Can Americans spot a Canadian from their accent?
In Britain it's often commented that northern states American and Canadian accents are indistinguishable, can Americans spot the Canadian and vice versa.
In Britain it's often commented that northern states American and Canadian accents are indistinguishable, can Americans spot the Canadian and vice versa.
ScubaSt3ve
Favorite Answer
I'm from Sweden, live in Los Angeles and my girlfriend lives in Canada so I go there very often. Even for me it's very obvious, a Canadian need only speek a few words to give themselves away. They often make fun of Canadian accents in American tv shows/films - so yes, I think for anyone who has spent any length of time in America a Canadian accent is very easily detected.
The Royal Surge
Well, most Americans cannot, because quite honestly, most Americans know absolutely NOTHING about Canada. They wouldn't be able to tell you the tell you the capital of Canada or anything about Canada.
The accents are similar enough, it's just the "O" vowel sound that CAnadians make that is different. They obviously use different wordings ands stuff, but the O sound is the biggest difference.
If an American is familiar with the O sound that Canadians make, then yes you can tell a Canadian accent. I have cousins from Canada, so I recognize the Canadian accent, mainly because the way they pronounce the O sound.
They make the O sound like an "eau" sound, instead of saying "ou" the way most Americans would say it.
~JennyBunny~
Yeah, just listen for the "eh?"
Seriously though, I sometimes have problems distinguishing a Canadian accent when I hear one; especially the Toronto accent. I am from the Mid-west USA so that might be why. Canada is right above us. I can, however, always tell a Canadian by the way they say "sorry". Americans say "sahr-ree" while Canadians say "sohr-ree".
EDIT:
I forgot to mention Canadians pronounced their pure o's (as in "oh") a lot more open than Americans. OOOOpen.
annely
It depends. Some Canadian and American accents are so similar that it's hard to tell them apart unless you hear certain words that seem oddly pronounced to me. Where I live, some people also have incredibly neutral accents that seem to fit in perfectly in both the US and Canada. I think the most revealing feature of a Canadian's speech is probably the "...eh?" at the end of the sentence.
Randy P
It's just a few telltale words, like "about" or "sorry". Mostly the accents are indistinguishable.
Canadians do something with "about" that sounds almost Scottish to me. And Canadian "sorry" is often with a long "oh" instead of closer to "ah" the way most Americans say it.