Hey, I was wondering if you can tell when someone is from Canada by just the way they speak.
Because I’m from Germany and when I hear for example Drake, Justin Bieber or this Canadian tech guy on YouTube called “Linus Tech Tips” talking, it sounds exactly the same to me as the typical US American accent sounds and I couldn’t tell at all that they are not from the USA.
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Sometimes. Some words are different and the way they say sorry is also different. Although a similar sorry can be found in Minnesota.
I can almost always tell if someone is Canadian. Some talk like Justin Trudeau. Some talk like William Shatner. So it’s not an exact science tho.
There’s a few words that tend to be giveaways but not with all speakers. Like sorry and words with an ou in them like house or about. Or vocabulary like saying zed, or talking about bags of milk lol
It varies but there is usually a subtle something that I pick up on.
I’ve never noticed a singer as such but that’s more because while singing a lot of the accent things are masked by the fact that you’re singing.
But Linus from LTT for instance now and then says something that pings him as Canadian and not American.
95% of their speech is not easily distinguishable from American english. However, they do tend to have several differences which if you listen to long enough can become noticeable (such as the cliche “about” pronounced like “aboot”). Linus gives it away occasionally, but it’s not as distinctive as some I’ve met from BC. I’m no linguist, but they tend to have “rounder” sounding vowels than most Americans.
Linus (Tech Tips) rarely has the classic Canadian “about” pronunciation. I might miss it if I didn’t know he was Canadian. Perhaps it only happens when he’s animated or something I’m not certain. But he does it sometimes.
The way certain pronunciations are done can be giveaway that someone is Canadian, such as “about”, “Z”, and “sorry”. For example, I follow a YouTube channel named “What If”, and in his videos I noticed these pronunciations, making me speculate that he is Canadian. I did a quick Google search on him, and lo and behold, he indeed is.
In the vast majority of cases, however, I am unable to tell if someone is Canadian initially if I just go by their accent.
Sometimes yes, often no. Most Canadians have a neutral enough accent that they can pass as American.
> it sounds exactly the same to me as the typical US American accent sounds and I couldn’t tell at all that they are not from the USA
There’s a reason we can get away with pretending to be Canadian abroad.
It’s usually noticeable if you talk a little. Certain words are dead giveaways
I’m married to a Canadian (who is German by birth), and I occasionally hear Canadianisms in her speech, but its hard to pick up.
Some Canadians do speak with very identifiable accents and inflections, but for most, it is very subtle. Others have mentioned words with an “ou”, I often hear a difference in the pronunciation of “dollar”, “been” and “again”.
In general, though, I find Canadian speech is closer to American Standard then some regional US accents.
It depends. Some Canadians have the stereotypical “aboot” pronunciation, others not so much.
Sometimes. My accent is very similar to someone from Ontario. However, I can tell when someone is from other Canadian provinces that are not geographically close to me. Not that I can pinpoint where they’re from, just that they have a Canadian accent. Certain phrases also will tip you off.
For example, Canadians will say things like “grade 8” instead of “8th grade”. I can’t think of any other phrases at the moment, but it’s the little differences (like house and about) that will tip you off because a lot of Canadians have a very neutral accent.
I can usually spot a Canadian through word choices and accents, especially if I can see some of their writing because they tend to spell a few words differently than Americans.
It can be very subtle though, so I’ve been wrong before. Sometimes it takes me days or weeks to spot it, and sometimes I mistake a Minnesotan for a Canadian.
Most accent and linguistic experts do think that many Canadians have an accent feature than they have in common with each other that doesn’t exist in most American dialects. It’s called “Canadian Raising” and Americans often parody it by saying that Canadians pronounce “out and about” as “oot and aboot”, although it’s nowhere near that strong for most Canadians.
I’m not American but I’m going to say yes. I can often spot a Canadian accent.
Disregarding Quebec where they speak French, there are a lot of strong regional accents. For example, a lot broad Newfoundland accents are much closer to Irish than it is to American. [Here is an example](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZGb4IV2Lm4k).
For General Canadian and General American, it’s nearly identical and you have to listen to individual words and phrases.
For example,
The word “Process” in US is like “Praw-sess” whereas in Canada, it’s “Proe-sess”.
Praw rhymes with Raw and Saw. Proe rhymes with Toe and Joe.
Same with words like Project and Progress.
“Sorry”. For USA, it’s “Sah + ree”. For Canada, it’s “Soh + ree”.
“Schedule”. For USA is “Ske-djool” with a distinct K sound. For Canada, it’s “Sheh-djool”
Famously, the word “About” is pronounced halfway between “a boat” and “aboot”, which is something Americans will commonly tease Canadians with.
There’s other things. What we call a “parking garage” is often called a “Parkade” in Canada. A winter hat/beanie is called a “tuque” in Canada. You get the idea.
[Here is a short JJ McCullough video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YTGeIq4pSI) about Canadian accents. He’s a fantastic culture commentator that will answer your question better than most Redditors can.
I’ve ALWAYS been asked in the US where I’m from due to how I speak, but usually they think I’m just from another state.
Most Canadians speak pretty similar to how midwesterners and westerners speak, we just tend to raise different vowels at different times.
For example “pro-gress” vs “praw-gress”. Very few Americans pronounce it like the former, almost all Canadians do.
The general Canadian accent is very similar but not identical to a general American accent. The two biggest tells are how they say sorry and how they pronounce -ou- sounds like house and about – when Canadians say it those words sound like hoase and aboat.
Also Canadian place-names are sometimes pronounced differently. Montreal is more like Muntreal, Toronto is Tronno, stuff like that.
Absolutely. As soon as you say pro-ject instead of prah-ject, and bean instead of been
There are a handful of words that give it away, for example, the first syllable of “pro-cess” rhymes with “row” in most Canadian accents but “raw” in most Amerocan accents.
Only when they say a couple words.
Sorry, for example, is a dead giveaway – we pronounce it kind of like SAW-REE, whereas in Canada it’s more like SEW-REE.
I have family in Canada so I can tell by the way they pronounce certain words or by word choice… but a lot of the times no. Their accents are about the same as ours and when I’m in Vancouver or Toronto nobody as ever been able to tell I’m from California unless I use certain words that make it obvious. Ex: colored pencils, Bloody Mary, etc.
Also, Canada has a variety of accents just like the US so nobody really questions different accents. I have a small handful of party friends here in California that I found out much later we’re Canadian and I didn’t notice until they pronounced Saskatchewan correctly.
Yes. My wife is canadian, so I’m very familiar with it. The accent comes out in the “o” sounds
Not usually. I can’t tell north midwestern US from middle of Canada, and I can’t tell eastern Canada from north eastern US.
But I can tell the midwesterners from the northeasterners, both sides of the border.
Yes, often. I grew up and still live in metro Detroit, within 20 miles of the Canadian border. One of my friends grew up in Windsor, Ontario. He’s lived in the US for a couple of decades, and I can still hear the Canadian accent.
One of the ways I notice is the way they pronounce “process”
When I meet someone from Canada, something seems off. I usually assume they’re either home-schooled or Canadian.
One of the student-athletes that I cover is from British Columbia.
Aside from small things like certain words, you’d never really be able to tell she’s Canadian.
Yes. Words like “sorry” and “process”, the letter “z” and certain vocabulary, “washroom” vs “bathroom” and some other small differences make it pretty easy to tell. Some Canadians have accents that are very similar to midwesterners but I can usually tell tell the difference in other small ways. Certain city accents, like the Toronto accent, are also very distinct and Newfoundland accents sound almost Irish.
Also, just a note, but we don’t call ourselves “US Americans” that’s a German thing.
Depends on the Canadian, but for Anglo Canadians yeah, you can often tell. Certain words like “sorry” and “about” are frequent dead giveaways. They tend to sound a little bit like people from the American Midwest, which makes sense given the geographical proximity.
For Francophone Canadians (usually Québécois) then the accent is a lot more noticeable, usually.
Most of the time, yes. It’s usually when they say “about”, “sorry”, or “process” that gives them away.