INTERESTING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES!
• The Canadian 'accent' can be heard most easily in the following words: out, about, house, and others with 'ou'. For example, canadian pronounciation of the word 'out' is like 'e' as in 'pet' followed by 'oot' as in 'boot', sounding like 'e'+'oot'. American pronounciation of 'out' is more like 'ow' as in 'cow', sounding like 'ow'+'t'. Other words often pronounced differenctly are 'pop', and 'roof'. Of course, the trademark 'eh' at the end of a statement is a dead giveaway.
• Canadian spellings can also cause confusion: colour vs color, cheque vs check, centre vs center, etc.
• Canada uses the metric system, although canadians quote their height and wieght in feet/inches and pounds. Industry, for the most part, still uses imperial units.
• For measuring temperature, Canada uses celcius (rather than fahrenheit).
• Although there are many differences in prices of things between US and Canada, two that stand out are the after-exchange lower prices of electronics in the US, and the far lower prices of CDs in Canada. Also, there is a pricing inversion for CDs such that in the US the older CDs are the cheapest, while in Canada it is the newest releases that are usually on sale.
• The drinking age in Canada is 19 in most provinces, and 18 in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec. Note that the provinces where it is 18 alternate as you go west to east. Coincidence?
• Soda/pop is made with corn syrup in the US, and sugar in Canada---this changes the taste significantly.
• It's been said that Canadians are simply disarmed Americans with health care.
• Some of these 'Canadianisms' are of British origin, and can be found there as well.
• Football rules: size of our footballs, football fields, and one less down
• Canadian inventions: ski-doos, jet-skis, velcro, zippers, insulin, penicillin, zambonis, the telephone, short wave radios, robertson screws (square hole)
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