Canadian English

Canadian English is the type of English that is used by Canadians. It is like American English in terms of vocabulary, but its grammar is like that of British English.

Canadian English
Region	Canada
Native speakers	19.4 million in Canada (2011 census) about 15 million, c. 7 million of which with French as the L1
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Ingvaeonic Anglo–Frisian English North American English Canadian English
Writing system	Latin (English alphabet) Unified English Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
IETF	en-CA

Canadian English is generally taught in schools using British ways of spelling, such as colour, flavour, and so on. However, the word themselves are usually American, in part because Canadians watch a lot of American TV shows and listen to a lot of American pop music. Rarely, the British form of words may be replaced with American forms, such as plow, program, and so on.

The main exception to this rule is terms related to cars and the auto industry. Because Canada's auto industry has always been dominated by American firms, Canadians use American words and spelling for such terms. Canadians and Americans spell the outer rubber portion of a wheel as tire instead of tyre, put gasoline or gas in their vehicles instead of petrol, store items in the trunk instead of the boot, and may drive a truck instead of a lorry.

Canadian English is different from other forms of English in its spoken form also. The dialects vary from sounding overtly English to an indistinguishable form very similar to those spoken in the northern states.

Related pages

• Language
• Dialect
• Canadian French