Greetings from France,
Mareike

I never really learned English at school (because I took Chinese instead, but that’s another story), but I remember that the English spelling was definitely more used in Europe. American-English actually puzzled me at first!

Now, I noticed most people around me use American-spelling, hence why I use it too I guess. I would never write “amongst” because it seems that “among” is really more common here. Same for “authorize” etc.

Now, for verbs, I hate writing “learned” instead of “learnt”, but I rarely see the latest.

@Adem — I don’t know North/ South differences in the UK, although I do remember watching Trainspotting in English and going WTF. Scottish is a unique language!

@DianeCA — Really? I guess you do have some crazy weather as well… I’d be curious to know more about the language, you should write a post about it sometimes.

@aline — Oh, I know! Took me a while to get used to it as well… here another one for you: in Quebec, the “nanny” isn’t the “nounou” or “babysitter” like in France, but the “gardienne”… which is basically “warden” in France, and often associated with inmates and jail

@Guillermo — No, not really. I mean, it depends… Between Canadians who live in big cities and Northern Americans, no. But with some Canadians who live in the country, yes, because they really tend to say “eh” a lot!

And I can always tell an Argentinian in South America…

@Tulsa Gentleman — I don’t really get the “oot” thing even though I heard about it. Now, Northern Americans and Canadians tend to speak about the same to me.

@Gail at Large — I hate Timmies actually! Same as you, I only stop there if I’m driving to Montreal or Toronto, because their coffee is so sugary, it keeps me awake

@Final_Transit — Course I did, eh!

@Khengsiong — Yes, “zed” is an English thing. “Zee” is more common if you learned American English.

@Kirsten — I totally agree! Each time I’m talking with Canadians who live in the country, I definitely hear more “eh”.

@Sidney — Languages are funny!

@Shantanu — That’s funny! Indian English is quite different too. The language is very proper English, with some vocabulary Americans wouldn’t use, but with some Indian slang and expressions. I love it!

@shionge — I guess it’s like English in Hong Kong!

@Baoru — Gotta come to Canada!

@Angele — Oh yeah, flurries… same here, I only understood what it was in Canada!

@beaverboosh — Almost, eh!

@Linguist-in-Waiting — I don’t pay too much attention to pronunciation because I’m not a linguistic, but I love vocabulary differences. I heard that there were a lot of pronunciation differences though.

@Seb — Could be actually! Oh my… all these times I asked for a double-double and the guy looked at me funny…

@Beth — Merci! I wish I could apologize but I’m not sure why I would. Sorry

(thanks for the visit)

As for the snowbirds, I can guarantee you, they all come here to Phx. But right now everyone is escaping, as we are coming into the oven style weather part of the year.