How to Speak Canadian

A little bit of proper pronunciation

How to speak like a Canadian eh?

Pronunciation and Grammar

Diphthongs
     combining two vowels to make one
   used in words with "out" (eg. aboot a-bow-t)
   used in words with "ue" (eg. Tuesday Tooz-dee)

Changing vowel location
ie. diffurnt, cumpnee

Silent vowels
dropping the vowel if it starts with a vowel (eg. mazin', maircan)

Replacing Y with two E's
ie. Mundee, Calgree

An inconstant consonant
pronouncing t as a d (eg. priddy) or as a t (eg.
boycott)
taking out consonants in some words (eg. Tronno)
but adding some consonants in others (eg. fambly)

Verb Tenses
leaving out have or has (eg. I seen that film
already)

Present Tense
adding s to the word to make it past (eg. I goes
into the hotel)

Joining prepositions with words
when using a preposition (eg. to, in, until)
combine it with the nearest word (eg. coupla,
uptilate)

EH?
   use instead of huh, ya know, etc.
   short form for what did you say, would you repeat
   that please, etc.

Whatever
use when you don't know what to say

The Words

*WORD*	*DEFINATION*	*EXAMPLE*
*acrid (a-krid)*	*Careful and precise*	*"I was acrid in making this page"*
*agger culture (a-ger* *cul-chure)*	*The art of cultivating the soil*	*"Let me see the Minister of Agger Culture*
*anglo (an-glow)*	*A non-french Canadian*	*"I am an anglo"*
*arbutus (ar-biew-tus)*	*An orangebarked semi-* *tropical tree growing on the Pacific Coast, a madrona in* *the US*	*Boy those are beautiful* *Arbutus*
*arsey em pee (R-C-M-P)*	*Royal Canadian Mounted Police, wears red uniforms and ride on horses*	*"I work in the arsey em pee"*
*bal oil (bal oyul)*	*A street in east Central Toronto*	*"I live on Bal Oil"*
*bearus (bare-us)*	*To disconcert*	*"I was bearused when my pants fell down"*
*beat out (beet oot)*	*To overcome, vanquish, clobber*	*"The Leafs beat out Detroit*
*beauty (bue-tee)*	*Statment of approval*	*"Would you like a drink chap?"* *"Beauty"*
*beaver (bee-ver)*	*sharp-tooth rodent that cuts down trees and builds dams,Canada's national symbol*	*"The Beaver is furry"*
*beaver tails (bee-ver tales)*	*Deep fried dessert pastry that looks like a beaver tail*	*"love them beaver tails"*
*beeracrat (beer-a-crat)*	*Person who puts in time to* *govern Canada*	*"Those damn beeracrats"*
*berrex (brr-ex)*	*Buildings where soldiers are lodged*	*"The soldiers are trained in the berrex"*
*bling yule (bling you-l)*	*French Canadians who can speak English*	*"He is bling yule"*
*brew (bru)*	*beer*	*"Pass a brew this way, eh?"*
*broads (bra-ds)*	*a woman*	*"Look at that broad across the* *street"*
*brutal (brew-tal)*	*savage, cruel*	*"Did you see that hit?"* *"That was brutal!!"*
*butts (bu-ts)*	*cigarettes aka-smokes*	*"Pass the butts"*
*cab net (cab net)*	*Executive commitee of members which run Canada*	*"Damn cab net members"*
*the can (dukan)*	*the bathroom or john*	*"I have to go to the can"*
*choob (choo-buh)*	TV	*"I'm watching sherriff Lobo on the choob"*
*church key (chur-ch kee)*	*bottle opener*	*"toss me the church key"*
*climb it (cli-mit)*	*Weather: Canada has three kinds wet, hot, cold*	*"Canada has such a nice climb it"*
*cottage (ca-tige)*	*a summer home*	*"I go to my cottage on weekends"*
*dogan (dog-n)*	*an Irish Catholic*	*"My aunt the dogan"*
*eeja (e-ja)*	*to bite fiercely*	*"I gave my dog an eeja because he did it to me first"*
*En you (N U)*	*A response to have a good day*	*"Have a good day" "En You"*
*ever neat (ev-err neet)*	*Expressing appreciation to something*	*"Was that Canadiens game ever neat"*
*ewes (use)*	*plural of you*	*"What would ewes like to do today"*
*ex (x)*	*a beer or a country fair held every year in Toronto*	*"Lets go to the Ex"*
*family room (fam-blee-rum)*	*room in a house where TV is kept*	*"Lets watch TV in the fambleerum"*
*flick (flik)*	*movies or to change the channel*	*"I'm going to see the new flick downtown"*
*fuzz (fu-zz)*	*police officer*	*"I got picked up by the fuzz"*
*go's (go-s)*	*used instead of says*	*"Joe goes blah blah"*
*Grey Cup (Gr-eh Cu-puh)*	*Canadian Football Trophy*	*"The Lions won the Grey Cup"*
*hoser (ho-zer)*	*an unsophisticated person*	*"Quiet yea hoser"*
*Kahuna (ka-hu-nah)*	*Something that is very large.Slang for tyee, 30 lb + Chinook Salmon*	*"Going kahuna hunting"*
*kay (k)*	*good way to start a sentence*	*"Kay, whats going on?"*
*lacrosse (la-kros)*	*Canada's national game, too detailed*	*"I play lacrosse"*
*mountie (mount-ee)*	*See Arm See*	*"see Arm See but replace Arm See with Mountie"*
*newfie (nu-fee)*	*A person from Newfoundland, the butt of many Canadian jokes*	*"I love newfies"*
*or what (oar wut)*	*Used instead of eh*	*"are you going or wha?t"*
*pogey (poe-gee)*	*Unemployement Insurance*	*"I'm on pogey"*
*pop (pop)*	*Soda*	*"Want a pop?"*
*pothole (pot-hole)*	*miniscule lakes*	*"hate the potholes"*
*quart (kwart)*	*A beer named because of the volume of the bottle*	*Me'n the lads went for a few quarts"*
*quite a ways away*	*Used when saying something is far away*	*"That is quite a ways away"*
*rad (radd)*	*a radiator*	*"I blew my rad"*
*shag (sh-ag)*	*Tufted broadloam in shades of limes or purples in vans and houses*	*"I like that shag"*
*shinny (shin-ee)*	*climbing*	*"I shinnied up that tree"*
*the show (the shh-oh)*	*movies/cinema*	*"Do you want to go to the show"*
*sook (seh-oook)*	*wimp, cry baby*	*"Ow, you poor sook"*
*submarine (sub-mareen)*	*hoagies, heros*	*"Lets go get some submarines"*
*submarine races*	*parking/smooching*	*"lets go watch the submarine races"*
*two-four (too-fore)*	*a 24 pack of beer*	*"Pick me up a 24"*
*Way to go (wai too goe)*	*Said at hockey and baseball*	*"You scored? Way to go"*
*xenophobia (zeen-o-foe-bee-a)*	*Fear and dislike of anything that is Foreign*	*"You must have xenophobia"*
*Ya goof (yah goof)*	*A moron, idiot, etc.*	*"You goof"*
*Yankee (yan-key)*	*Anyone from the States*	*"you a Yankee?"*
*Yay (yeh)*	*Words used to describe distance or size*	*"Yay big, yay wide"*
*Z (zed)*	*last letter of the alphabet*	*..X...Y...ZED.*

Some French Canadian Words

*Word*	*Definition*	*Example*
*bleuet (bleu-et)*	*Delicious Blueberry*	*"I love those bluet's"*
*char (shar)*	*car*	*"I ride in my char"*
*jouale (joo-al)*	*Quebecois slang*	*"Those Quebeckers*
*poutine (poo-tin)*	*frenchfries/cheese/gravy*	*"I had poutine for lunch"*
*tarla (tar-la)*	*dimwit*	*"You tarla"*
*teteux (teh-t-yeux)*	*Not a compliment, you say someone is t^eteux when he doesn't want to something just because*	*????*

The Ten Canadian Provinces

     Bee See (B-C)
     Albirda (Al-bir-da)
     Skatchwan (Ska-che-wan)
     Mantoba (Man-to-ba)
     Untario (Un-tar-yo)
     Kweebeck (Quee-bek)
     Nove Skoshuh (No-vuh Sko-shuh)
     Noob Runzwig (Noo Brun-swik)
     Prinz Edwhyland (Prin-s Ed-wy-lnd)
     Noophun Lund (Noo-fun-lnd)

The Territories

You Konn (U-Con)
Norouest Terrtori (Nor-wes Ter-tor-e)

Political Parties

     Lib rulls (Lib-rells)
     Nude Democrats (Newd Demo-kratz) or Endy Pee (N-D-P)
     Conserve Tuv (Con-serv tuv)
     Soak Red (soak red)
     Peek You Party (P-Q pard-e)

These are just a few of the words.
Many more words can be made
Canadian by changing the spelling
and pronunciation, i.e.,

     gradge (grr-ah-dj)
     fye err (fire)
     mewni sippul (municipal)
     pick shir (picture)
     tore shir (tore sure
     nucular (nuke-you-ler)
     fida (f-i-da)
     beinck (be-nk
     boddum (bod-dumb)

Folk Sayings

Here are a bunch of folk sayings. Most of them don't need explanations.

He's so thin he has to stand twice in the same
She was pure as snow, but she drifted
Nervous as a cat in a room of rocking chairs
Low man on a totem pole
Dirty as a duck's puddle
Thin? Seen more meat on a hockey stick
She had more chins than a chinese phonebook
Dry as a popcorn fart

Main Page ~Back to the beginning
Splitaparts ~For my philosophy on love
Friends ~Some of the great people I have met online
The Invitation ~Great words or wisdom
What I Have Learned ~Wise words from a wise friend
Strange & Unususal ~Strange news or unusal sites
Application~To live in my hometown
Links ~Some of my favourite links