be a bachelor party for a man,
8:28
a bachelorette party for a woman. - Ah, it's completely different in the UK.
8:34
We say hen do.
8:38
A do is a party or a stag do.
8:40
Now, it's more common for them to be more than one night.
8:43
People like to go away for weekends.
8:46
But if it's just one night you can say hen night
8:48
or stag night as well.
8:49
Also it's not so common to celebrate them together
8:52
as Bob explained but it is becoming more common.
8:55
And we put stag and hen together and we call it a sten,
8:59
hag didn't sound so good.
9:03
Okay, this next one is an interesting one
9:05
and I kind of just put it in for Bob.
9:07
Let's see what he says. - Canadians often add the word eh to the
9:12
end of a sentence to turn it into a question.
9:14
So I can't really explain how it works
9:17
but I'll give you a few examples.
9:18
I could say it's nice day out here eh?
9:20
Or I could say it's getting hot out here eh?
9:22
Or if it was getting a bit windy,
9:24
I could say it's getting windy out here eh?.
9:26
All of those would be examples of how Canadians use the word eh?. -
9:29
A common question tag in the US would be,
9:35
right? - Yes, I just wanted to hear Bob eh.
9:37
I know it's a common stereotype that, well,
9:40
there's two that I've heard of Canada that they say about.
9:43
In British English we do use eh sometimes, eh, eh?
9:49
Or isn't it or doesn't it we do say a lot.
9:51
It's hot, isn't it?
9:53
Sometimes we can shorten this down to innit.
9:56
It's hot init?
9:57
Oh my God, init?
9:59
Doesn't it can go to done it, has done it.
10:02
I've heard them say right a lot in American English.
10:05
That's definitely creeping into British English
10:08
because we just consume
10:10
so much American media. -
10:12
So Canada is a pretty big country
10:14
and in different parts,
10:15
I think they have different words for this.
10:18
We call them smokes.
10:19
In some parts of Canada they might call them darts.
10:22
But most people I think just call them cigarettes. - I don't smoke
10:25
so I'm not super familiar here
10:27
but I would say cigarettes
10:29
or for shorter or for slang,
10:31
ciggies or smokes. - So smokes sounds very very American gangster film to me.
10:39
In British English, cigarettes or ciggies.
10:42
We also use the word fag
10:44
which if you use it to describe a person it's a really offensive word
10:48
but it's a common slang term for cigarettes.
10:51
Okay, onto the next,
10:53
what do you call this? - So these are what we call freezies.
10:58
You buy them in the store and they're not frozen.
11:00
When you come home you put them in the freezer
11:02
and in a couple of days they're frozen
11:03
and then on a hot day,
11:05
kids can take them out,
11:06
snip the end off with a pair of scissors
11:08
and eat it to cool off. - I call this a Popsicle. - Okay,
11:12
so yeah, we're definitely call in British English this a Popsicle
11:17
but we would also call it a lolly.
11:21
Any kind of frozen treat that isn't creamy, we'd call a lolly.
11:25
If it's creamy, it's an ice cream. -
11:27
So in Canada we would call this homo milk
11:29
or whole milk.
11:31
Homo is short for homogenised.
11:33
I think they mix the milk
11:34
and the cream together
11:35
so it won't separate any more.
11:37
So this in Canada would be either homo milk
11:39
or whole milk. -
11:41
That would be whole milk. - Ah,
11:44
okay.
11:45
So if someone asks me for homo milk,
11:47
I would not know what they're talking about.
11:50
I would understand whole milk
11:52
but in UK we tend to call it full fat milk
11:55
or full cream milk.
11:57
And I think with the fat removed is skimmed
11:59
or semi-skimmed which is half
12:00
and half.
12:01
Also I forgot to ask Bob,
12:03
if it's true that his milk comes in bags.
12:06
I've heard that in Canada milk comes in bags.
12:10
Okay, next one.
12:11
What are they going to call this? -
12:14
So we would call this either a parking garage
12:16
or a parkade.
12:17
When you go to see a show in a city like Toronto,
12:19
you park your car in a parking garage
12:21
or in a parkade. - I would call this a parking garage. - For
12:26
me,
12:27
this is a multi-storey car park.
12:29
We do have a habit of over-complicating things, yeah.
12:34
One thing I've noticed is
12:35
that in the US they call it a parking lot.
12:38
We always call this a car park.
12:41
And if it has multiple levels, it's a multi-storey car park.
12:44
I would definitely understand parking garage or garage as we would call it.
12:49
But if someone said parkade I would think
12:52
that might be like a mix between a park
12:54
and an arcade which sounds
12:56
so fun and I would be
12:58
so bitterly disappointed when I get there
13:00
and it's a multi-storey car park.
13:03
All right, onto the next one.
13:04
What do you call this? - So we would call this a washroom in Canada.
13:09
I still remember one of my first visits to the US
13:12
when I asked someone
13:13
if I could use their washroom
13:14
and they looked at me funny
13:15
because I think they call it a bathroom there,
13:17
but in Canada, this is definitely a washroom. - I would call this a
13:20
bathroom or we would also say restroom. - Interesting.
13:25
In British English, we'd understand washroom
13:28
and restroom and bathroom of course
13:32
but we tend to call it the loo
13:33
or just simply the toilet.
13:36
Bathroom to me implies that it has a bath and a shower.
13:41
So a public bathroom, well,
13:44
I don't wanna have a shower or a bath in a public bath.
13:47
You will often see toilets or public restrooms in the UK marked with WC.
13:54
This is short for water closet but no one ever says water closet.
13:58
We always say the loo or the toilets.
14:00
Where are the toilets, where's the toilet?
14:02
So my friends from across the pond have said
14:04
that they find saying the word toilet directly quite vulgar.
14:08
And I do understand that but it's just so ingrained into our everyday speech.
14:13
Right, let's take a look at this next one.
14:16
What did they say? - We would call this either a fire hall
14:19
or a fire station.
14:20
Fire hall is the place where you would find firefighters and fire trucks.
14:24
And if there's a fire,
14:25
the alarm goes off
14:26
and they jump in their trucks
14:27
and they go to put out the fire.
14:28
So we would call it a fire hall
14:30
or a fire station. - Fire station
14:33
but also firehouse. - Interesting.
14:36
For us, this is just a fire station.
14:39
We never ever say fire hall or what was the other one, fire house.
14:44
No, we never say that, fire station.
14:46
Actually, I've just thought there's a bar in London called the Chiltern Firehouse
14:50
which is meant to be very nice.
14:52
Actually, it's very nice I've been there.
14:54
And yeah, I never even thought twice about that.
14:56
Maybe we do say firehouse every now and again.
14:58
All right, onto the next one,
15:00
what do they say for this? - In Canada we often refer to electricity
15:04
as hydro.
15:05
Sometimes there's a storm and the hydro goes out.
15:08
The poles along the road are called hydro poles.
15:10
So I think this is
15:12
because a lot of our electricity comes from hydro electric power plants.
15:16
But in Canada, you call electricity hydro. - We call that electricity. - Interesting.
15:24
Because if you said the hydro wasn't working I would presume
15:28
that was your water supply.
15:30
In British English we call this electricity, the electric.
15:34
We also say the power
15:35
so we have a power cut
15:37
or the power has gone out
15:38
or energy.
15:40
My energy bill's gone up so much.
15:41
This is because we use lots of different sources as gas in many houses.
15:47
Oil is what we use here.
15:49
It depends if you're on the mains supply or not.
15:53
Okay, what do they call this? -
15:56
So we would call this either brown bread
15:58
or whole wheat bread.
16:00
It's more common for me as an older Canadian to call it brown bread.
16:03
I think for my kids they would call this whole wheat bread.
16:06
But definitely when I was growing up,
16:08
we had white bread
16:09
and we had brown bread. - I would call
16:11
that whole wheat bread. - I'm definitely seeing more similarities between Canadian English
16:16
and British English than American English
16:18
and British English.
16:20
We also call this brown bread.
16:22
Multi-grain and whole wheat is also creeping in
16:26
but in general we have brown bread,
16:28
white bread.
16:30
Okay, what did they say for this one? - Sometimes
16:33
when you're at a restaurant you get a little bit of food on your
16:35
mouth and you use a serviette to wipe it off.
16:38
So this is what we in Canada would call a serviette. - That's a
16:43
paper napkin. - Ah,
16:44
interesting.
16:45
In British English we use both serviette and napkin.
16:49
For me a serviette seems like a kind of cheaper white one that's disposable
16:55
and a napkin is either decorated
16:58
or made of material.
17:00
Right, let's see what they say for this one. - We call a case
17:04
of beer with 24 bottles in it a two-four in Canada.
17:07
Did you get it?
17:08
There's 24 bottles of beer in it, two-four.
17:11
So we call a case of beer with 24 bottles of beer in it
17:14
a two-four. - We would call
17:16
that a case of beer. - In British English we would call this a
17:20
24 pack.
17:22
If someone asks me for a two-four,
17:24
I don't think I'd know what they're talking about but I like that,
17:28
that's very efficient.
17:30
Right, that is it for today's video.
17:33
Thank you so much to Bob
17:35
and Rachel for their fantastic explanations
17:38
and for generously participating in this video.
17:41
I've left all of their information down below in the description box.
17:45
You can also click on the link there to get your free PDF today's
17:48
lesson.
17:49
Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.
17:52
I've got my Instagram and I've got my website englishwithlucy.co.uk,
17:57
where I've got a really cool pronunciation tool.
18:00
You can click on all the phonemes
18:01
and hear how words are pronounced in British English. - E,
18:07
no, A. - If you're looking for more listening practise and to expand your vocabulary,
18:12
then I also have my vlogging channel where I document my life here on
18:16
a farm in the English countryside.
18:18
All of the vlogs are fully subtitled for your convenience
18:22
so you can pick up lots of vocab
18:24
and improve your listening.
18:25
I will see you soon for another lesson. (upbeat music)
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