American Reacts to Canadian Words and Phrases
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- čas přidán 9. 01. 2023
- It is amazing to me as an American how drastically different some of the words and phrases are in Canada since for the most part our cultures are similar is many ways. That is why I am very excited today to react to this list of 21 different phrases and slang that are common in Canada. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!
Mailing Address:
Tyler E.
PO Box 2973
Evansville, IN 47728
We need Tyler to go to Canada and film experiencing everything he’s reacted to first hand
I agree!!!!+
that would be awesome 😁 his first tim hortons for example haha
Yup
Ohhh , Lord jumpins , that would be so fun . Taylor By' , come on up , get yourself a Timmy's
Agree 100%!
Hearing the call of the loon across a calm lake early morning really is life changing. It's haunting and echos deep in your soul. No joke.
Perfect description.
Across the lake at the cottage on an early morning. It is as if the rest of the world doesn't exist
I think it's quite soothing.
Yes! Especially when there's an early morning mist on the lake, or an early-evening reflection of the setting sun. The call of a loon has the same effect on me as a train whistle off in the distance, or a foghorn from a Great Lakes vessel.
@@kenlompart9905 : for me it is hauntingly soothing! Gets right to my soul. It also reminds me of my youth and teen years when I would be out on the lake ( in Northern Ontario) fishing, as the sun comes up, or is setting! Reminds me of my oneness with nature!
Stay safe, stay sane, stay Strong Ukraine 🇺🇦
Yes ❤
I’ll say it over and over, there is nothing as beautiful as hearing the call of a loon. When you are on a lake at the cottage, sitting around the fire……their call goes right to your soul, calms your heart and makes you one with nature.
Yup. I couldn’t agree with you more.
@@royalone3009 Same here, nothing compares to listening to the call of a loon.
Went to Jasper last summer and had this experience
Yup! czcams.com/video/5yTwD7U_XV4/video.html
This is mostly what ontarians say😊
For me the whole washroom/bathroom/restroom debate boils down to context.
If it's in your house it's a bathroom.
If it's in a store it's a washroom.
If you're on a long drive it's a restroom.
But in the end they are interchangeable with each other lol
I have never used restroom, in my mind that's strictly an American term.
@@MyghtyMykey I mean fair but I'm Canadian and I grew up hearing it 🤷🏻♀️ 🙂
@musicundermybreath That has more to do with American influence than anything. I've noticed my language shifting to more American terms because of all the US media. :)
Speaking to a Kiwi (New Zealander) they said they were grossed out by people calling the place to relieve themselves a bathroom. You see in Aussie and NZ they tend to have 2 separate rooms, one contains just a toilet and the other is strictly a shower or sometimes a bathtub.
And in Britian, it's called the 'loo'. :)
Some of these words are only used by older generations or in specific regions. For instance, you''ll never hear a Millenial or Gen Z call a couch a "Chesterfield" nor would they call underwear "gitch". I'd actually never heard the word "gitch" before this video
Agreed. My elderly stepfather says chesterfield and it sounds ridiculous to me, I’ve never heard anyone younger than boomer say it.
@@monicaalexander4896 Some of us Gen X used them growing up.
To call it chesterfield, you'd have to be older than my mother, and she's 79.
I'm an albertan Canadian and we used to say Ginch for underwear, with "n"
@@traciewalker8506 Interesting!
We say washroom or bathroom or restroom depending on context. Like in the mall, you would look for the public washrooms or restrooms. But in your house, someone might ask to use your bathroom or washroom. Or if someone is interested in buying a house, they'll ask how many baths (bathrooms) it has.
Yes, Canadians use the loonies & toonies regularly. You can tell if someone has a lot in their pocket because they'll be leaning heavily to that side, like a pine in a Group of Seven painting.
😂😂😂
Best for kids though. I used to make buck when searching the couch for spare change.
Also, we use loonies and twonies because there is no longer a paper version of those denominations, only coins.
Eating Butter Tarts.
The reason we regularly use the 1 dollar and 2 dollar coins is because the 1 dollar and 2 dollar bills aren't being printed anymore.
On my shopping trip this morning, I said "sorry" at least three times. That's what Canadians do. It's reflexive.
I think it's because we hate public confrontation. I want to confirm as quick as possible that there was no ill will and continue on my day
I went to costco yesterday and accidentally bumped a lady and yeah we both said sorry. I wasn't paying attention to the guy directing the flow for the lines and he apologized. I said no that's on me and he looked puzzled.
You can go to Tim's and ask for a "large coffee with two cream and two sugars" and they'll make it for you. It's just that if you are Canadian, you know you can simply ask for a "large double-double" and get the same thing.
You could ask for a 'regular' coffee and get one cream, one sugar.
You can basically ask for a double double at any coffee shop, not just Tim’s
Die hards ask for triple triple...
It's always cream first then sugar second. So you can order a double-triple and they'll give you two cream and three sugar.
@@inmyworldkindagirl I’m a die hard then bud.
The call of the Loon, the howl of the wolf pack are two sounds that remind Canadians of who they are.
Or....WHERE they are...lol
Once in the states my friend asked a clerk where the washroom was and he replied it’s called a bathroom! She quickly replied well I don’t need to take a bath I just want to wash up! Lol. I enjoyed her quick wit. The clerk …. Not so much lol.
Good! Americans need to stop thinking that everything they say is the "correct" way. Surprised they didn't say "restroom" as that's the term they use for public ones which I find very odd as you don't "rest" in there.
The Great White North was a segment on the Canadian TV show SCTV, which exaggerated Canadian speech and habits, starring Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis. You should check out that show, which was the training ground for Canadian performers who later became known for their roles in American movies and TV shows - John Candy, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty, Harold Ramis, Andrea Martin, and more. Never heard of "gitch".
Do do do do do do do dut...Do do do do do do do dut... 😝
Take off, eh!!
@@Melli1478 ya hoser!
Definitely agree on SCTV.
Coo loo coo coo, coo coo coo coo
That moment when you realize that you're the weird country. haha Awesome. edit: KD comes out of a box, but mac and cheese is home made.
it says KD on the box
Agreed. It’s 2 completely separate things. One isn’t substituted for the other. And KD these days is shite. The noodles fall apart
@@kimc555 That's cause you're cooking them for too long.
@@gustru2078 not at all - package always says 6 minutes - i do 3 and when you mix, the noodles start to shred apart. gave up buying it
I think Kraft Dinner and KD avoids the "mac and cheese" term because it's no longer macaroni noodles... Usually only find the straight noodles now.
The actual story of zed is that the alphabet song, created to help kids learn the alphabet, needed a rhyme, so they changed zed to zee. Real story.
Washroom is a distinction for a "bathroom" without a bath. Like at the mall, you wouldn't want a BATHroom, so you go to the washroom.
KD is just a Kraft marketing move done about twenty years, or more, ago. It's been Kraft Dinner for as long as I can remember but around the time that Kentucky Fried Chicken went to KFC, Kraft made the move to KD.
In the US the package of Kraft Dinner is labeled Macaroni and Cheese. So unoriginal.
but the origin of zed is from the latin zeta.
Also is it really a bathroom if there's no bath?
@@lavatorch My comment didn't challenge the origin of Zed, it was a response to the question posed in the video about how the rest of the world says Zed but Americans say zee.
And people DO say bathroom even when there is no bath in it. Some people choose to make that distinction with other words like Washroom, Powder room or Restrrom.
As a Canadian, I've never heard the word gitch. I think you need to make a list of all you have learned so far and come and see/experience them all. Make that one of your reaction videos.
I have only heard them called Gitchies or gotchies (and only when I was a kid). Never just gitch or gotch. But yeah, need to keep in mind this is a slang video, that one is definitely a rare one in my experience.
I'm from SK, we rarely used gitch. But my cousins from Nova Scotia said it. We did call a wedgie a "gotchpull", which I certainly never heard from US media.
@@KeyDash753 Makes sense it could come from there!
I have lived in Nova Scotia all of my life, almost 50 and have never heard anyone refer to underwear as gitch.
I don't say any of those but know a few people that call them 'ginch' or 'gonch'.
In Alberta we call Victoria day "May-long" and campers are out in droves, which always baffles me because many May-long weekend's have been ruined by snow, at least here in Alberta. It's usually after that weekend that the threat of snow is over.
In Ontario you could bet money that it will rain on May 2 4.
@ken lompart at least the rain there is warm-ish. Here in Alberta it's very cold rain even in the summer. I grew up in Ontario and I remember playing in the rain because it was refreshing in combating the heat and humidity. But here I would never do that. I'd probably get hypothermia...lol
@@kenlompart9905 May Long in NB is usually raining too, but lots of people are usually okay with it, since they go out on the May run (weekend long mud run).
BC we call it May-long
@@Madeincanada62 Yeah, it just puts a damper on it, especially if you're in a tent.
A lot of these "slang" words are regional but also generational. You will find that some of these are only used by the older generation and are not used by the younger generation. Words such as gitch/gonch, chesterfield, pogie, etc... You can tell these people are from Southern Ontario with them using "cottage" which is only used in Southern Ontario and a few maritime provinces; "cabin" is used in Western Canada and different words in other places in Canada.
In Manitoba we say cottage, not cabin.
Chalet in Quebec
@@cheryla7480 Interesting. Never been to Manitoba other than a layover flight in Winnipeg and don't know many people from Manitoba to comment. The infographics I have seen has lumped Manitoba with the rest of Western Canada in using "cabin". Weirdly, apparently Northern Ontario uses "camp" which you would think Manitoba would use either "camp" or "cabin" due to bordering regions.
I am from Manitoba and everyone I know says Cabin not cottage
Northwestern Ontario here and we call cottages camps.....are you going to camp this weekend?
I’m a Manitoban, 77 years old and a lot of the terms you’ve never heard of are more of a generational thing, than anything to do with Ontario. Knapsacks or rucksacks were the name for todays backpacks, today’s hoodies were called “kangaroos “. when they first hit the stores. What you called flip flops today were called “thongs “, no relation to underwear at all. Glitch was slang, specifically for boys/mens underwear. A mickey was the smallest size liquor you could buy ( you could easily conceal it in your jacket or a girls purse.
It has almost nothing to do with generation and almost exclusively locational. Gitch, bunny hug etc are used in different areas of the country. Newfies of all generations say gitch just like albertains of all generations say bunny hugs
@@Duckduckobtusegoose Do Albertans say bunnyhug? I grew up in Saskatoon and we always said bunnyhug. I actually have a University of Saskatchewan bunny hug that has the Oxford Canadian Dictionary definition of a bunny hug on it. I always thought it was an exclusively Sask thing.
@@Duckduckobtusegoose It’s only Saskatchewan that uses “ bunnyhugs “ not Alberta. I travelled a lot in the 60’s and kangaroos were that all over Canada. Bunny hugs weren’t even called that until near the end of the 70’s. Thongs ( flip flops ) I’ve bought in BC thru to Montreal and in the States. The underwear/ bathing suit thong wasn’t even invented back then.
@@jetstream6389 Yes you are right I believe 10 oz was the size. I remember as a teen the boys in our circle could always persuade an adult to buy us a mickey of lemon gin ( my favourite ), party time on the prairies, lol.
My boys wore tighty whiteys until they discovered boxers
We had a family cabin on a small lake in Ontario, and the call of the loons is something you just have to experience first hand. Loons are a prehistoric bird, very interesting.
As teenagers in the 70’s we said “gonch” since saying underwear was embarrassing. Here in western 🇨🇦 calling your vacation home on a lake a cottage would be super pretentious, it’s a cabin. And loonies, yeah, you need them to get a shopping cart at Walmart.
Also just called. The camp.
I’ve never seen a Walmart in Ontario that requires change to get a cart! Funny
Growing up in Alberta in the 70s I heard “ginch” and “gonch” until a new kid at school from out east called it “gitch”. We did look at her like she had 2 heads.
When I was a kid in the west in the 70s, boys' underpants were referred to as gonch or gonchies. I heard as an adult it came from a Ukrainian word for boys'/mens' underwear, which makes sense given the large numbers of people with Ukrainian heritage in the west.
I'm in New Brunswick and the use of the carts at Walmart is free.
Most people really don't say Eh as much as you'd think, it's usually only sometimes used behind a sentence if you want confirmation (like Right!) That was such a great meal eh!
Agreed.
Actually we say all the time. You probably don't even realize you're saying it.
@@Trygvar13 I've lived all over Canada and I've never heard it living in BC (32 years now) unless they just moved here from Ontario.
@@pjperdue1293 I'm born and raised BC and say it all. The. Time and don't even know it most of the time. Crazy, eh?
Eastcoasters
I'm 44 years old, born and raised in Vancouver, and you never hear a lot of that vocab here. Like others have said, it sounds very regional or generational.
In the Annapolis Valley was the first time I heard people order a regular four x four Timmies. I guess they like a little coffee with their cream and sugar, lol.
If I'm really busy, I use the Quebecois expression "J'ai beaucoup du pain sur la planche" (I have a lot of bread on the cutting board).
I stole an expression from Friends. If someone asks me to do something I'd rather eat bugs than do, I say "Oh, I wish I could but I don't want to" (Thanks, Phoebe!)
If someone asks me a question to which the answer is obviously yes, I say "Does Raggedy Anne have a cotton crotch?"
I'm Canadian, and I've never heard 'Gitch'....maybe it's just me.
Same. I’ve heard gonch. Not gitch or gotch.
Same here. I'd 100% believe it was US slang before Canadian slang.
My cousins in BC call underwear "ginch". I grew up in Ontario, and I've only ever used "undies" as a short for underwear.
@@koreygeren2677 I live in BC & it’s called underwear😂
@@carbonizedstardust421 We say gotchies out here in the East Coast
I'm Canadian but I say backpack , most of the time I say couch , case of beer. Maybe I'm an alien in my own country.LOL !! Some of the things they are saying I don't even know !🤪🤪
Same here, except there's a difference between a 2-4 and a case if beer. Their definition of Pogie is fa too broad.
I have never in my life referred to backpack as knapsack
I also use couch and backpack. I don't know a lot of people, but I don't know anyone who says chesterfield. I am also learning new vocabulary because I have never heard the word gitch in my life lol
I've heard the word Gonch for underwear@@hockeyfan2704
Funny thing, I will usually call it a knapsack but refer to a hike as backpacking, I'll say case of beer but usually call a case of 24 a 2 4 and I always say couch, I haven't heard chesterfield since I was a kid probably in the 70s or early 80s.
If Tyler keeps this up he is going to develop an insatiable taste for maple syrup and poutine.
You should see if you can find the tv series Due South (Paul Gross). I think it’s from late 90’s early 2000’s. It’s about a Mountie in Chicago who ends up working with an American Detective. The culture difference for both of them. It’s a comedy
Most of your videos make me realize how different we, in Quebec, are then the rest of Canada.
Same here
Some of it was not relevant to western Canada too.
So much.
Imagine as a native French speaker.
I'm French Canadian but I've been bilingual for over 40 years and I learned a few words. I suspect that some of them are very regional.
Tyler you are so unbelievable. You seem amazed every time you hear that the northern lights are visible in Canada. We are the Great White North after all, with the operative word being NORTH!! The north pole is in Canada, so Santa Claus is a Canadian, that's why he is nice!
Tyler, your facial expressions are too funny, especially when hearing the sound of our beloved loon.
Marie L
Ontario, Canada
As a Canadian I’ve never heard of a lot the sayings these two mentioned. Maybe it depends on the province. I’ve never heard of oat or a-boat or gitch or gotch 😂😂 I call a couch a couch, I say both Zed or Zee, I call it a beer gut I say hat, never a toque and I say either washroom or bathroom. I just assumed the US had the same abbreviations, Starbucks or McD’s in the states always seemed to get my coffee right when I asked for a dbl dbl !!
You are no true Canadian if you don't say touqe.. your an import ain't you..
@beingsneaky Or spend way too much time absorbing American media.
They have it a bit wrong while we will say the 2-4 weekend, the reality is that May 24th was queeen Victoria's birthday. So it is using 24 in more than one way. Also most Canadians say about like out, not aboat like oat and barely anyone says aboot like oot.
May 2-4: Many parts of Canada used to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday ('Victoria Day') on May 24. It was a statutory holiday, no matter which day of the week it occurred. In an attempt to create a predictable long weekend, Victoria Day was changed to the last Monday of May. We still refer to it as the May 2-4 weekend. Its origin has nothing to do with a '2-4' case of beer, but it's a standing joke for Canadians.
Victoria Day weekend is actually the second last week-end of May......The last week-end of May is the U.S. holiday
Memorial Day....
I've lived in southern Ontario, Canada my whole life, have travelled all around Ontario and Quebec, and I've never heard a single person irl say knapsack, Chesterfield, gitch, gotch, mickey, keener, Molson muscle or pogie. Also, 'eh' is not used any more often than in the US. It's only used when prompting for an answer; it's like adding 'right?' at the end of your question. 'Washroom' is used for public places, 'bathroom' is for at your house. I hear 'running shoes' more often than 'runners.' The other ones are accurate though.
depends on your age for some of those words, the wife and I are from North Ontario and in our 50's we've heard and used every one except, gotch, Keener and Molson muscle. and Pogie is actually Unemployment Insurance NOT Social Assistance or Welfare or Persons With Disabilities cheques. Welfare is actually called something totally different now and under a different government agency.
I live in the Eastern Townships (southern Québec) and I have always said Chesterfiedl and knapsack. Molson Muscle is usually just called beer belly however. I had never heard the word pogie before.
Although I have heard all those terms, the presenters seem to suggest they are used by all Canadians. Most Canadians know that different terms and expressions are used in various parts of the country.
I've never heard Molson muscle but I have heard beer baby lol.
I think "toque" is fairly universal for ytour typical knitted winter hats here. Comes from the French, hence the odd "que" ending, which you find more in that language.
I lived in North Carolina for a couple of years. Saw a rack of toques for sale in a store, I kid you not, they were labelled, “Toboggans, $3”!!!
I took a picture!
I've just always called them "winter hats" lol
If you offered me mac and cheese I would expect it to be homemade cheesy pasta casserole. KD or Kraft Dinner is basically the box of pasta with the fake orange cheese.
We don’t have $1 or $2 bills here, so only loonies & toonies coins!! Sometimes you realize your not that broke when you dig into the bottom of your purse 😂
We always did have $1 and $2 bills until the late 1980's when they introduced the looney, followed by the toony a couple of years later.
We need to see Tyler reacting to Newfoundland Slang, because it makes sense even to most of us Mainlanders, but it'll blow his mind.
We went so far as to pass a law stating that "sorry " wasn't a admission of guilt if in relation to a car accident etc.
It is essential because even I have said sorry to tables, doors and the odd rock or two..😂🤣🇨🇦
I've never heard of gitch in my 39 years of Canadianism.
At 49 years, I've heard it all my life lol
Hahaha. I have never heard of Canadianism in my 64 years.😂😂😂
@@enzopalumbo2164 Canadianity?
You’re too young, very common in the. 60’s refers to boys/mens underwear only.
@@cheryla7480 i am 64 and never heard the term. This a regional thing. Not an age thing.
Gitch... Wow there's one I haven't heard since I was a kid lol
same here, it was a word we used as kids but not anymore. Although if someone were to say it, we would know what they're talking about...
These two are closer to my age so many of these are a throwback to Saskatchewan in the’70’s.
We had a chesterfield in our house. Rolled arms and a flat back trimmed with wood. And the buttons on the upholstery!
In Alberta, we call Victoria Day, May Long. And we would drive across the 24 hour border to the US, on the Sunday because Canada’s bars weren’t open on Sundays. We could cross the border usually without any ID
We all tried to make the loon call.
I haven’t picked up a 2-4 since I lived in Moose Jaw in 1978
One time we went backpacking to a camping ground in the backcountry and during the night there was a howl, which made my husband and I pee our pants. In the morning one of our friends asked "did you hear the loon??" turns out the howl wasn't a wolf but a loon
you should hear the blue heron. They sound like dinosaurs. Pretty intimidating.
As someone raised in Vancouver area of BC, a lot of this isnt true. However deeper into Canada away from Vancouver or Toronto these become more and more true lol
I’ve lived in BC for over 35 years and I have used some of these terms, or like Chesterfield my grandma called it a long time ago.
I imagine they get more common as you get more rural. Growing up in Saskatoon I used most of these. Certainly pogie and micky and knapsack all the time. On rare occasion even gitch. The only ones I never used were Chesterfield and May 2-4 (we just called it Victoria Day, although later May Long became fashionable).
Growing up is Nova Scotia a lot of these aren't things I've heard from Nova Scotians. I mean sure, Double Double and Timmies( although Tim's is more common) are used every day but Gitch and Chesterfield would make you sound soooo out of place
Definitely the further out you get the more common it gets :P a lot still true in the cities
@@gamexsimmonds3581 Nova Scotia kinda has it's own language to be fair
Canadian here. I’ve never heard the word gitch.
The tuque in Canada was started in Quebec, toque means " knit winter hat ",first found in print in 1870.
TUQUE not toque
@@sylvainricard8148 Changed, thanks.
As summer wanes into autumn, before the birds leave as the days begin to cool and a mist covers the water in the early morning and evenings, the haunting call of the Loon sends shivers down my spine. It's one of the most beautiful calls I've ever heard.
i dare you to react to the log drivers waltz 🤣
"Pogie" or the "dole" are not just like welfare of some sort of social assistance program. You pay into it throughout the year based on how many hours you work and it's very common for seasonal workers to going on Employment Insurance, which is the actual name of the program. It can also just be shortened to "EI". Since there can be lots of seasonal work, like road construction for example, there can be long periods of time where you could be laid off each year. EI gives these workers a little bit of security over the winter or when times are tough. It should also be noted that your EI doesn't last forever, it's just there to get you through a time of unemployment not be a permanent funding solution.
EI used to be UI for Unemployment Insurance. That changed a few years ago.
The US has unemployment insurance too, so not hard for Americans to understand. It was in the news a lot during early covid as the government subsidized increasing and extending the benefits.
I love this guy. Wonderful disposition. Kind and caring and generally interested in Canada. Well done Tyler! Love from 🇨🇦
The GENERATIONAL aspect to these words is very evident. I (born 1968) grew up saying “thongs” for flip-flops, “chesterfield” for couch, “knapsack” for backpack… I don’t use these much anymore because the new words have overtaken the older ones. I didn’t really realize I was switching over, except in the case of “thongs”, which I purposely changed when the underwear version came into use!
“Zed” is more European, and the USA simplified A LOT of spellings to reflect a more phonetic representation. So, words like “programme” became “program”, “axe” became “ax”, the “u” was taken out of words, like “colour”. Merriam-Webster was a forerunner of new Americanized spellings.
We don't call it Mac and Cheese, because legally there is no cheese in it. Kraft cannot market it as such in Canada and the UK, so they brand it as Kraft Diner
There is no Mac in either. 😂😂😂
Pogey the bear had me in stitches.
That was pretty good. But I'm old, I remember Yogi and Booboo
Don't forget he also said Hogey too
A suggestion...we believe that Americans think the most outrageous things about Canada. A couple of examples are that we are very backward in technology, we live in igloos, etc. In 2001, a Canadian comedian, Rick Mercer, went to the U.S. to prove the point. The one example I will always remember (and shows my age) was the time that Rick asked American people on the street if they had heard that Canadians were getting to use fax machines. In any case, he asked some pretty crazy questions...to Canadians but the Americans asked did not know enough about Canada to know how ridiculous the questions were. I looked up one of the videos...although there was a series. Rick Mercer Talking to Americans. BTW, Rick now has retired and sports grey hair. He is still very funny and is not afraid to speak his mind. He went on to have his own show in which he had a segment with his rants. To this day, I miss his rants because he made a lot of sense while being funny. Sorry for the long-winded comments!
13:40 Yes! It's a mandatory lesson just after Igloo construction class :p
In fact, in Quebec I never heard the majority of these words.... well.. we have our own french language so it makes sense :D
Hey Tyler, another great video, keep them coming. I love watching your reactions to our unique and beautiful culture and traditions. I've heard most of the words, I don't use them in my everyday vocab, but I do remember my grandparents calling underwear 'gitch', I just call it undies. I went to my grandparents cottage every summer when I was a kid and always loved hearing the loons on the water, that and the beavers slapping their tails.
never heard gitch before this video. Must not be a thing on the west coast.
Ginch or Gonch. I also say undies.
Hey Tyler tell us a bit about yourself. What state do you live in? What do you do for a living. How big is your family? Thanks for your interesting videos. I love to hear the call of a loon.
@@RogersMgmtGroup i am from the Atlantic region and I have never heard it either.
May 2-4 weekend? Must be regional, never heard this in my entire life. It's always been "May long" around here.
Ottawa has it as the May 2-4 weekend. Where abouts are you?
I'm not sure about other provinces, but "May 2-4 weekend" was a promotional gimmick in Ontario by Molson company. The holiday happened to land on the 24th and there was a huge party at Molson Park. Since the promotion worked so well, they kept calling it "2-4 weekend".
In Québec it used to be La fête de Dollard (Dollard des Ormeaux Day), but it has now been changed into la fête des patriotes (Patriots' day)
In Nova Scotia it is also called May 2-4
Canadian May long weekend is the 3rd weekend of May (around the 24th?!?), the weekend before the US long weekend. Usually the first opportunity to get back outside! I always thought it a cool link - May 24 and a 2-4 of beer.
Many of the words are regional, there are several mentioned that I don’t hear much in Alberta.
Tyler, you are more than welcomed to come my place in Quebec, I’m only fifteen minutes from the Ontario border and what a huge difference a few miles make
Almost all of your videos reference east coast Canadian words and culture, the west coast is very cut off from the rest of Canada so we probably relate to Washington state more than the rest of our country. British Columbia has no bagged milk, as a whole we prefer Starbucks over Tim Hortons, maple syrup is consumed here but it's not obsessed over like it is in Quebec, and Vancouver gets more rain than snow during the winter so we need to head to the mountains to experience most winter activities. We're kind people but Vancouverites have a reputation as being the least friendly Canadians. Not a lick of French is spoken here, poutine is available but we don't have as many restaurants that make it, and BeverTails are not a thing. We say couch, backpack, beer belly, case of beer, welfare, and bathroom (along with washroom) instead of those examples mentioned in the video. And cottage culture does not exist to the extent it does in the east, our equivalent would probably be heading to one of the Gulf Islands, which neighbour Washington's San Juan Islands.
I think you should expand your format a bit and interview some Canadians in your videos. From as many different places as you can.Although we do like to have a laugh about our Canadian stereotypes Canada is a big place with more then one culture. I'm from Ontario which is way different from the east coast and B.C. for that matter. Like most Canadians above a certain age know what a chesterfield is but most people just say couch or sofa.
As someone who has travelled around the world. I've come to realize us Canadians, use the brand name to call the Item out. KD or Kraft Dinner, call a Tissue would be called a Kleenex, Snowmobile we call Skidoos, Corndog is a 'Pogo', we also use Depo a lot for store names (Home Depo, Reno Depo, Fitness Depo, Liquor Depo, or the corner store is just a Depo.)
Not where I live.
Forgot the 't' in 'depot'
We call snowmobiles sleds in Canada, at least parts of Canada that are worth sledding in.
Pogo? I've never heard that one before. :>
Same with Q-tips and Jacuzzi.
Fun fact: the design of the "loonie" was actually "plan B". The original plan was to use the same design that had been used for decades on the older (silver) dollar coins, referred to as the "Voyageur Dollar". It depicted a voyageur (French-Canadian fur trader) and an indigenous man paddling in a canoe.
The dies needed to produce these coins were produced in Ottawa and shipped by truck to Winnipeg, where the Canadian Mint was. Strangely, when they opened the truck, the dies were missing.
Fearing massive widespread counterfeiting if the dies fell into nefarious hands, they quickly switched to "plan B", which was the Loonie design we have today.
Hearing the call of the Loon truly is life changing. I have heard it and love it and find it makes me calm and peaceful
You should watch the show "Letterkenny" if you want Canadian words and phrases. You'll love it.
You sound like a degen from downcountry.
@@gail9566 I'm a degen from Vancouver, shirt tucker.
Hey Tyler! have you ever made a video about Québec? It's like another country, another culture, different traditions, etc. And please come visit! 😁
Ne clique pas sur le lien qui se dis officiel c'est juste un attrape
Figured I’d finally do this for you, Tyler.
Z: watch the Willian Shatner Molson’s commercial. Zed is Brit/European. May 24th is Queen Victoria’s actual birthday, hence May 2/4, which translated well for the beer too. I had a polydactyl cat with 24 toes instead of the normal 16. Of course his name was Molson … he was a 2-4! Concerning my beloved “eh” … just remember C, eh. N, eh, D, eh. Listen to some Stompin’ Tom Conners, a Canadian icon! He’ll teach you a lot about our culture and history. Like Sudbury Saturday Night. Went to school there. Every word in the song is truth!! The Canadian “keener” is from a British saying, someone is “as keen as mustard”, Keene’s mustard being the main English brand. I use the powdered form in pickle making. Loonie you’ve pretty well mastered. My mother could speak Loon! She’d call out to them and they’d answer, back and forth like a chat. I remember the Susan B. Anthony one dollar coin fiasco that failed in the USA decades ago (I’m an old fart). The loon’s call still gives me goosebumps when I hear it. Not many loons in my area. Haven’t heard the iconic call in about 5-6 years. As to toilets, the first night I was in Glasgow my friend took me to his local pub. Asked the waitress where the washroom was and she looked at me like I was nuts, then asked why I wanted to do laundry! We can only buy alcohol from an L.C.B.O. the liquor control board of Ontario, or in one of the rare Walmart stores where you can buy wine in a tiny little LCBO corner. Ontario has the strictest liquor laws in the country. Just my luck! Pogie is another British term for unemployment benefits. Cute that you thought of Yogi when they were saying pogie. The bears in the cartoons were Yogi and Boo Boo, and Yogi stole “pick-a-nick baskets and Mr. Ranger chased them. The girl isn’t wearing a true touque, because it has ties. A touque has no ties. You folks call them beanies I think. Hope this explains a lot. My parents were British, Dad English, Mom Scottish, and a lots of these are British in origin. Learned them from the beginning and I’ll be 70 in a few months. Most of the Canadianisms are hard wired into my brain. Did this help your transition into understanding we crazy Canucks? 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
I've watch several of your vids and it's always nice to hear about my homeland. I've learned a few things as well. Thanks.
I am Canadian and I have never said “knapsack” and same goes for underwear. Never heard of “gitch” either. Maybe what is mentioned on this video is more from the maritimes as they do have different inflections and expressions. In any case there are a lot of these words I have never heard of.
Huh? I mean knapsack comes and goes. Maybe it's more of a reference for kids rather than backpack. But underwear? Are you serious? I don't even know what other term people would use, except briefs or undergarments which is more British. Ginch is pretty common. Youve never heard of the brand that came and went years ago. Ginchgonch? One more traveling. Maybe you're a young teen or something lol.
I've heard knapsack my whole life but never gitch.
I believe some of these words are regional. My SIL family use the word Gitch and they were from Manitoba. I had never heard of this before then.
I grew up in Southern Ontario and we always called them knapsacks in school. Not gitch, though. As kids, underwear was xalled gotchees.
Oh, I thought you were referring to ginch as an underwear. No I've never heard gets either. You know some regions have different colloquialisms. West Coast is different from Ontario for sure
I'm Canadian and I can tell you with the utmost certainty that NO ONE PRONOUNCES IT OAT AND ABOAT! NO ONE, NOT ONE DAMN PERSON EVER. EVER! We pronounce that like any other north american english speaker - OUT AND ABOUT. I'm really sick of this particular stereotype and just when I thought these two people would set it straight they made it so much worse.
I have heard Canadian pronounce about like Aboat but NEVER EVER Aboot. I dont want to ever hear the word aboot again. That is as fake as the land of Oz. As for Oat. I have kind of heard people pronounce out like oat but its not that pronounced you know. It's not common. But 99.9 percent of the people you meet from NL to BC and Up to NWT and down to Southern ON will Out and About the common, standard way
My guess is that phrase is used in Newfoundland only. They have a language all their own.
No, that’s wrong, we DO say oat and aboat. EVERYONE DOES HERE, BUD. It’s called CANADIAN RAISING. Clearly you’ve never been to the states, because if you had, you would’ve heard how Americans say ABOWT. We RAISE the O sound. ABOAT. Seriously dude, go watch a video on Canadian Raising. It’s real. Accept it.
@@CoolKatzDuo Nope. We say oat and aboat in BC & Alberta, and I’ve heard it from people in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Anglophone Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, the NWT, the Yukon, and probably in Nunavut too although I’ve never met anyone from there. We say it all over. The only exception is probably the Francophones in Québec that can barely speak English properly and have the heaviest French accent possible, so fuckin’ bad they sound like they’re trying to talk with a big ol’ gob of peanut butter stuck to the top of their mouth.
@@JesusFriedChrist I'm from Sask and have been to B.C. Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. I'm 61 yrs old and have never heard that expression. I've met people from Newfoundland and it sounded like something they might say. I have no proof that they say it either, rash judgement on my part.
Hi Tyler. Please keep in mind that many of these examples are only germane to one region of the country.
Regarding men's underwear, west of Ontario it's gintch or gontch, each has an N. In western Canada, a case of beer is almost always considered to be a dozen, not 24. Canadians absolutely have no choice but to use the loonie and toonie coins, as we no longer have paper bills for one and 2 dollar denominations. "Zed" is in fact the natural English pronunciation. Legend has it that it was changed in America so that it would rhyme with V when singing or reciting the "alphabet song", as if American kids required that crutch.
Regarding "sorry", it has become such a trope, I have taken to using "pardon me" just to be less cliche'd.
It was Queen Victoria which gave Canada it's first step to independence so her birthday is a national holiday it the 2-4 weekend because she was born on May 24 1819.
A few of these words are east coast and for me on the west coast of Canada we still know and use all the Canadian variants but also use the US and British variants aswell it can be confusing to new Canadians and travelers haha.
This is a compilation of slang words used in various parts of Canada. It may be that each province uses different slang words and phrases. As an immigrant to Ontario I am only familiar with the Ontario slang.
True. It's not that common to find a 24 case of beer in BC, more like a 12. You won't here 2-4 here. And we just call it the May Long Weekend.
Tyler I don't think you realize that Tim Hortons doesn't just sell coffee and donuts. One can dine in and enjoy savoury soups, biscuits, toasted bagels, chili and breakfast sandwiches.
Sitting at my family cabin in Northern alberta on a calm clear starry summer night when you can still see a little light in the sky with a loon calling in the distance while sitting around a fire is a truly something else
We call it a backpack in BC & we also don’t use chesterfield here either & underwear is underwear😂
Thanks for setting that straight! I’m a BC resident and have lived in Alberta and Ontario for years as well. The only place in the country I’ve heard these words is during my visits to the sparsely populated Maritimes!
This is not specific to many Canadians at all!
Peace
Same here(B.C as well) LoL
I agree and I am from Quebec.
Gonch, bud.
BC & ‘Berda.
@@cherrypickerguitars I’ve used Gonch and everyone understands me in BC and Alberta. It’s not wildly popular like Eh is, but everyone here knows it even if they don’t use it regularly.
Not to be confused with Gooch, which is the spot between your nuts & ass/pussy & ass.
Canadians understand and sometimes use American slang and idioms; however of course we have our own. I live in the great lakes basin and our slang is heavily influenced by our UK roots and french Canada. But also America because we are so close and open, border wise. Some of these I don't know because they're regional.
Just remembered, we even have a town called ''La Tuque'' , it's in between Trois-Rivière and Lac St-Jean
Just absolutely loved your reaction after "pogie" (haha Pogie Bear?).....Pogie (or "being on the dole") is our Employment Insurance Program. Folks pay into EI and if they are laid off, get sick, have a baby, care for a sick family member, they collect weekly Pogie :) love your videos!
Tim's slang is well known. The server writes DD on your lid. This is to differentiate between 2C, R, 2S, B. Two cream no sugar , regular 1 cream 1 sugar, two sugar no cream, and black respectively. Great vid
I always get a DRB
And a Gretzky is 9 cream, 9 sugar. At that point you almost have to ask, you want a little coffee with your cream and sugar?
@@ralphvelthuis2359 the Gretzky is so gross. One of my son's friends order it once.
@@chadjmoore i wouldn't know. I don't drink coffee, can't stand the taste. But it does sound disgusting.
As a french canadian, watching those video I feel like discovering a whole new country, except saying "Zed" for the letter "Z" and "Tuque" I never use those words.
Oui, tout à fait pareil pour moi
Yes, we use loonies regularly. We do also have silver dollars that are not used and are more of a coin collecting thing. But loonies and twonies (some people spell it toonies) are used every day. We used to have paper $1 and $2 notes but our government got smart and went for the long term cost savings of coins,
When we switched to $2 coins from paper, the coins cost 16 cents each to make while bills cost 6 cents, but the average life of a $2 bill was 3 months while coins last for years. This was why we switched. I imagine figures for $1 were similar
We also give travel directions in terms of time, not as much distance (miles/km). ei, Toronto is about four hours from Ottawa. "Eh" may be affirming, questioning, used as "pardon" or disbelief.
I'd love if you had a live stream where we could call in and give our feedback 🤣🤣
As a bilingual French-Canadian, I have to say, we don't use a lot of these words here in Quebec. I find that the English spoken in the Province of Quebec is closer to the American English than the Canadian English. We do know about these expressions and words but we don't use them. We are however very apologetic and would apologize to our own shadow 🤣🤣 Tyler, if you ever visit Montreal or the Province of Quebec, you'll find that a lot of people don't speak good English but we all manage somehow. When you hear us speak, you'll notice a lot of Franglish going on. A lot of us can go back and forth between English and French according to what we're trying to say or who we're speaking with. For me it's really whatever language comes first. I might blurt out something in English between two French sentences. It might sound really strange to an outsider but it's very common especially in Montreal. To come back on some of these words, we don't use Eh in general. Instead, we usually end our questions with "uh?" or "yeah?". In French-Canadian we have our own slang, like "pis" or "genre" or "tsé" or "han". We say "On va au Tim" for We're going to Tim Horton's. In English, I have heard KD for Kraft Dinner mac and cheese. We say "a dollar or two dollars". We say backpack. We say "caisse de 24" for a case of beer. We don't have a specific name for a small bottle of beer. We definitely don't call it a Mickey. Tuque is a French word so yeah, we use that to name our winter hat. Underwear are Undies or in French, "bobettes" which is a pretty funny word.
A Mickey is only hard liquor, not beer.
I grew up in Chicoutimi…aka “bobettes” country as I believe this is where the word originates. My parents used the word “knapsack” in French, and we used “rucksack” in the military as it had a frame. I’ve now lived in BC for almost 25 years. I use case for “caisse” but when I first moved here, I got the 2-4 right away. It’s the mickey that was oblivious to me for the longest time. Then I knew it was a small bottle of hard liquor, but not which size, till I worked in a liquor store in 2017!
One thing you need to know in Québec, it’s “dépanneur”! For those who don’t know, it’s a convenience store, but the French word is used in English.
A mickey isn’t a bottle of beer. It’s a small bottle of hard liquor. The stuff that gets ya right fucked. 375 millimeters of it. And a mini-mickey is 200 mil. A 2-6 is 750 mil. A 40 pounder is 1.5 litres.
I really enjoy your video and comments, plus learning more about the world.
I’m a Canadian, and many years ago I spent some time in west Texas. My Texan friends used to make me say “I’m about to go out of the house to buy gourds” and then they’d laugh hysterically. 🤣
There is no paper 1$ or 2$ in Canada anymore, they've removed them from circulation 20 years ago. So yes, the dollar coin is used.
We've also removed pennies a couple years ago, since it cost more than 1¢ to make a penny, they took em out entirely and just round up to the nearest nickel when you pay cash.
I've gotten a couple 1$ US coins from a change machine and I had trouble passing them in stores cuz they had never seen them. lol.
The dollar bill was removed in 1986. I remember because my nephew was born that year and I created a time capsule for him to open on his 18th birthday and in which I put a dollar bill, knowing they were taken out of circulation, or about to be. I don't remember the year the two dollar bill was removed but it was at least ten years later, so more like 25 years ago.
@@pierrelevasseur2701 interesting, I thought it was later then that, I was born in 83 and I remember seeing them.
If you get a chance watch an episode or two of the Nosey Neighbour from Newfoundland, Canada. See if you understand some of the accent or dialect! Takes you to a whole new level of Canadian speech!
LOL at your giggle at 3:23 following your Canadian imposter impression!! 😂
My husband, who grew up in a more urban area than me, has never heard the word 'gitch' which makes me laugh. I'm from Muskoka where this is used all the time. 'KD' is used because Kraft can't actually call what's in that box cheese. It has no real cheese in it and therefore cannot be labelled as such. Just like we call them 'candy bars' not 'chocolate bars'. If they aren't a minimum percentage of real chocolate, labelling laws say you can't use the word.
My cousins in BC called it "ginch", but in my area of Ontario, we just said "undies" for underwear; May 2-4 is the short, because Queen Victoria's birthday was May 24th. We take the long weekend on the weekend closest to the 24th (at least that's my interpretation of how"May 2-4" came to be); We only have dollar coins. Coins last longer in circulation than paper/plastic bills, and $1 and $2 bills are the most used currency in Canada; Pogie is short for Employment Insurance. It's one of the social safety nets in Canada. It's a federal program that every employed person in Canada pays into, from the taxes we pay, so that if you lose your job, you can draw from the fund that your payments went into for a year, while you search for other employment. I think you get 60% of what your gross pay would have been at your job; and we all apologize for everything. I used to apologize to my son if it was a bad weather day and he couldn't go outside. LOL Yes, we really do apologize for everything.
I have lived in Canada for 62 years and never heard anyone say May 2-4. Just may long weekend.
@@peircedan Maybe it's mainly in Ontario. I know we've said that here since I was a teenager & that was 40 yrs ago..lol.. but I still hear the young ones saying it now.
I grew up in BC and heard undies called ginch, and had also never heard May 2-4 before I moved to Ontario a couple years ago. It’s just May Long.
@@tiggerwigger9135maybe it is an Ontario thing. I'm mid-50s, and it's been called May 2-4 for as long as I can remember.
“Gonch” in BC and Alberta.
Canada is so culturally diverse that the accent is a melting pot of all of the cultures. As a Canadian, I believe that the biggest influencer for the word "eh" is the indigenous community. The First Nations people of the Northwest Territories and other communities. It became so widespread as Canada grew as a country that it distinctly became "Canadian".
You may be onto something saying "Eh! may have been First Nations saying"
Sorry it’s no melting pot! The cultural mosaic remains strong! I can tell the difference between Corb Lund, Roch Voisine, Drake, Lorne Cardinale, Alan Doyle and Jann Arden talking! The only two that stump me are Rich Little and Andre Philippe Gagnon. Oh and maybe Derek Seguin when sober. 😅
Canadian accents are very different and distinct across the country. Accents even vary across the same province, especially in the Atlantic provinces. The melting pot effect only seems to happen in larger cities.
@@Jane-yg3vz True. I don't think Western Canada believes there is anything east of Montreal. When I first went to Vancouver people noticed my Atlantic Canada accent and asked me where I was from. When I told them "The East Coast", they say; "So you're from Toranna are ya?" 🤣
ohh Is it? round here indigenous people tend to say
Tyler waxing poetic about his love of our Canadian “eh” is just so sweet.
The guy drinking a Moosehead under the Tilley bug screen is pure Canadian scenery glory. Done it myself in Gravenhurst Ontario (Mom's cottage), where the mosquitoes crunch when you kill them.
This clip is very Ontario based.
first eh
There was a project for Canada to have a 5$ coin at some point, it was supposed to be blue center with silver rim like the twoonie, with a polar bear on it, but the idea was scrapped.
Omg you just reminded me of listening to loons at night up at the cottage .. awww I want summer back..