I dated a Canadian for a few years, long distance, and I'll never forget the night he told me over the phone that he thought he had a "moose in his house" and i laughed hysterically and said that i thought it would be pretty obvious if he did, which confused him a bit and said "well i keep the place fairly tidy, but it's cold outside and that brings them in" to which of course i erupted hysterically "THEM?!?! You think you might have more than 1 in there??? How big is your place?!" And, in true Canadian fashion, he started to get a little annoyed with me and snapped back that it was "... just a 1 bedroom apartment on the third floor" and in tears now i asked "how do they fit their antlers inside the elevator... or do they just take the stairs?" And that's when it hit him and he blurted out "MOWSE OK?! GEEZ GIRL IT'S A MMMOWWWSE NOT A MOOSE!" And from that night on, the phrase, "So, you think there might be a moose loose in your hooouse eh?!" became our reference for when we weren't quite understanding each other's slang😂😂😂😂.
That’s actually a funny story those damn foreigners know how to pronounce sht and they rather say it wrong to annoy people my mom pisses me off sometimes with the word therapy this bitsh says thurapy like she’s fancy or something
American English has a lot of regional variation. The regions tend to be bigger than the regions in British English, generally because the US is a lot bigger than the UK. But much of the country does speak "Standard American". Actors and national newscasters have historically tried to "lose" their local accent to speak Standard American. I mention this because people from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan sound practically Canadian to me, and there's a Canadian influence in the Minnesota accent as well. Both are near Canada, but there are other areas near Canada that don't have any apparent Canadian influence (it's a long border). It's interesting to me that you had an issue with Don and Dawn, because in my accent, which is pretty much Standard American, they sound about the same. I have experienced confusion in not knowing whether the speaker was talking about a person (usually male) named Don or a person (usually female) named Dawn. In addition to the differences you mentioned between Standard American and Canadian, one big difference I notice is the pronunciation of the word "organization". In Standard American, the first I is pronounced as a schwa and the emphasis is on the ZA (ZAY). In Canadian, the first I is pronounced as EYE and the emphasis is on the EYE. I live in a town with an NHL team and I follow ice hockey, so when someone talks about the hockey club by calling it "the organization", I can immediately tell if they're Canadian. It happens more often than you might think. "In order to play better, we have to come together as an organization...." "Oh, I didn't know he was Canadian." Language is fascinating, eh?
Canadian English isn't just a branch of North American English, it's a branch of general American on which standard American is based. Canadian raising has changed the pronunciation of out and about and the cot/caught and marry/merry/Mary distinction has disappeared, but it has in California as well.
I don’t think exist a standard American accent but to me, the UK have greater diversity of accent despite being smaller, there are accents that seem like another language, I don't know if it is because it is the birthplace of English because the same thing happens with Spanish in Spain and German in Germany
Linguists do call it "General American". There are many Americans I've met that from their accent I couldn't begin to guess where they're from. I could make some guesses as to where they're NOT from, say The Deep South or New York City. But I've met New Yorkers with no trace of a New York City accent, and Southerners with no trace of a Southern accent. Here in California, in the space of a month, we hired three people who had recently moved here from Texas. None of them had the slightest trace of a so-called "Texas accent" and no-one could distinguish them from Californians.
North American accents had less time to develop. The two main English Canadian accents for example date back to 1755 (Atlantic) and 1775 (Western), when the original settlers arrived from the Ameircan colonies. Since they basically started with the same accent, it hasn't diverged very much.
I will always endeavour to spell these words with their much more beautiful looking “our” ending: splendour, honour, valour, vapour, harbour, colour, flavour, odour, rigour, rumour, armour, favour, neighbour, behaviour, demeanour, saviour, labour, humour.😂
As a British educated person living in Canada, I cant differentiate the difference between American and Canadian English. However, this lesson taught some nuances in the Canadian English. Thanks for the lesson.
I come from Massachusetts where Don and Dawn are identical to Canadian speech. In the Midwest, Don has more of an AH sound as in fAther. Pretty neat, eh?
Do you guys still say “mighty fine”. When l was working back in the late 80s as an inside sales person for a particular company in California the Canadian guys on the other end of the phone would say that. And sometimes end it with eh?
I'm German and I can understand Canadian English much better than US English! 😄 I think you Canadians pronounce the words much better and clearer without the typical American mumble, slang? 😀
What might be considered a "pure" canadian accent is pretty consistent through most of the country geologically. Rural Ontarians and Rural Albertans tend to use the same kinds of slang and have very similar accents. The different accents you might think of are focused on higher population density areas around cities. GTA, Ottawa Valley, Montreal, Edmonton, etc. Of course there's the maritimes and the territories which are very different in general.
@TheSkyfolk that’s not true at all. Rural Ontarians don’t sound like rural Albertans, Saskatchewanians, or Manitobans. I live in rural Saskatchewan and I don’t notice a difference between us and Albertans at all, whether rural nor urban. Manitobans round their vowels a little more than we do but not anywhere near what rural Ontarians sound like. Rural Albertans, Saskatchewanians, and Manitonans sound much more like Montanans or North Dakotans (Midwestern US accent) than we do anyone from the rest of Canada. The slang is also different sometimes. We have words like slough (a pond out in a field), bluff (a grove of trees on the otherwise bald prairie), and bunnyhug (a hooded sweater) that the rest of Canada has no clue what we are saying. If someone is from Ontario (especially a rural part) I immediately know they’re from eastern Canada.
These generalizations are of limited use. The much maligned alleged Canadian pronunciation of 'ou' in words like 'about' (which Yanks like to inaccurately mock as 'aboot') is entirely absent in Western Canada. Absolutely nobody would mistake a Newfoundlander from one of the outports for a Yank. Absolutely nobody would mistake someone from, say, Alabama or Louisiana for a Canuck. Both countries exhibit a range of regional variations. But most spoken Canadian English is readily understood by other English speakers. (Unlike the UK, eg the Brummie and Geordie accents.)
Hydro is used to indicate power in places like Quebec, Ontario and BC because their power comes from a water source. People on the Prairies use "power" to describe a power pole.
Saskatchewanian here. Hydro sounds weird and doesn’t really make sense. Hydro means water, and not all electricity comes from hydroelectric sources. Electricity is a power source so it makes more sense to say power.
One big thing I’ve noticed that gives Canadians away is they’ll use long vowels in words where Americans use short vowels. For example, where I pronounce “process” like prah-cess, a Canadian might say “proh-cess”.
It depends on where you grew up in Canada. Just as many like me say "prah-cess" and "proh-cess" sounds a bit weird. Watch the news like CBC,, where it can be heard both ways by their different anchors/guests. Same with Pro-ject and Prah-ject.
@@juliannorwich319 In UK English the noun 'project' has a fairly short 'o' with roughly equal emphasis on both syllables, (dada) but the verb 'project' has a longer 'o' and the second syllable is stressed (daDA) .
Thank you for saying ‘about’ and not ‘aboot’. I am 69, have lived and travelled coast to coast and NEVER heard a Canadian say ‘aboot’. The only time I hear that is when an American says it trying to imitate Canadians.
Its because we shift from o to u like about. Americans don't have that sound. They shift from a stright to u in ab-a-oot. They hear we are doing something different but the don't have the sound so they are not sure what we are doing.
When you say about like "abat" as Americans do, then pronouncing it more in line with its actual spelling sounds like "oo" by comparison. Basically, from the perspective of Americans, it sounds like oot, but thats because they pronounce it oddly themselves
Hello. I'm japanese.Before I studied English for long time.But I can't speak naturally. When I was depressed, I was motivated to watch your channel. Thank you very much. I'll do my best🙋♀️
When I was kid I was afflicted with the accursed habit of stuttering. Thank God, that's all over but in the interim I became very sensitive to not only the sound of my own voice but the voices of others and the way in which they pronounced words. As a result, I noticed immediately your own pronunciation of Canadian English, not to mention that I'd always liked it. So, you may continue speaking as long as you like!
There's a tongue-twister for Japanese learning English: "Rory Leary's yearly yule lull". A Japanese guy told me "you can't imagine how difficult that is for us."
I live near the Canadian border and I find them easier to understand than Southerners. “Eh” is simply the Canadian equivalent of “right” and is used the same way. I also love their slang like “toque” and “two four”. One of my favorite TV shows when I was younger was SCTV - love those hosers! And they have great beer too.
The use of "eh" has some subtle but distinctive differences from other mild interjections such as "right," "you know," and "like." All of them can be overused, of course, but the judicious use of "eh" can add a charming note of color to a narrative, drawing attention to important turns of the story and setting up a kind of cadence or punctuation. You can't just pepper it in anywhere and expect to get the right effect. I've often though that it's closer to the use of "là" in Québécois French. You must use it intentionally, yet ironically this takes such a lot of practice that it becomes ingrained. It reminds me of that Zen saying, "If you want to become a perfect painter, first become perfect, then paint naturally."
I'm discovering the "eh" thing. It's pretty funny because in France we use the very same trick to get an implicit agreement with "hein ?" "This pizza is pretty good, eh?" --> "Cette pizza est plutôt bonne, hein ?"
I was actually wondering if eh might not have been an influence from Quebec French where “hein” is (just as in France) commonly employed to obtain acknowledgement.
I speak several languages and they all have such a word. In Italian slang it's nè (or at least that's how it sounds, never seen it written), in German dialects it's usually nee, and in the Swiss dialects it's gell
As a BC native, I would usually call it a bathroom when it's inside a home, but a washroom in public (like in a mall, gas station, restaurant etc). Altho bathroom is still acceptable for either one. Canadians don't really use the term restroom, except when influenced by Americans.
Washroom should be adopted by Americans. It is a way better term, eh? In fact I use it all the time, even just a few minutes ago. I recommend all of y'all do the same
Here in California we say "bathroom" in a home (whether it has a bath or a shower) and "restroom" for a public facility (which has neither bath nor shower). British people ask for the "toilets" and Germans ask for the "WC" and Australians sometimes ask for "the dunnies".
What a great lesson! We Brazilians say a lot of "né" in the end of most of the sentences! 😂 It's kind of the same way you Canadian use "eh". We want the person listening to agree to the statement.
Funny, since in Italian, in the Piemontese dialect, they do say "né" often at the end of a sentence too hahaha Then again, Brazil is (next to Argentina) the biggest hub of Italian migrants in South America.
@@yrooxrksvi7142 Brazilian is the largest number of people with full or partial italian ancestry outside Italy, São Paulo being the most populous city with Italian ancestry in the world.
@@yrooxrksvi7142 in Japanese they use "ne" a lot too. But in Portuguese "né" is a contraction from "não" and "é". In a question, saying "né?" here is like saying "isn't it?" In english.
Just to point out that our accent varies considerably. As a Montrealer, I can tell instantly that this guy was not raised around here - his accent is closer to the stereotypical Canadian one that Americans try to imitate. Go east of Montreal and it diverges more. Most of us across the country do, however, constrict our 'ou'/'ow' sound more than most Americans do.
@@ericturcotte3131 Alberta’s accent the words are clipped and very distinct and proper sounding. In the Maritimes our words are more lazy and informal. One example is running words together such as “lotsa” for lots of, “kinda” for kind of. We drop the “g” saying “I’m runnin’ late”. “We’re “goin’ now.” If we talked properly people would think of us as high falootin’.
@@ericturcotte3131 Old-Stock Canadian here...I would venture to guess that the majority of English Canadians do not use "eh"....depends upon the region, I guess. I heard quite a bit down East when I was growing up. (I am in my mid sixties)The pronuniciation of the other words he mentioned is pretty much the case for all of us.
This teacher is really awesome, eh?The “eh” is music to my ears. Good job Canadians using it as a prompt, because I’d instantly pay attention once I hear it, even if the speaker was a million miles/kilometres away (sorry I used both systems 🍁) And Sorry Americans, the Canadian accent sounds cuter pretty much any way you slice it!
My people are from West Country, England, and Ireland. Our mixed dialect was very intact 40-50 years ago..but, Americanized now. We used to say, “boaat”for boat. We don’t say coffee, we say it something like “cah-fea.”
@@Pkeats817I am Nova Scotia and I don't say "aboot" for "about"" and a "boat" and neither does anyone I know! I have heard Nova Scotians tell the stories about going to Newfoundland and someone there is talking about the "boots" in the water and really all the Nova Scotia can see are boats with not a single boot in sight. I am sure not all Newfoundlands say "aboot:".
Wow! Nice lesson Bob!👍 Canadian is the very accent that I wanna adopt but right now I'm focusing more on the language and you're helping me with that a lot. Thanks a million. Lots of love❤️❤️❤️
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian Besides the few spelling differences and the intrusive "eh," I'd say the biggest difference between Canadian and American accents is the "o" vowel and the "ou" diphthong. In general, Americans tend to pronounce the long "o" as a more pure vowel, while Canadians tend to put an "u" hook at the end. And in America, the "ou" sound often rhymes with "ow" (so "out" has the same vowel as "cow" in America) and in Canada, the "ou" often has more of an "oo" sound (so in Canada, the vowel in "out" is more like the vowel in "boot"). If you want to tease a Canadian, say "out and about" like "oot and aboot." Someone learning English might not pick up on it, but a native speaker would also notice that Canadian vowels, in general, are tighter and more compact than American vowels. In other words, Canadians get through the vowels more quickly and move on to the next consonant quicker than their American cousins. And Americans, in turn, have quicker vowels than the Brits. These are generalizations, of course, but an interesting point to listen for.
"Eh" is a request for confirmation. "The weather is nice, eh?" means I think the weather is nice, now I want you to provide your opinion on the weather, to agree or disagree. It's not just thrown out there whenever you want
Years ago my employer sent me, a Los Angeles boy, to a conference in Winterpeg, Manisnomba. It was November and starting to cool off on the prairie. The locals were wearing sweaters and windbreakers. Coming from Southern California, I was bundled up like an arctic explorer. I saw a t-shirt on the trip that l wish I'd bought. Across the front it said in bold letters, "Canada, eh?*" Along the bottom, in much smaller type it said, "*Because it's better than saying huh! I now volunteer in a museum that has many international visitors. Our Canadian guests are usually amazed when l ask what province they're from after they say a sentence or two. They laugh whenn l direct them to the washrooms. It bothers me that our neighbors to the north know plenty about the U.S. but most Americans know little or nothing about Canada. Bob, you are helping to bridge the gap! Well done, eh?
"Eh" is also used in Michigan's Upper Peninsula a lot. In fact "Yooper" English is very similar to Canadian English, especially in the eastern part of the UP.
Definitely! My parents were Yoopers (on the western side) and I think the only difference between them and Canada is “sorry.” I call it Almost Canada. 😊
Growing up in Quebec and having learned English as a second language, it was only in my late teens that I started noticing the differences in American and Canadian English accents. It’s too subtle for the untrained ear to distinguish. Today, I’m 100% bilingual and can easily recognize Canadians by ear when I go to say, Florida. First I overhear, then I look over and see the person wearing a Jays t-shirt!
Hi sir, one thing you need to mention is that how Canada is eternally confused about which date format to use. On grocery receipts I've seen every format being used
@jextra1313 we despise metric as a rule in the Prairie Provinces. All of our farmland is surveyed on the squared half mile and mile, and our grid roads are two miles north/south of each other and one mile east/west of each other. We use acres instead of acres. Our crop yields are used as bushels. We use gallons and litres interchangeably depending on what we are measuring, and pounds and inches are used as much as as kilograms and tonnes, if not more so. The only strange one is Fahrenheit, but most of us can convert it with Celcius quite easily.
I worked with Peter on occasion, and he would occasionally joke about slipping back into Canadian English. Once, when recording something for radio, he accidentally began to pronounce the word schedule "shed-ule." He laughed, went into a riff about "oat and aboat," and did a retake. He and Barrie Dunsmore (who was born in Saskatchewan) would remark on occasion about the differences between Canadian English and American English. And Ted Koppel - who was born in England and came to the US while in grade school - once told me about the time he asked his American teacher for a rubber -- meaning an eraser -and his new American classmates laughed at him. He and Dunsmore explained to me what "shinny" was and the various meanings of "Newfie," et cetera. I was blessed to work with those three gentlemen, who all spoke perfect American English, even though it was their second language.
Sorry some Americans laughed at you. "Don got up at the crack of dawn" sounds perfectly right they way you pronounced it. When you said, "I went to university in the US" that was pretty Canadian. We'd say, "I went to college in the US." Great work!
If only Mr. Bob went to college in the state of Maine. 🥲 I know someone from there who is polite and well-behaved. He would never laugh at anyone speaking with an accent. I’m sure many Mainers are the same!
We should respect the different accents. One day I met an English woman who said : " American accent is rubbish !" Needless to say I was shocked 😱 at her disrespectful words !!!
I think it's because I went to University in Michigan. The Michigan American accent tends to pronounce O's like they are A's sometimes. They used to call me Baaaab instead of Bob! 😎🐕🍁
Hello dear teacher! I have never actually thought about the accent you speak. Your clear prononciation together with calm and smooth manner of speach that was what I needed a year ago besides you have more logical and organized you tube channels
For those who are learning English, it is important to pay close attention, because Canadian and American English are very similar. We have those vowel different pronunciations here in Brazil as well, depending on the region you live. Great video!
I help several Brazilians with their English via WhatsApp, etc. I try to point out different pronunciations or usages of words (American, Canadian, British) as they sometimes asked me about certain words back when we first started. They had heard the American version and I'm Canadian. One time I walked into a room at work and a Chinese-Cuban colleague (looked Chinese, spoke Spanish) was correcting a Taiwanese friend's pronunciation of English. However, her correction was just as wrong as what he was saying.
I live on the US - Canadian border, on the US side. Canadian speakers are always around. I frankly don’t notice the difference in our speech much. I’ve never had any Canadian ever be rude or mean here and my wife and I are treated the same there. When we visit, I will seek out a currency exchange office and exchange our American currency for Canadian. For us, especially me since I’m rather dim witted about the exchange rates, it’s easier on both us and the one doing the sale. Also, the US coins don’t fit in candy or soft drink machines nor do they fit in parking meters. Such an interesting country, Canada 🇨🇦.
I'm Irish and we mostly speak British English with a few tweaks. Our native language is Gaelige (Irish) and we learn it until we leave secondary (high) school but only pockets of the country use it as their first language even though technically it is. We spell words like colour and honour the same but some of our sentence structure still goes back to the structure of Gaeilge. The th sound doesn't occur in Gaeilge and that is why, for the most part, we pronounce three as tree etc. Unless you're well to do that sound does not come naturally to us especially if you're adept at speaking Gaeilge.
The th sound is also the hardest to learn for native German speakers like myself. In German, the English th sound is a speech impediment of people who cannot pronounce a proper s, so there's a mental barrier to overcome when adopting that sound.
Over the years I have noticed a distinctiveness in the way Canadians pronounce the flat “a,” as in “that.” It’s very subtle and hard for me to describe, but as soon as I hear it I know the speaker is Canadian.
Hey Bob, just a note, we don't "add a u" they've dropped the u (the anglophones in out countries include descendants of Brits and that difference comes from us keeping things as the Brits write them where in the U.S. they've dropped the letters/changed how they write it). Wish you'd do a few videos about English dialects in Canada i.e. Southern vs. Northern Ontario, East Coast accents (all Canadians agree those are awesome), dialects in the prairies and B.C.
Yes, those pesky American differences can mostly be attributed to Noah Webster in the 1800s when he attempted to "simplify" and standardize spellings. He gave us the "er" endings (instead of "re"), he dropped the "u" out of the "our" endings, he changed "cheque" to "check," and a few other notable differences. The differences are few and predictable enough that they shouldn't cause much stress for someone learning American English.
Sorry, the -or comes from Latin, not the US. The French (not the English) inserted a u, then there was a neo-Latinization spelling movement in the US. Similarly, the -er comes from German, then the French flipped it to -re, and Americans flipped it back.
@@DanWestonX It wasn't any neo-Latinization spelling movement in the US that resulted in these changes. It was Noah Webster's dictionary, preceded by his classroom spelling texts, that attempted to simplify English language orthography and bring it more into line with pronunciation. He put forward many other changes, e.g. plow for plough, and still others that didn't catch on, e.g. dawter for daughter, thum for thumb, masheen for machine, etc.
Thank you for an intriguing lesson! It has been about 2 years since I started to watch this channel. But it’s first time to leave a comment. I thought English native speakers could imitate other English intonation or dialects . After think about it, it’s difficult for me to mimic different intonation of my mother tongue . By the way , I learn English as a 2nd language in Japan.
I am learning english and I love how canadians speak! I can understand every single word and it makes feel so happy😍 I got here by checking videos randomly when I noticed this is a canadian teacher got subcribed and shared with all my friends that are learning too... You don't know how useful your videos are Bob! Hope one day I can speak like you man!! 💪💪💪👌
Growing up only a few miles from Canada in NW Washington I thought I was very familiar with the few language differences until I was 18yo working at an autobody shop along side a Canadian guy. He looked and sounded just like Stan on "On The Busses" and the first time he said 'decal' I was lost for a moment.
Thank you Bob for your nice video. I have a lot of Canadian friends, so from personal experience I can say that you guys speak more clear that other English native speakers (I've heard so many English accents and dialects). I love the Canadian culture (including food and Tim Hortons coffee) and thank you for talking about it in your videos. I've learned from you so many useful expressions that I'm using now when speaking with my friends and other English speakers. There are two other English words that I heard Canadians pronounce in a different way. They're "organization" and "direction". Anyway, I appreciate your fine video content and keep up with the good work.
Interestingly enough, in Catalonia, we use that "eh" the same as you, the only difference is the pronunciation, here sounds the same as "e" from bEd, Catalan is pretty related to French maybe they use it as well.🤔🤭
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian I'm noticing that the Canadian accent is more similar in some aspects to some British accents. The 'zed', the 'eh', among others. Loved the video, thank you!!
Working on several construction projects in the states I found it funny how they pronounced FOYER. Them FOY Yerr. Us FOY Yeah like it is pronounced in French as it is originally a French word.
I grew up in the Detroit area and my parents were English~Finnish speakers. Hence, we also spoke with a very round sound, as Canadians do. Since then, I've lived all over North America, including five years in 🇨🇦. My daughter, grandson and still friend ex-husband all live in 🇨🇦. Many people in Minnesota, North Dakota and Michigan etc have Scandinavian routes and people ask them if they are Canadian. We lived in British Columbia and I found their accent quite different than the Windsor area. My mother-in-law was from an Irish~Canadian family in New Brunswick. Well you know, that is whole other ball game. I enjoyed your little lesson, eh Bob. 🇺🇸💞🇨🇦
I dated a Canadian for 6 years.I can spot a Canadian across crowded room. The thing that stands out is that OU as parrt of a word Americans generally and southerners especially pronounce the W in Dawn Canadians don't Also in the word favor(favour in Canada) Some Canadians (it might be regional differences) ALMOST-ALMOST pronounce the U The British say it a little more clearly, In baseball the Designated Hitteer position is often abbreviated DH, Americans pronounce that "Dee Aych" in Canada it's "Du' Hache Now that baseball is anb up and comer in Australia they say "DeeHache" Closer to the way it's said in Canada.
Interesting: in Hungarian, we also attach an e sound in similar cases. This pizza is pretty good, eh? Izlett-e a pizza? (translation: Did this pizza taste well?) You can ask it this way: Ez a pizza jó volt e? The e is there in both of the sentences.
It's an interesting way of communicating isn't it? It's like you're asking the person to agree with you, not in a forceful way, but kind of just encouraging them to say yes! 😎🐕🍁
At 6:59 as you probably know that's called "the cot/caught merger". I've only lived in two places- West Virginia and California- and both have the same cot/caught (or Bob/ball or Don/dawn or "pot of coffee") merger you do. But famously in New York City they don't have that merger, and cot, Bob, Don, and pot are pronounced with no lip-rounding and a lowered jaw, while caught, ball, dawn, and coffee with lip-rounding and a higher jaw.
Your Canadian accent is very mild. I have Canadian neighbours in Ireland (Hi folks) who have much stronger accents, which I really like especially the “o” sound as in about, boat, etc. Many younger Canadians sound completely as though they are from the USA. In the greater Dublin area They pronounce sorry a bit like Canadians. Other spelling differences include counsellor/traveller and counselor and traveler, tyre/tire, paediatric/pediatric, etc. In hiberno-English Don and dawn sound vey different. My Canadian neighbours (neighbors in American) pronounce Harry and hairy the same way which does sound funny. P.S. I shared this video with them and they loved it. Sláinte
I think this kind of difference is very commom. It occurs between Portuguese apoken in Portugal and in Brazil. The accent is completely different - I'm Brazilian and I have difficult in understanding Portuguese people speaking ! There are lots of words with different meanings as well. In Brazil there are also a great amount of regional slangs that they don't understand.
I find regional slang very cool and interesting. Even in Canada certain areas have little slang words that are unique only to the people that live there. 😎🐕🍁
It's the same with Spanish. I had a Spanish teacher from South America, and she emphasized that Mexico and the southern States DON'T speak the same Spanish as South America and Spain.
As someone who speaks portuguese from Angola, I have a difficult time understanding Brazilian portuguese. Maybe because Portugal portuguese is the original portuguese.
I live in Canada, and once Canadian friend of mine asked me: “See this American woman? She has a strong American accent, can you hear it?” “No” “She doesn’t talk like me, can you hear that?” “No, as much as I can hear, she talks exactly like you”. She was so surprised 😂😂😂
Re: 'eh' In western Canada, the tendency is to say 'hey' rather than 'eh'. I've noticed this since I moved west. 'Eh' is also an informal way of greeting people, especially in passing
I live in Calgary and am from Winnipeg. I’ve never once heard someone say EH as a way to greet someone lmao. And no one out here really says hey, instead of eh. We all say eh and talk about how much we say it, eh
In Montreal we use both, in completely different contexts. Hey is a greeting, or an exclamation. Eh is a sentence ender/add-on, which serves to solicit agreement or social empathy. Never heard Eh as a greeting, not even once.
I've lived almost all my life in Alberta and Saskatchewan with two years in Toronto when I was 18 and 19. I think people in the west say "hey" only to get a person's attention. But we use eh all the time. My brother uses eh once or twice in every sentence, I think. I use my ehs like Bob does.
The usual problem, here, is that both American English and Canadian English vary more among themselves than they differ from the other. I say this from experience as an American for 30 years before another 30 years plus here in Canada, but in Quebec though, which isn't exactly the same as other Canada speech (but that is another story). The biggest difference as a general thing is what Bob pointed out: the Canadians roll their vowel sounds (especially oo-ou-oh) a bit compared to the typical US equivalents. And they say "eh" instead of "you know" or "like" which would be more US speech. Biggest difference is in the vowels between US and Ca. I get mocked for it now when I go visit my old home in the US. You hear it pretty easily in how they say the word Canada, even; Americans do not say it the same as Canadians but it isn't hugely different, just can be noticed if you listen. Back where I grew up (US northeast), we called them telephone poles, not utility poles or hydro poles (which is what I now call them, mostly), just to toss in my two bits on that discussion.
Hey, Bob! I just came from Lucy's channel and you were there with Rachel. Love your clear way of talking and I agree with you that I, as an outsider, don't notice the difference between Canadian and American English. New subscriber here.
May I add other words that are different in spelling. American publishers have arbitrarily dropped the "L" in double LL words, like travelling, modelling, signalling, cancelled. When the second "L" is removed, the convention for the proper pronounciation of the word is violated. Since this process of ignoring the convention is arbitrary, then people learning English will have to add another set of "exceptions to the rule". The existing "exceptions" are already ubiquitous. Why add more indiscriminantly? Just a thought ....
Awesome lesson, eh? Now you can definitely redirect everyone who's curious about what the difference between these two languages is) Thank you, Mr. Bob!
I thought since this question comes up (Canadian vs. American English) quite often during my live lessons that I should make a lesson about it that I could tell people about when they asked this question! 😎🐕🍁
The USA-Canada border is the world's longest one-way mirror. Americans tend to be oblivious to things Canadian unless it's something like wildfires actively affecting things in USA.
Bob! I enjoy watching each video of yours, I love the Canadian accent in general, and watching these videos is just awesome. In Mexican Spanish, we use "eh" too to confirm something.
Similarly, in British English we often use the word eh (or ey) at the end of a sentence to elicit agreement. However the pronunciation, timing and stress of the eh are subtly different. You can always recognise the distinctive Canadian usage.
In England (North & East Midlands esp) we have two similar but different forms... "eh?" for what/pardon? and "ay" as in "ay up!" as in hello or watch out.
I wonder what a native speaker would say when he listen to my American Canadian British Australian - mixed accent 😔 It's really hard for a learner to distinguish the various words while speaking Thank you so much Of course, the only Canadian word I fingure out is( out)
Dear Teacher Bob , What an amazing class it is.. ... Beautiful River and that place too is enchanting ...Nature beauty at its peak...Really a dreamland .....👍❤️❤️ Grateful to you
❤as a Canadian I enjoyed your presentation. I wonder where you are from certainly not from Sunbury county New Brunswick sorry was Sari in casual conversation with friends sorry in the classroom right has two pronunciations rhymes with rate and white. Wait rate (right)there I will be right with you the capitol city was Fretten . When I was much younger than I am now we didn't use eh never heard eh until I moved eh. I often misspell words putting h after w as I whish. R U m-t o I c u 8 @ a 4* can't finish the sentence it's not E-Z I am bilingual had an American born Granny 😮❤🎉❤😊
In the US, Don and dawn generally sound different east of the Mississippi River (except for Pittsburgh and Boston) and sound the same west of the Mississippi River, where the a vowel in both words sounds similar to how Darth Vader says father. This is because of the changes in American English with the cot-caught merger, with now about half of the country pronouncing them the same and still growing.
Eh is useless as far as I am concerned, and SORRY I disagree with you on that pronunciations, but hey that's what makes all of us unique EH? Or don't I need the question mark there?
So it doesn't matter what kind of English you learn. The point is what you read, what you listen to, who you talk to. Over the past year or so, I've listened to most of the lessons on both channels, trying to repeat out loud with Bob, mimicking his intonation. Hearing this, my wife once said, "You know, you sound English more politely than Russian, and I never thought that you could speak so quickly."😎
I'm super happy to hear that you're improving Aleksey. I'm also happy that I can help you not only learn the language, but to learn to speak it more quickly. It sounds like you're making good progress! 😎🐕🍁
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian Progress is clear. Two and half months of transcribing also improved spelling and even punctuation. Thanks for the quality transcripts, by the way.
🌻🌼💐 Jen has a TH-cam channel too! Come and see: youtube.com/@myflowerfarm
Work English longrich
I dated a Canadian for a few years, long distance, and I'll never forget the night he told me over the phone that he thought he had a "moose in his house" and i laughed hysterically and said that i thought it would be pretty obvious if he did, which confused him a bit and said "well i keep the place fairly tidy, but it's cold outside and that brings them in" to which of course i erupted hysterically "THEM?!?! You think you might have more than 1 in there??? How big is your place?!" And, in true Canadian fashion, he started to get a little annoyed with me and snapped back that it was "... just a 1 bedroom apartment on the third floor" and in tears now i asked "how do they fit their antlers inside the elevator... or do they just take the stairs?" And that's when it hit him and he blurted out "MOWSE OK?! GEEZ GIRL IT'S A MMMOWWWSE NOT A MOOSE!" And from that night on, the phrase, "So, you think there might be a moose loose in your hooouse eh?!" became our reference for when we weren't quite understanding each other's slang😂😂😂😂.
That’s actually a funny story those damn foreigners know how to pronounce sht and they rather say it wrong to annoy people my mom pisses me off sometimes with the word therapy this bitsh says thurapy like she’s fancy or something
Metre-term of measurement. Meter -like parking meter
Centre-centre of a circle. Center-physical building or structure
Over-engineered buildings give me anxieties. I have a complex complex complex... lol
American English has a lot of regional variation. The regions tend to be bigger than the regions in British English, generally because the US is a lot bigger than the UK. But much of the country does speak "Standard American". Actors and national newscasters have historically tried to "lose" their local accent to speak Standard American.
I mention this because people from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan sound practically Canadian to me, and there's a Canadian influence in the Minnesota accent as well. Both are near Canada, but there are other areas near Canada that don't have any apparent Canadian influence (it's a long border).
It's interesting to me that you had an issue with Don and Dawn, because in my accent, which is pretty much Standard American, they sound about the same. I have experienced confusion in not knowing whether the speaker was talking about a person (usually male) named Don or a person (usually female) named Dawn.
In addition to the differences you mentioned between Standard American and Canadian, one big difference I notice is the pronunciation of the word "organization". In Standard American, the first I is pronounced as a schwa and the emphasis is on the ZA (ZAY). In Canadian, the first I is pronounced as EYE and the emphasis is on the EYE. I live in a town with an NHL team and I follow ice hockey, so when someone talks about the hockey club by calling it "the organization", I can immediately tell if they're Canadian. It happens more often than you might think. "In order to play better, we have to come together as an organization...." "Oh, I didn't know he was Canadian."
Language is fascinating, eh?
I don’t think there’s a standard American accent
Canadian English isn't just a branch of North American English, it's a branch of general American on which standard American is based. Canadian raising has changed the pronunciation of out and about and the cot/caught and marry/merry/Mary distinction has disappeared, but it has in California as well.
I don’t think exist a standard American accent but to me, the UK have greater diversity of accent despite being smaller, there are accents that seem like another language, I don't know if it is because it is the birthplace of English because the same thing happens with Spanish in Spain and German in Germany
Linguists do call it "General American". There are many Americans I've met that from their accent I couldn't begin to guess where they're from. I could make some guesses as to where they're NOT from, say The Deep South or New York City. But I've met New Yorkers with no trace of a New York City accent, and Southerners with no trace of a Southern accent. Here in California, in the space of a month, we hired three people who had recently moved here from Texas. None of them had the slightest trace of a so-called "Texas accent" and no-one could distinguish them from Californians.
North American accents had less time to develop. The two main English Canadian accents for example date back to 1755 (Atlantic) and 1775 (Western), when the original settlers arrived from the Ameircan colonies. Since they basically started with the same accent, it hasn't diverged very much.
Hey Bob, a huge thanks from Brazil. Your explanations are amazing and I definetely use them with my students.
I will always endeavour to spell these words with their much more beautiful looking “our” ending: splendour, honour, valour, vapour, harbour, colour, flavour, odour, rigour, rumour, armour, favour, neighbour, behaviour, demeanour, saviour, labour, humour.😂
As a British educated person living in Canada, I cant differentiate the difference between American and Canadian English. However, this lesson taught some nuances in the Canadian English. Thanks for the lesson.
Great video! As a Canadian, I approve of this message.
Thanks Bob and let’s not forget that you also spell correctly. Colour, honour etc etc
Canadian's use a lot of words the same as Australian to a degree. Thank you for that I did wonder the difference.
For some reason a lot of the best US comedians grew up in Canada.
Thanks sir
I come from Massachusetts where Don and Dawn are identical to Canadian speech. In the Midwest, Don has more of an AH sound as in fAther. Pretty neat, eh?
You are special and gift to this world 🌎 🙏
Eh, is actually a word adopted from one of the eastern native tribes used to denote and confirm agreement.
thank you so much for useful video :)
I remember asking to go to the washroom at a gas station "in the states" and the lady was like wtf lol
Do you guys still say “mighty fine”. When l was working back in the late 80s as an inside sales person for a particular company in California the Canadian guys on the other end of the phone would say that. And sometimes end it with eh?
Nope, that would be just a personal usage.
License vs licence
In the hospital vs in hospital
(Been) ben vs beeen
Close to the border we have a number of Canadian friends
Do Canadians from the Maritimes speak the same way as someone from BC or Yukon? Do the French in Quebec has an influence on the English spoken there?
American here, how tf are you supposed to say dawn and don differently it sounds the exact same to me
English work 🙏🏻
I'm German and I can understand Canadian English much better than US English! 😄 I think you Canadians pronounce the words much better and clearer without the typical American mumble, slang? 😀
We also use the eh word in Russian with almost the same pronunciation and absolutely the same meaning
The same thing goes for north western italian.
All true - but what you fail to mention that Canadian English and accent varies considerably by region.
What might be considered a "pure" canadian accent is pretty consistent through most of the country geologically. Rural Ontarians and Rural Albertans tend to use the same kinds of slang and have very similar accents. The different accents you might think of are focused on higher population density areas around cities. GTA, Ottawa Valley, Montreal, Edmonton, etc. Of course there's the maritimes and the territories which are very different in general.
@TheSkyfolk that’s not true at all. Rural Ontarians don’t sound like rural Albertans, Saskatchewanians, or Manitobans. I live in rural Saskatchewan and I don’t notice a difference between us and Albertans at all, whether rural nor urban. Manitobans round their vowels a little more than we do but not anywhere near what rural Ontarians sound like.
Rural Albertans, Saskatchewanians, and Manitonans sound much more like Montanans or North Dakotans (Midwestern US accent) than we do anyone from the rest of Canada.
The slang is also different sometimes. We have words like slough (a pond out in a field), bluff (a grove of trees on the otherwise bald prairie), and bunnyhug (a hooded sweater) that the rest of Canada has no clue what we are saying. If someone is from Ontario (especially a rural part) I immediately know they’re from eastern Canada.
Hoo boy, go to small fishing villages on the Nfld West Coast and I guarantee you won’t understand 10% of what is being spoken!!!!
So does USA so
@@peterbeninger7068right
My favorite Canadian word is "pencil crayons." Every American I talked to calls them "coloured pencils."
It doesn't matter how you pronounce most of the American words in English 😸 you're the best Canadian teacher!
Thanks a lot James! 😎🐕🍁
Yes. I agree with you.
Totally agreed
Lol, you're right. He's an awesome teacher!
These generalizations are of limited use. The much maligned alleged Canadian pronunciation of 'ou' in words like 'about' (which Yanks like to inaccurately mock as 'aboot') is entirely absent in Western Canada. Absolutely nobody would mistake a Newfoundlander from one of the outports for a Yank. Absolutely nobody would mistake someone from, say, Alabama or Louisiana for a Canuck. Both countries exhibit a range of regional variations. But most spoken Canadian English is readily understood by other English speakers. (Unlike the UK, eg the Brummie and Geordie accents.)
Hydro is used to indicate power in places like Quebec, Ontario and BC because their power comes from a water source. People on the Prairies use "power" to describe a power pole.
and Manitoba
@@rodneyferris4089And the Maritimes.
that's what I was thinking.
I have no problem saying "power" or "power outage"- but we rely on hydroelectricity.
Saskatchewanian here. Hydro sounds weird and doesn’t really make sense. Hydro means water, and not all electricity comes from hydroelectric sources. Electricity is a power source so it makes more sense to say power.
I was so confused about colour and color and the other 3 thanks😊
One big thing I’ve noticed that gives Canadians away is they’ll use long vowels in words where Americans use short vowels. For example, where I pronounce “process” like prah-cess, a Canadian might say “proh-cess”.
It depends on where you grew up in Canada. Just as many like me say "prah-cess" and "proh-cess" sounds a bit weird. Watch the news like CBC,, where it can be heard both ways by their different anchors/guests. Same with Pro-ject and Prah-ject.
Even the word not, which sounds like nawt, when a Canadian pronounces it
@@pkguy3 Some Canadians do say "proh-ject", which is unknown in the UK and the US, whereas "proh-gress" and "proh-cess" are standard in the UK.
@@juliannorwich319 In UK English the noun 'project' has a fairly short 'o' with roughly equal emphasis on both syllables, (dada) but the verb 'project' has a longer 'o' and the second syllable is stressed (daDA) .
Funny you say that cause I find it's the opposite.
Thank you for saying ‘about’ and not ‘aboot’. I am 69, have lived and travelled coast to coast and NEVER heard a Canadian say ‘aboot’. The only time I hear that is when an American says it trying to imitate Canadians.
Indeed, that's such a weird thing.
The problem is Americans mispronounced about. They sort of add an a in, about.
Damn spell corrector, "abaout"
Its because we shift from o to u like about. Americans don't have that sound. They shift from a stright to u in ab-a-oot. They hear we are doing something different but the don't have the sound so they are not sure what we are doing.
When you say about like "abat" as Americans do, then pronouncing it more in line with its actual spelling sounds like "oo" by comparison. Basically, from the perspective of Americans, it sounds like oot, but thats because they pronounce it oddly themselves
Hello.
I'm japanese.Before I studied English for long time.But I can't speak naturally.
When I was depressed, I was motivated to watch your channel.
Thank you very much.
I'll do my best🙋♀️
日本人だ！私はまだ聴き取るくらいしかできないけど、Bobと一緒に頑張りましょう！！
いつか貴方のように英語を話したいな。
Many respects 🇯🇵 from 🇬🇧
Hello from 🇨🇦 Hope you kept learning 👍
When I was kid I was afflicted with the accursed habit of stuttering.
Thank God, that's all over but in the interim I became very sensitive to not only the sound of my own voice but the voices of others and the way in which they pronounced words. As a result, I noticed immediately your own pronunciation of Canadian English, not to mention that I'd always liked it. So, you may continue speaking as long as you like!
There's a tongue-twister for Japanese learning English: "Rory Leary's yearly yule lull". A Japanese guy told me "you can't imagine how difficult that is for us."
I live near the Canadian border and I find them easier to understand than Southerners. “Eh” is simply the Canadian equivalent of “right” and is used the same way. I also love their slang like “toque” and “two four”. One of my favorite TV shows when I was younger was SCTV - love those hosers! And they have great beer too.
The use of "eh" has some subtle but distinctive differences from other mild interjections such as "right," "you know," and "like."
All of them can be overused, of course, but the judicious use of "eh" can add a charming note of color to a narrative, drawing attention to important turns of the story and setting up a kind of cadence or punctuation. You can't just pepper it in anywhere and expect to get the right effect.
I've often though that it's closer to the use of "là" in Québécois French. You must use it intentionally, yet ironically this takes such a lot of practice that it becomes ingrained. It reminds me of that Zen saying,
"If you want to become a perfect painter, first become perfect, then paint naturally."
Take off eh!
Yes it's easier to understand Canadians than Southerners. I too grew up close to the border.
I'm discovering the "eh" thing. It's pretty funny because in France we use the very same trick to get an implicit agreement with "hein ?" "This pizza is pretty good, eh?" --> "Cette pizza est plutôt bonne, hein ?"
And many people in London England use "yeah?" the same way. "So first we're going to the shop, yeah? and then to the restaurant, yeah?"
I was actually wondering if eh might not have been an influence from Quebec French where “hein” is (just as in France) commonly employed to obtain acknowledgement.
I speak several languages and they all have such a word. In Italian slang it's nè (or at least that's how it sounds, never seen it written), in German dialects it's usually nee, and in the Swiss dialects it's gell
@@johndennis177 This makes sense as origin of the Canadian eh
Il est commun d'utiliser le "hein" au Québec. Est-ce que le "hey" anglo a des racines francophones?
I will admit that Canadians describe their facilities more accurately. I’ve never taken a “bath” in a public restroom. I do wash every time, however.
As a BC native, I would usually call it a bathroom when it's inside a home, but a washroom in public (like in a mall, gas station, restaurant etc). Altho bathroom is still acceptable for either one. Canadians don't really use the term restroom, except when influenced by Americans.
Washroom should be adopted by Americans. It is a way better term, eh? In fact I use it all the time, even just a few minutes ago. I recommend all of y'all do the same
@@Sal.K--BC In Ontario, we just say we're going to the john
yeah, but only as a deliberate slang. The rest of the time it's a washroom@@Bloozguy
Here in California we say "bathroom" in a home (whether it has a bath or a shower) and "restroom" for a public facility (which has neither bath nor shower). British people ask for the "toilets" and Germans ask for the "WC" and Australians sometimes ask for "the dunnies".
What a great lesson!
We Brazilians say a lot of "né" in the end of most of the sentences! 😂
It's kind of the same way you Canadian use "eh". We want the person listening to agree to the statement.
That's totally true. Haha very similar
Funny, since in Italian, in the Piemontese dialect, they do say "né" often at the end of a sentence too hahaha
Then again, Brazil is (next to Argentina) the biggest hub of Italian migrants in South America.
Yes it means yes/no? A question do you agree? I assume you agree. Are you listening? Am I wrong?....
@@yrooxrksvi7142 Brazilian is the largest number of people with full or partial italian ancestry outside Italy, São Paulo being the most populous city with Italian ancestry in the world.
@@yrooxrksvi7142 in Japanese they use "ne" a lot too. But in Portuguese "né" is a contraction from "não" and "é". In a question, saying "né?" here is like saying "isn't it?" In english.
Just to point out that our accent varies considerably. As a Montrealer, I can tell instantly that this guy was not raised around here - his accent is closer to the stereotypical Canadian one that Americans try to imitate. Go east of Montreal and it diverges more. Most of us across the country do, however, constrict our 'ou'/'ow' sound more than most Americans do.
There is various Canadian accents, as there are various US accents.
@@ericturcotte3131 Alberta’s accent the words are clipped and very distinct and proper sounding. In the Maritimes our words are more lazy and informal. One example is running words together such as “lotsa” for lots of, “kinda” for kind of. We drop the “g” saying “I’m runnin’ late”. “We’re “goin’ now.” If we talked properly people would think of us as high falootin’.
As an Albertan I can tell you, that ain't necessarily the case. Maybe just when talking to outsiders.
@@Dustandfuzz
@@ericturcotte3131 Old-Stock Canadian here...I would venture to guess that the majority of English Canadians do not use "eh"....depends upon the region, I guess. I heard quite a bit down East when I was growing up. (I am in my mid sixties)The pronuniciation of the other words he mentioned is pretty much the case for all of us.
@@bonniebluebell5940 I know people that say it often, others that don't.
This teacher is really awesome, eh?The “eh” is music to my ears. Good job Canadians using it as a prompt, because I’d instantly pay attention once I hear it, even if the speaker was a million miles/kilometres away (sorry I used both systems 🍁) And Sorry Americans, the Canadian accent sounds cuter pretty much any way you slice it!
Yeah 😀
I prefer the Canadian accent as well. 😎🐕🍁 For good reasons!
Yeah sorry to say we are just nicer than Americans eh🇨🇦
Well y’all Canadians better watch y’all’s backs because them there cowboys down south got guns!!!!
@@tracycameron2580 eh am Chris and you?can we link up🥰
Big Scottish Influence
The famous Canadian pronunciation of 'out and about' is more like West Country English in the UK.
I always thought that the "o" sound came from the Scottish accent (as in Nova Scotia).
My people are from West Country, England, and Ireland. Our mixed dialect was very intact 40-50 years ago..but, Americanized now. We used to say, “boaat”for boat. We don’t say coffee, we say it something like “cah-fea.”
Where in Canada do they say the "stereotypical" 'aboot'? I'm from Vancouver and no one I know says about that way.
@@michellem3050 NS
@@Pkeats817I am Nova Scotia and I don't say "aboot" for "about"" and a "boat" and neither does anyone I know! I have heard Nova Scotians tell the stories about going to Newfoundland and someone there is talking about the "boots" in the water and really all the Nova Scotia can see are boats with not a single boot in sight. I am sure not all Newfoundlands say "aboot:".
As a Canadian, I can say he aced it sounds exactly how I talk sometimes 😁
Wow! Nice lesson Bob!👍
Canadian is the very accent that I wanna adopt but right now I'm focusing more on the language and you're helping me with that a lot. Thanks a million.
Lots of love❤️❤️❤️
I wish you all the best as you try to learn the Canadian accent! 😎🐕🍁
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian Besides the few spelling differences and the intrusive "eh," I'd say the biggest difference between Canadian and American accents is the "o" vowel and the "ou" diphthong. In general, Americans tend to pronounce the long "o" as a more pure vowel, while Canadians tend to put an "u" hook at the end. And in America, the "ou" sound often rhymes with "ow" (so "out" has the same vowel as "cow" in America) and in Canada, the "ou" often has more of an "oo" sound (so in Canada, the vowel in "out" is more like the vowel in "boot"). If you want to tease a Canadian, say "out and about" like "oot and aboot."
Someone learning English might not pick up on it, but a native speaker would also notice that Canadian vowels, in general, are tighter and more compact than American vowels. In other words, Canadians get through the vowels more quickly and move on to the next consonant quicker than their American cousins. And Americans, in turn, have quicker vowels than the Brits. These are generalizations, of course, but an interesting point to listen for.
"Eh" is a request for confirmation. "The weather is nice, eh?" means I think the weather is nice, now I want you to provide your opinion on the weather, to agree or disagree. It's not just thrown out there whenever you want
Not all Americans sound the same when speaking English . Pronunciations differ from region to region.
Years ago my employer sent me, a Los Angeles boy, to a conference in Winterpeg, Manisnomba. It was November and starting to cool off on the prairie. The locals were wearing sweaters and windbreakers. Coming from Southern California, I was bundled up like an arctic explorer. I saw a t-shirt on the trip that l wish I'd bought. Across the front it said in bold letters, "Canada, eh?*" Along the bottom, in much smaller type it said, "*Because it's better than saying huh! I now volunteer in a museum that has many international visitors. Our Canadian guests are usually amazed when l ask what province they're from after they say a sentence or two. They laugh whenn l direct them to the washrooms. It bothers me that our neighbors to the north know plenty about the U.S. but most Americans know little or nothing about Canada. Bob, you are helping to bridge the gap! Well done, eh?
Is Manisnomba the US pronunciation of Manitoba?
"Eh" is also used in Michigan's Upper Peninsula a lot. In fact "Yooper" English is very similar to Canadian English, especially in the eastern part of the UP.
Definitely! My parents were Yoopers (on the western side) and I think the only difference between them and Canada is “sorry.” I call it Almost Canada. 😊
Oh so that's how the Lagina's get on so well out in Nova Scotia, eh!
Growing up in Quebec and having learned English as a second language, it was only in my late teens that I started noticing the differences in American and Canadian English accents. It’s too subtle for the untrained ear to distinguish. Today, I’m 100% bilingual and can easily recognize Canadians by ear when I go to say, Florida. First I overhear, then I look over and see the person wearing a Jays t-shirt!
Hi! I'm from Hungary. Could you pls explain what a Jays T-shirt signifies? Thanks in advance!
I was so curious, I googled it, now I know it refers to Toronto Blue Jays, a baseball team. Cheers 😉
@@june.w.1288professional Baseball team.
Hi sir, one thing you need to mention is that how Canada is eternally confused about which date format to use.
On grocery receipts I've seen every format being used
as well as units. we can't quite switch over to metric fully for some reason.
There are still a lot us around who grew up with Imperial, and still think in that system.@@jextra1313
I've even seen different formats on the same library receipt for books I've borrowed.
@jextra1313 we despise metric as a rule in the Prairie Provinces. All of our farmland is surveyed on the squared half mile and mile, and our grid roads are two miles north/south of each other and one mile east/west of each other. We use acres instead of acres. Our crop yields are used as bushels. We use gallons and litres interchangeably depending on what we are measuring, and pounds and inches are used as much as as kilograms and tonnes, if not more so. The only strange one is Fahrenheit, but most of us can convert it with Celcius quite easily.
Bob is trying his best to help us in leaing english. That is why I'm always here!
Thanks for precise facts,Bob! Stay safe and srtong!
Thanks for the kind words. I will keep trying my best! 😎🐕🍁
A generation of Americans enjoyed the clear pronunciation by Peter Jennings, lead anchor for ABC World News Tonight.
I worked with Peter on occasion, and he would occasionally joke about slipping back into Canadian English. Once, when recording something for radio, he accidentally began to pronounce the word schedule "shed-ule." He laughed, went into a riff about "oat and aboat," and did a retake. He and Barrie Dunsmore (who was born in Saskatchewan) would remark on occasion about the differences between Canadian English and American English. And Ted Koppel - who was born in England and came to the US while in grade school - once told me about the time he asked his American teacher for a rubber -- meaning an eraser -and his new American classmates laughed at him. He and Dunsmore explained to me what "shinny" was and the various meanings of "Newfie," et cetera. I was blessed to work with those three gentlemen, who all spoke perfect American English, even though it was their second language.
Sorry some Americans laughed at you. "Don got up at the crack of dawn" sounds perfectly right they way you pronounced it. When you said, "I went to university in the US" that was pretty Canadian. We'd say, "I went to college in the US." Great work!
If only Mr. Bob went to college in the state of Maine. 🥲 I know someone from there who is polite and well-behaved. He would never laugh at anyone speaking with an accent. I’m sure many Mainers are the same!
We should respect the different accents. One day I met an English woman who said : " American accent is rubbish !" Needless to say I was shocked 😱 at her disrespectful words !!!
I think it's because I went to University in Michigan. The Michigan American accent tends to pronounce O's like they are A's sometimes. They used to call me Baaaab instead of Bob! 😎🐕🍁
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian Ah! That's hilarious. I know exactly how that sounds.
@@mohdags420 Never. We're all very polite here in Maine.
In western Canada electricity is called power... (a power pole)
In New Brunswick we have or had a hydro electric dam so we call it hydro.
In Nova Scotia we call them power poles.
Newfoundland too.
Here in California people generally call them "telephone poles" though the phone lines are buried and the poles in question only carry electricity.
Except in the westest part of the west. My power comes from BC Hydro.
Hello dear teacher! I have never actually thought about the accent you speak. Your clear prononciation together with calm and smooth manner of speach that was what I needed a year ago besides you have more logical and organized you tube channels
I think because I'm a teacher during the day my speaking is naturally quite clear as I speak to communicate instead of trying to speak quickly! 😎🐕🍁
For those who are learning English, it is important to pay close attention, because Canadian and American English are very similar. We have those vowel different pronunciations here in Brazil as well, depending on the region you live. Great video!
Anyone learning Canadian English will be understood well in all other English speaking countries, there is no need to acquire an American accent
I help several Brazilians with their English via WhatsApp, etc. I try to point out different pronunciations or usages of words (American, Canadian, British) as they sometimes asked me about certain words back when we first started. They had heard the American version and I'm Canadian.
One time I walked into a room at work and a Chinese-Cuban colleague (looked Chinese, spoke Spanish) was correcting a Taiwanese friend's pronunciation of English. However, her correction was just as wrong as what he was saying.
Canadian ESL Teacher here! I NEVER use the first example of "eh", but I used the second one very often. It must be regional, eh?
I live on the west coast near the CAN/US border and EH isn't something we would normally say or hear from others.
I live on the US - Canadian border, on the US side. Canadian speakers are always around. I frankly don’t notice the difference in our speech much. I’ve never had any Canadian ever be rude or mean here and my wife and I are treated the same there.
When we visit, I will seek out a currency exchange office and exchange our American currency for Canadian. For us, especially me since I’m rather dim witted about the exchange rates, it’s easier on both us and the one doing the sale. Also, the US coins don’t fit in candy or soft drink machines nor do they fit in parking meters.
Such an interesting country, Canada 🇨🇦.
Yes I've seen signs on US vending machines. "No Canadian Coins."
@@fonebonedon Yes, and I’ve seen the same thing about US coins
I'm Irish and we mostly speak British English with a few tweaks. Our native language is Gaelige (Irish) and we learn it until we leave secondary (high) school but only pockets of the country use it as their first language even though technically it is. We spell words like colour and honour the same but some of our sentence structure still goes back to the structure of Gaeilge. The th sound doesn't occur in Gaeilge and that is why, for the most part, we pronounce three as tree etc. Unless you're well to do that sound does not come naturally to us especially if you're adept at speaking Gaeilge.
The th sound is also the hardest to learn for native German speakers like myself. In German, the English th sound is a speech impediment of people who cannot pronounce a proper s, so there's a mental barrier to overcome when adopting that sound.
Over the years I have noticed a distinctiveness in the way Canadians pronounce the flat “a,” as in “that.” It’s very subtle and hard for me to describe, but as soon as I hear it I know the speaker is Canadian.
Hey Bob, just a note, we don't "add a u" they've dropped the u (the anglophones in out countries include descendants of Brits and that difference comes from us keeping things as the Brits write them where in the U.S. they've dropped the letters/changed how they write it).
Wish you'd do a few videos about English dialects in Canada i.e. Southern vs. Northern Ontario, East Coast accents (all Canadians agree those are awesome), dialects in the prairies and B.C.
Yes, those pesky American differences can mostly be attributed to Noah Webster in the 1800s when he attempted to "simplify" and standardize spellings. He gave us the "er" endings (instead of "re"), he dropped the "u" out of the "our" endings, he changed "cheque" to "check," and a few other notable differences. The differences are few and predictable enough that they shouldn't cause much stress for someone learning American English.
Sorry, the -or comes from Latin, not the US. The French (not the English) inserted a u, then there was a neo-Latinization spelling movement in the US. Similarly, the -er comes from German, then the French flipped it to -re, and Americans flipped it back.
@@DanWestonX
It wasn't any neo-Latinization spelling movement in the US that resulted in these changes. It was Noah Webster's dictionary, preceded by his classroom spelling texts, that attempted to simplify English language orthography and bring it more into line with pronunciation. He put forward many other changes, e.g. plow for plough, and still others that didn't catch on, e.g. dawter for daughter, thum for thumb, masheen for machine, etc.
We have not
Being an eastern Canadian, I notice a quite distinct accent in the western provinces.
Thank you for an intriguing lesson!
It has been about 2 years since I started to watch this channel.
But it’s first time to leave a comment.
I thought English native speakers could imitate other English intonation or dialects .
After think about it, it’s difficult for me to mimic different intonation of my mother tongue .
By the way , I learn English as a 2nd language in Japan.
I am learning english and I love how canadians speak! I can understand every single word and it makes feel so happy😍
I got here by checking videos randomly when I noticed this is a canadian teacher got subcribed and shared with all my friends that are learning too...
You don't know how useful your videos are Bob!
Hope one day I can speak like you man!! 💪💪💪👌
Growing up only a few miles from Canada in NW Washington I thought I was very familiar with the few language differences until I was 18yo working at an autobody shop along side a Canadian guy. He looked and sounded just like Stan on "On The Busses" and the first time he said 'decal' I was lost for a moment.
"deck - ull" ?
@@rconger24 Yup, thats it !
Way better than those NY, Boston, KY, TN, TX accent
Thank you Bob for your nice video. I have a lot of Canadian friends, so from personal experience I can say that you guys speak more clear that other English native speakers (I've heard so many English accents and dialects). I love the Canadian culture (including food and Tim Hortons coffee) and thank you for talking about it in your videos. I've learned from you so many useful expressions that I'm using now when speaking with my friends and other English speakers.
There are two other English words that I heard Canadians pronounce in a different way. They're "organization" and "direction". Anyway, I appreciate your fine video content and keep up with the good work.
I’m English and I can’t distinguish between a Canadian or American you all sound the same to me.
😱
Interestingly enough, in Catalonia, we use that "eh" the same as you, the only difference is the pronunciation, here sounds the same as "e" from bEd, Catalan is pretty related to French maybe they use it as well.🤔🤭
That could be. I'm noticing that there are some Europeans that use something similar to the Canadian "EH"! 😎🐕🍁
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian I'm noticing that the Canadian accent is more similar in some aspects to some British accents. The 'zed', the 'eh', among others.
Loved the video, thank you!!
must be nice having a back yard big enough to park four imperial class star destroyers in.
I thought he was doing a tour of the country, for effect.
Hello from Thailand.
I hope you're having a good day over there in Thailand! 😎🐕🍁
Working on several construction projects in the states I found it funny how they pronounced FOYER. Them FOY Yerr. Us FOY Yeah like it is pronounced in French as it is originally a French word.
I forgot to mention your smile and beautiful flower farm and your brilliant stories that I love to listen to every Wednesday
I'm a triple threat! 😎🐕🍁 (You might have to look that one up!) Maybe I'll do my short English lesson about that phrase today!
In NJ, NYC and Long Island, “Florida” is pronounced “Flarida”🇨🇦
I grew up in the Detroit area and my parents were English~Finnish speakers. Hence, we also spoke with a very round sound, as Canadians do. Since then, I've lived all over North America, including five years in 🇨🇦. My daughter, grandson and still friend ex-husband all live in 🇨🇦. Many people in Minnesota, North Dakota and Michigan etc have Scandinavian routes and people ask them if they are Canadian. We lived in British Columbia and I found their accent quite different than the Windsor area. My mother-in-law was from an Irish~Canadian family in New Brunswick. Well you know, that is whole other ball game. I enjoyed your little lesson, eh Bob. 🇺🇸💞🇨🇦
Hello Carol, how are you doing?
I dated a Canadian for 6 years.I can spot a Canadian across crowded room.
The thing that stands out is that OU as parrt of a word
Americans generally and southerners especially pronounce the W in Dawn Canadians don't
Also in the word favor(favour in Canada) Some Canadians (it might be regional differences) ALMOST-ALMOST pronounce the U The British say it a little more clearly,
In baseball the Designated Hitteer position is often abbreviated DH, Americans pronounce that "Dee Aych" in Canada it's "Du' Hache Now that baseball is anb up and comer in Australia they say "DeeHache" Closer to the way it's said in Canada.
Interesting: in Hungarian, we also attach an e sound in similar cases. This pizza is pretty good, eh? Izlett-e a pizza? (translation: Did this pizza taste well?) You can ask it this way: Ez a pizza jó volt e? The e is there in both of the sentences.
It's an interesting way of communicating isn't it? It's like you're asking the person to agree with you, not in a forceful way, but kind of just encouraging them to say yes! 😎🐕🍁
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian I automatically read the first question as “It’s an interesting way of communicating, eh?”
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian Ye exaclty
At 6:59 as you probably know that's called "the cot/caught merger". I've only lived in two places- West Virginia and California- and both have the same cot/caught (or Bob/ball or Don/dawn or "pot of coffee") merger you do. But famously in New York City they don't have that merger, and cot, Bob, Don, and pot are pronounced with no lip-rounding and a lowered jaw, while caught, ball, dawn, and coffee with lip-rounding and a higher jaw.
Basically Americans and Canadians understand each other... British and Australian English are a little different from Canadian/ American English
Canadians are obsessed with the word ABOUT. Americans rarely use it. AMericans are obsessed with the words BASICALLY and ACTUALLY> thanks
Definitely, you're one of my favorite native English teachers! Thank you so much!
Your Canadian accent is very mild. I have Canadian neighbours in Ireland (Hi folks) who have much stronger accents, which I really like especially the “o” sound as in about, boat, etc. Many younger Canadians sound completely as though they are from the USA. In the greater Dublin area They pronounce sorry a bit like Canadians. Other spelling differences include counsellor/traveller and counselor and traveler, tyre/tire, paediatric/pediatric, etc. In hiberno-English Don and dawn sound vey different. My Canadian neighbours (neighbors in American) pronounce Harry and hairy the same way which does sound funny. P.S. I shared this video with them and they loved it. Sláinte
I think this kind of difference is very commom. It occurs between Portuguese apoken in Portugal and in Brazil. The accent is completely different - I'm Brazilian and I have difficult in understanding Portuguese people speaking ! There are lots of words with different meanings as well. In Brazil there are also a great amount of regional slangs that they don't understand.
I find regional slang very cool and interesting. Even in Canada certain areas have little slang words that are unique only to the people that live there. 😎🐕🍁
It's the same with Spanish. I had a Spanish teacher from South America, and she emphasized that Mexico and the southern States DON'T speak the same Spanish as South America and Spain.
As someone who speaks portuguese from Angola, I have a difficult time understanding Brazilian portuguese. Maybe because Portugal portuguese is the original portuguese.
I live in Canada, and once Canadian friend of mine asked me: “See this American woman? She has a strong American accent, can you hear it?”
“No”
“She doesn’t talk like me, can you hear that?”
“No, as much as I can hear, she talks exactly like you”.
She was so surprised
😂😂😂
Re: 'eh'
In western Canada, the tendency is to say 'hey' rather than 'eh'. I've noticed this since I moved west. 'Eh' is also an informal way of greeting people, especially in passing
I live in Calgary and am from Winnipeg. I’ve never once heard someone say EH as a way to greet someone lmao.
And no one out here really says hey, instead of eh. We all say eh and talk about how much we say it, eh
@@bigem2166 I guess you're too precious then
In Montreal we use both, in completely different contexts. Hey is a greeting, or an exclamation. Eh is a sentence ender/add-on, which serves to solicit agreement or social empathy. Never heard Eh as a greeting, not even once.
I've lived almost all my life in Alberta and Saskatchewan with two years in Toronto when I was 18 and 19. I think people in the west say "hey" only to get a person's attention. But we use eh all the time. My brother uses eh once or twice in every sentence, I think. I use my ehs like Bob does.
Fortunately there are at least twice as many English speakers east of Manitoba.
The usual problem, here, is that both American English and Canadian English vary more among themselves than they differ from the other. I say this from experience as an American for 30 years before another 30 years plus here in Canada, but in Quebec though, which isn't exactly the same as other Canada speech (but that is another story). The biggest difference as a general thing is what Bob pointed out: the Canadians roll their vowel sounds (especially oo-ou-oh) a bit compared to the typical US equivalents. And they say "eh" instead of "you know" or "like" which would be more US speech.
Biggest difference is in the vowels between US and Ca. I get mocked for it now when I go visit my old home in the US. You hear it pretty easily in how they say the word Canada, even; Americans do not say it the same as Canadians but it isn't hugely different, just can be noticed if you listen. Back where I grew up (US northeast), we called them telephone poles, not utility poles or hydro poles (which is what I now call them, mostly), just to toss in my two bits on that discussion.
Hey, Bob! I just came from Lucy's channel and you were there with Rachel. Love your clear way of talking and I agree with you that I, as an outsider, don't notice the difference between Canadian and American English.
New subscriber here.
May I add other words that are different in spelling. American publishers have arbitrarily dropped the "L" in double LL words, like travelling, modelling, signalling, cancelled. When the second "L" is removed, the convention for the proper pronounciation of the word is violated. Since this process of ignoring the convention is arbitrary, then people learning English will have to add another set of "exceptions to the rule". The existing "exceptions" are already ubiquitous. Why add more indiscriminantly? Just a thought ....
Awesome lesson, eh?
Now you can definitely redirect everyone who's curious about what the difference between these two languages is)
Thank you, Mr. Bob!
I thought since this question comes up (Canadian vs. American English) quite often during my live lessons that I should make a lesson about it that I could tell people about when they asked this question! 😎🐕🍁
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian you nailed it
The USA-Canada border is the world's longest one-way mirror.
Americans tend to be oblivious to things Canadian unless it's something like wildfires actively affecting things in USA.
Bob! I enjoy watching each video of yours, I love the Canadian accent in general, and watching these videos is just awesome. In Mexican Spanish, we use "eh" too to confirm something.
It would be better if Mexico and Canada shared a border!!!
Similarly, in British English we often use the word eh (or ey) at the end of a sentence to elicit agreement.
However the pronunciation, timing and stress of the eh are subtly different.
You can always recognise the distinctive Canadian usage.
In England (North & East Midlands esp) we have two similar but different forms... "eh?" for what/pardon? and "ay" as in "ay up!" as in hello or watch out.
I wonder what a native speaker would say when he listen to my American Canadian British Australian - mixed accent 😔
It's really hard for a learner to distinguish the various words while speaking
Thank you so much
Of course, the only Canadian word I fingure out is( out)
I have the same thing when I speak French. It's a mixture of Quebecois and French from a variety of countries! 😎🐕🍁
My grandfather was Canadian and pronounced 'roof' as RUFF. He shoots! He SCORES!!!!!
Dear Teacher Bob , What an amazing class it is..
... Beautiful River and that place too is enchanting ...Nature beauty at its peak...Really a dreamland .....👍❤️❤️ Grateful to you
It is a beautiful place to live until the mosquitoes come out! 😎🐕🍁
❤as a Canadian I enjoyed your presentation. I wonder where you are from certainly not from Sunbury county New Brunswick sorry was Sari in casual conversation with friends sorry in the classroom right has two pronunciations rhymes with rate and white. Wait rate (right)there I will be right with you the capitol city was Fretten . When I was much younger than I am now we didn't use eh never heard eh until I moved eh. I often misspell words putting h after w as I whish. R U m-t o I c u 8 @ a 4* can't finish the sentence it's not E-Z I am bilingual had an American born Granny 😮❤🎉❤😊
Many thanks!😊
This is useful and interesting for me!🤓
Welcome to Russia!🥰
I hope you're having a great day over there in Russia! 😎🐕🍁
@learnenglishwithbobthecanadian have you covered Nova Scotia's aspirated "yuh" for yes.
In the US, Don and dawn generally sound different east of the Mississippi River (except for Pittsburgh and Boston) and sound the same west of the Mississippi River, where the a vowel in both words sounds similar to how Darth Vader says father. This is because of the changes in American English with the cot-caught merger, with now about half of the country pronouncing them the same and still growing.
I do hate that merger, glad it’s not part of my speech
Eh is useless as far as I am concerned, and SORRY I disagree with you on that pronunciations, but hey that's what makes all of us unique EH? Or don't I need the question mark there?
So it doesn't matter what kind of English you learn. The point is what you read, what you listen to, who you talk to. Over the past year or so, I've listened to most of the lessons on both channels, trying to repeat out loud with Bob, mimicking his intonation. Hearing this, my wife once said, "You know, you sound English more politely than Russian, and I never thought that you could speak so quickly."😎
I'm super happy to hear that you're improving Aleksey. I'm also happy that I can help you not only learn the language, but to learn to speak it more quickly. It sounds like you're making good progress! 😎🐕🍁
@@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian Progress is clear. Two and half months of transcribing also improved spelling and even punctuation. Thanks for the quality transcripts, by the way.
My grandmother was an English Professor at at McGill University I am from the states say z I am a duel citizen !
Great video !!!
Bob is always the funniest and cutest teacher ! 👨🏻🏫
I just try to be me! 😎🐕🍁