Is Canadian English more British or American?

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scubabob

British influenced with a small bit of American (mostly slang) thrown into the mix. Our pronunciation of most words (not all), echo that of British origin. An excellent example being the last letter of the alphabet. We say Zed, just as the Brits do, not Zee as Americans. On the flip side, a word like "schedule" is pronounced here, similarly to the American SKEDUAL and not the British SHEDUAL. If you were to download the language package for the internet browser Fire Fox, you'll find that the Canadian version more closely resembles British english and spelling, than American.

Left Coast Liberal

It certainly is NOT more American in terms of spelling. For example, we in the commonwealth use the suffixs -re instead of -er and -our instead of just -or.

Example:
Center- US english
Centre- Commonwealth english

HO HO HO HIC

none of the above its CANADAIN

Fred C

We use words like favour, flavour, and colour, instead of favor, flavor, and color. The last letter of our alphabet is z (zed), not z (zee). We have the rank of lieutenant (leftenant) in the military, not lieutenant (loutenant). We also have doughnuts, not donuts. Yes, our language is closer to British, our accent isn't.

Dangermanmi6

As one poster put it, it is both. Canada uses a lot of the British spellings but that is changing with the use of spell checkers that only use the American spellings by default. Due to the HUGE influence of of American media in Canada some of the American expressions cross the boarder and seem out of place but we do use them here. One of the odder things is that there is a diference in pronounciation of some words such as out and about. The border seems to stop the American "aw" vowel shift in the letter O for some odd reason.

PAWS

It is DEFINITELY more Americanized. My mother is British and I can tell you that probably 99% of Canadians would not understand her is she actually spoke in true British dialect.

Since when do you hear Canadians saying: bonnet & boot (references to cars), bobbies (police), **** (worse than saying ***), belt up (shut up), barmaid (female bartender), bonce (your head), flat (apartment), frock (dress), nappy (diaper) and millions others.

I'm sorry but I live in Canada, speak fluent canadian and have a British family and many American friends. We defintely sound more American than British.

I acknowledge that we do retain main British characteristics, like our spelling and pronunciation of certain words, but I just cannot see how anyone could think we speak more like the British...my family would probably be insulted!

tbird

I'm really hoping it's more British.....I don't have a very high regard for the American standard of english

Nat T

The spelling is like British English but it does not sound like British English.
It sounds more like American English (maybe not Texan or New Jersey accent).

Tyler

the spelling is more english, but the words are more american. like words like vacuum, trunk, highway, hood are american but we spell words with an extra U like the english like colour, favourite etc

miu

american.

sabrewilde666

I believe it is more American. My boyfriend lives in Toronto. His version of English and my version collides most of the time. I am from singapore, which was colonised by the British. We have adopted the British Law, British Education system and the likes. I believe Canada leans more towards the American way of English.

Liz

American.

nbr660

American

T.O.

The last time I was in Toronto, I thought their accent sounded a bit in between american and british accents. I have a totally british background, but i have lived in america for many years, so yes, it's a bit of both.

[{hc}]

i hope your joking thats almost like asking well is the states english more american or european

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