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Words and phrases that baffle in Canada

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After residing in Canada for almost three years now, I feel it is a safe accusation that North Americans love acronyms and initialisms. Many Brits will be familiar with how orange juice is often squeezed down to a more palatable ‘OJ’, but I was slow to understand ‘ACL’ despite many of you being able to recognise this as an anterior cruciate ligament. ‘LMK’ was an odd one too: known to the less lazy as ‘let me know’. After a while, I did finally get used to the day-to-day abbreviations, but there are still a few phrases and words leaving me scratching my head today.

 

Two-four

This is one I encountered in my second job in Canada: doing the day-to-day work in the local pub; although it’s a term prevalent from Toronto to the Northwest Territories. When buying beer for the pub I tend for it seems I am the odd one out when it comes to requesting “a case of twenty-four bottles please”. It’s just a ‘two-four’ over here, as in “Honey, will you pick me up a two-four of Carling on your way past The Beer Store?”

And ‘two-four’ reaches beyond the doors of Ontario’s monopolised alcohol distributors: May 24th is Victoria Day, which commemorates Queen Victoria’s birthday. Canadians have their royalism rewarded with a statutory holiday on the nearest Monday, and they call it “May two-four weekend.”

 

Hacking darts

Darts are cigarettes. It does seem odd, but Brits leave Canadians even more confused when they invite somebody for a ‘fag’ as it is a purely homophobic term over here.

What I do find strange about this is the use of ‘hacking’. I’m not a smoker, but it does sound like a term thought up by a self-righteous non-smoker as it’s such an aggressive and damaging action. Hacking is done by people who murder trees or, if you are the killer in an American horror movie, to fell those participating in beauty contests.

While ‘hacking’ may refer to somebody relentlessly smoking, it is more often used in an invitation: “Wanna hack a dart?”

 

Winningest

The adjective ‘winning’ has been trampled under moose hooves and smashed by Uncle Sam’s fist to create an ugly superlative; and it is unfortunately a real word. I encountered it for the first time this week as the Toronto Raptors, a National Basketball Association franchise, completed a season in which they had won more games than in any previous year. Or, as it is reported over here, they are the winningest squad in their nineteen year history. Well done to the Raptors, but that just sounds awful.

 

“I wrote him”

I first encountered the exclusion of ‘to’ in this phrase when I moved here, and since pawing many pages of North American literature over the past three years I have found it is commonplace in the States and Canada. “I wrote him” – it sounds like an easy spelling exercise rather than the writing of a letter or email.

Turn it the other way around, and a Canadian or American newcomer to Yorkshire must be even more confused; especially when every male recipient of a letter from your friend seems to be called Tim. I wrote t’him.

 

There are others. I am heckled by my partner for using ‘dressing gown’, but to me ‘housecoat’ seems overdressed and formal – something you could genuinely don while popping out for milk and not look a slob. And when you pay for your semi-skimmed (or ’2 per cent milk’ if you’re speaking Canadian) you tend to use ‘loonies’ and ‘toonies’, or one dollar and two dollar coins to me and you.

While the occasional term does make me cringe, none of them send me out hacking. I expected the odd change in speech in Canada, like a “no kiddin’” here and an “eh?” everywhere, but to feel confused after three years over here makes my conversations still feel new.

 

Daniel Rouse moved to Toronto from Shropshire in 2011 and spends much of his time penning short stories, writing freelance articles, attending gigs, and watching the city’s disappointing sports teams. You can follow him on Twitter.


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