In case you got here by some obscure route this is a list of some of the peculiar differences in the Canadian and American forms of the English language. In some cases the words are just different, and in some they don't exist in one language. I have found this pretty interesting and hopefully you do as well, and please if you want to add a word to this, or disagree with my definitions please send me mail at sjm@ri.cmu.edu.

Canadian Word American Equivalent Definition
bootin' around . Driving around, usually in a truck. i.e. Bill was bootin' around in his truck.
brown bread wheat bread .
buggered it up screwed up When something is broken or not working, or you've done something to cause it to not function. i.e. We'll you really buggered it up. Or, This computer is all buggered up. This could also be a mild swear word and probably should not be used in front of your Grandmother.
bum butt .
chocolate bar candy bar It seems that Americans understand chocolate bar and may even use this term but I don't think you will find a Canadian who will say candy bar.
cheessies cheese puffs In Canada pretty much all of the Cheetos type snack, whether round, long, curly, etc. are refered to as cheessies. Americans will refer to these are cheese sticks, cheese puffs, etc.
chesterfield sofa/couch I have also been informed that Americans will occasionally refer to a chesterfield as a davenport.
deke . I guess the best way to explain this is to fake out. Most often this word is used in hockey when a player stick handles around a goalie. i.e. "He deked the goalie." In fact I have been told that this word is actually in the American World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary. The citation is "deke: Canadian slang. n. a sham maneuver in hockey; feint. v.t. to maneuver in hockey by feinting."
eh? . The quintessential Canadian word.
elastic band rubber band .
eavestroughs gutters The things which go around the edge of a roof to collect the leaves in the Fall.
garburator garbage disposal .
ginned up drunk This is a contribution from the Canadian prairies. I have never heard it used, but added it anyway.
grad prom This may just be a Western Canadianism but I am told that grad is used instead of prom. I think my school just called it a formal but I can't really remember.
Grade x xth grade or freshman, sophmore etc. In Canada we never (at least I have never) use the terms freshman etc to refer to a person's grade level in high school or university. Also we would say that a person is in Grade 10 rather than say a person is in the 10th grade.
go on holiday go on vacation In Canada we would say "I am taking a holiday in Europe." whereas an American would say "I am taking a vacation in Europe."
hoser idiot .
hydro electricity In Canada it is common to refer to electricity as hydro and thus the electric company as a hydro company even when it is not generated by water. Americans tend to restrict their use of hydro power to electricity produced by water.
Imperial Units English Units The set of units such as inches, fathoms, pounds etc.
keener . This is the word that started me thinking of doing this list. Basically I have not found any truely succinct American equivalent. A keener is simply a person who is really gung-ho or (as we would say) keen to do something. This is somewhat similar to a brown noser but it does not really imply the sucking up to authority (i.e not a sycophant) part and is not so negative.
knapsack bookbag .
Kraft Dinner Kraft Macaroni & Cheese In the words of an American friend "Kraft has many different dinners - shells and cheese etc. Thus saying Kraft Dinner to refer only to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese makes no sense." Still seems weird to me.
mini-golf putt putt Americans do seem to understand mini-golf though, putt putt may be more of a brand name.
Molson muscle Beer Belly The large muscle men develop while drinking beer.
parkade parking garage .
pencil crayon colored pencils Well this one really struck me as weird, but I think it's self explainatory
pogey . Pogey is Employment Insurance (formerly Unemployment Insurance) which you pay into when you have a job and then it pays you compensation for a fixed number of weeks when you loose your job and become unemployed.
pop soda Now this is an interesting one. I think universally Canadians say pop (except in Quebec where many anglos will say soft drink) , however there are regions in the U.S where they say pop, others say soda and still others I am told say Coke. Someday this word may have its own web page, so if you live in the US let me know what the local usage is and someday maybe I will have a map. It turns out that somebody has already mapped out the geographical usage. Check out http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~almccon/pop_soda/. Thanks to John Szymkowski for pointing out this site to me.
puck biscuit While I don't think Americans in general refer to a hockey puck as a biscuit the guy who does the play by play on the Penguins' games does, and it's REALLY annoying.
riding district A riding is an electoral region which is represented by one member of a government (provincal or federal).
rockets smarties A small round chalky type of candy usually given out at Halloween. In Canada, smarties refers to a candy coated chocolate similar to M&M;'s which you cannot get in the US.
runners tennis shoes .
serviette napkin .
Take Off! Get Lost .
touque Weird Canadian Hat This one surprised me but apparently the Americans around here just seem to call them hats. Some Americans may refer to them as watchcaps as well.
two four case In Canada a case of beer is called a two four (because there are 24 bottles in it). Americans (at least in Pittsburgh) say case.
washroom restroom/bathroom .
university college Americans will tend to refer to universities as colleges. For example "I am attending college at Carnegie Mellon University". In Canada college only refers to a Community College which is a place that grants diplomas rather than degrees and generally has more practical courses (i.e. technicians rather than engineers).
write an exam take an exam A Canadian student would say "I have to write an exam tomorrow." while an American would say "I have to take an exam tomorrow."

Another interesting thing I discovered when moving here is that most Americans think Canadians have accents. This actually surprised me (although in retrospect maybe it should not have). Anyway, the most obvious words are those with the letters ou in them such as out, about, doubt etc. One thing I did learn though is that if you ever want to be a comedian all you have to say is "Out and about eh" and you will always get a laugh.

I don't think I have time to get into the differences in Canadian-American spellings and the whole zed-zee issue (although I still have trouble with zee-transform and 300 zee x).

I thought this may be an appropriate place to put the results of a little informal survey I have been conducting. I have taken to asking Americans the following question : "What is the capital of Canada?". Granted so far my sample size is small and I will admit the my sample demographics (consisting entirely of American Robotics PhD candidates) is limited but I am still quite shocked that these educated people (many of whom knew me for over a year before I asked the question) got it wrong. Here are the current results :

Correct 2.5 Wrong 10.5

The 0.5 is for a former office mate who took at least 5min and a half dozen incorrect guesses before coming up with the right answer.

Yet another difference I have found is in the products (mostly food items) which I cannot buy in the US (or at least at Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh). Someday I will break this off into another page but for now it's here.

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Finally I would like to thank all those people who have helped me create this list. From Steve, Nick, Bruce and Joan as fellow mystified Canadians to Kim, Mike and Danny the official American English judicial panel.

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