Pot lights vs. can lights

Smokes and sounds are typical American usage.

"Ticks the boxes." Not my favorite.

2 piece or 3 piece washroom! I can't take it when David says that.

I was watching the east coast version that you are referring to and was surprised to hear the stars refer to the "Foyer" but pronounced with the "r" at the end. Foy-er. But here in Canada, I've never heard anyone call it that. It's always pronounced "foy-yeh".
I was actually wondering if they changed it for their obviously larger US viewership. How is it pronounced in the US? "Foy-er" I think?

Here's a pronouncing dictionary for foyer. I mostly pronounce the "r" at the end. Canada is probably more influenced by the French pronunciation.

"Pot light" is an odd one - it makes me think of grow lights for marijuana. En suite I sometimes say myself - maybe I've been watching too much Canadian TV. The bathroom thing is a different situation. When I was in design school in Texas, I was taught that a room with a toilet and a sink is called a "half bath". Add a shower, and it is a three-quarter bath, or add a tub, and it is a full bath, whether it has a shower or not. No one ever counted fittings in a bathroom, but David counts double sinks as two pieces when he does his count. In San Francisco, I lived in flats that had water closets, which were very handy, and I liked that they were not part of the bathrooms.

I had forgotten about pot lights, and that to me is definitely Canadian.

A walkout here in Canada is a term that means having a way to access outside from the basement level of a home.

As for him counting the pieces in the bathrooms, that's how they are listed in our real estate listings.

I've heard walk out being used in the u.s.a. meaning direct access with no steps....

Chesterfield instead of sofa, I think that might be due to the canadian association with the british, my aunt used to call it a davenport, don't think you hear that anymore.

I just spent an hour reading about canadianisms but could not find any related to design in particular

the adding of the s or plural could be canadian but I can't figure out why. In french Quebec, it's the opposite, keeping the s silent, because that's how it's pronounced in french, as in " 2 pommes" 2 apples, we say deux pom, not deux pomz...

as for pot lights, I've heard the term can lights and also high hats, which could be that the uninstalled recessed light could look like a pot, or a can, or a top hat,

canadianisms can be very regional, same as in the u.s.a. having variances state by state....

I'm Canadian so it all sounds right to me, I love hearing about our dialect differences though!! Some wild how many differences remain eh?

- East coaster

In the US, we certainly say, this house has a walk-out basement. But no one would point to the door and say, here's your walk out. Where's the drive out?

I like it when Hilary's PROH-jects fall behind SHED-jule.

A couple of Canucks living hereabouts ...... LOL!

Foy-A: That's how we pronounce FOy-er ....

Yes -- potlights .....spots in a pot .....

Yes -- Open Concept ....

Yes -- Curtains ... not drapes

Yes -- eavesthroughs (those half-pipes around the roof of your house to carry away the rainwater) NOT gutters!!!!

Storytime:

When we first moved down here from Vancouver -- we visited Home Depot (Home Depo - soft e sound) and asked to see the new eavesthrough -- BUT the sales person looked at us VERY strangely: "What y'all talkin' about?"

"The things that go around your house to catch rain -- what do you call them?" says DH ....

"Those are GUTTERS" came the reply ....

"No -- gutters are the drain in the street .... you would never see someone lying "face down in the gutter" that is ON top of your house!!!"

The salesman looked at him and said: "Y'all haven't see our storms yet!!!" :)

And By-the-by -- we do say "project" in a funny way AND "out-and-aboot" too ....

Hey -- We're Canucks, OKay, eh????

Rads and radiators with a short "a" so that it rhymes with "bad."

I've never heard that here in the States. Not the shortening of the word, nor the use of the short "a." Always the full word with the long "a" sound to rhyme with "made."

Another Canadian here. Interesting comments. I also have to watch how I phrase things on this forum so I am understood. I also wonder if I should change my spelling at times (e.g. I write colour on this forum as it is the Canadian spelling, but know that color is how it is spelled in the US)

I did not know the word ensuite was not used in the USA. I also did not know that pot lights were not a common term.

I agree walk-out on the main floor can mean an exit that does not require any steps down. We live in an area with many slopes, so it is not uncommon to have 3 or more steps down from a back door. A door with zero steps on main level could be a big bonus if you have mobility issues.

One thing I was very puzzled by was the following comments from the original post. I have never heard any of these. Perhaps those guests on the show are from another part of Canada (maybe easterners) as here in southern Ontario they sound off to me (especially the last one) and the singular version would be what I hear said in my part of Ontario Canada.

"I don't like the sounds of that."
"I like the floors in this bathroom," (a room with only one floor).
"This house is in move-in conditions."

Carol

A lot of these terms are used in the Queen's English as well. I used to watch a lot of British design, DIY and real estate programs while in Europe.

I think "en suite" is a very useful term. You can have an attached bath -- "en suite" -- for a bedroom that is not the master.

In the Mid-Atlantic region, I always heard "walkout basement" referred to as any basement with egress to the outside whether with steps or not.

I think en suite began as a pretentious way of saying attached bath. People do love to sound conversant with foreign terms, don't they?!

I also think we always said holy smokes, too. Funny that I am not sure. I am trying to hear my dad saying it! :)

I also enjoy the regional variety in the English language. Lots of fun.

The sentences referred to by the OP must by eastern based - in the west we do not talk like that.

We tends to put the plurals onto her out East.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Sun, Nov 30, 14 at 15:46

I've been trying to figure out for a long time what a "walk out' was. I thought it might be what we in the west call a daylight basement, where the basement is built into a hill, so the house is 2 story in the back and one story in the front?

Yes olychick, our cottage is built on a hill, I call the basement a walk out.

Would not use walk out to refer simply to a door to the outside.

I'm not familiar with the plural examples provides either, I'm in Central Canada. Perhaps they are specific to this individual?

Yes, like the picture I attached above. It doesn't matter the number of storeys in the house. Our house is a two story walk out, so in the front you see two levels, in the back three.

David uses the term 'walk-out' to refer to a door leading to a balcony on the second floor, which has nothing to do with the basement. I can see how it would be useful in a description of a basement, which might normally not have direct access to outdoors. I've only been in one house that had a basement - they are extremely rare any place I have lived, although they would be useful in tornado country.

Chesterfield is a term I've heard used for a sofa, but where I work, we manufacture only sofas, sectionals, chaises, and settees. It would be a sacrilege to call one of our sofas a couch (not considered high end), but I have heard that term used on HGTV. For me, a couch would have to be a 'fainting couch'. My parents in Texas would call it a divan, and theirs had

, made in San Antonio. I've heard sofas called Davenports, but I think that is a name similar to Formica or Lucite in place of plastic laminate and acrylic. At work I am constantly having to change 'Lucite' to 'acrylic' because we are not using the Lucite brand.

Carol, I am sure that there are regional differences within Canada as there are in the U.S., and I was trying to sift out what was Canadian from what was East Coast vs West Coast. I agree with you that the guests on the show may not speak like others in Toronto, especially they guy who said 'move-in conditions'! He was not a native Canadian, and English may have been his second language, although he did not have a foreign accent.

BTW, I have a special interest in languages and majored in German and English for my first degree (before I became a designer). I have also studied Italian, Spanish, French, and Russian. My mother and grandmother were both English teachers although my grandmother's first language was German. She taught English in college, however.

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: Steer's head sofas

Here's a pretty exhaustive list of Canadianisms--a few are even design-related.

Here is a link that might be useful: Canadianisms

I'm 4th generation Bay Area, but my dad used to call the couch a chesterfield. We never said sofa.

I prefer to say foy-ay.

Interesting list Marcolo.

I used the term "down tools" at a recent neighbourhood heritage committee meeting. "I think we should just down tools entirely for the moment." An American born neighbour had no idea what I was talking about.

It originally comes from union/labour actions and essentially means a strike I believe. I (and presumably others from my neck of the woods) use it to mean stopping work or effort on something.

I laughed when I read Lars' phrases out loud because I, too, pluralize the endings of those phrases, except I say "move in condition". I've not studied linguistics and I always wondered why my Toronto accent sounded closer to a Californian from Orange County rather than an upstate New Yorker, but I guess my use of plurals are a give away. It's fun to learn of those differences, thanks for posting:)

"Bachelor" for a studio apartment and "robertson" screwdriver are other Canadian terms. Like Linelle, I say "foy-ay" and my parents used the term chesterfield but I call it a sofa.

cheers,
Mira

This maybe a good place to ask this question. I am American, live and work in the states. My job is advertising for Canadian newspapers. I place a lot of real estate ads and there is something I still don't understand. What does 3 1/2, 4 1/2 refer to? I've googled this etc. but it still doesn't make sense to me. Those terms are very popular in Montreal and not so much in Saskatchewan. If your apartment is a 1 1/2 was does that mean? No one ever says it is a 3 or 4.

Hope this makes sense and if any Canadians can explain it I would appreciate it.

Number of bathrooms, maybe? We call a room with a sink and a toilet a half bath.

Growing up, our summerhouse was on a lake outside a small French town in Ontario. Our other home was northeast of Detroit. As a result, a chesterfield (sofa), thongs or zorries (beach sandals), pablum (baby food), eavestroughs, flats (cases of soda), and many more Canadian expressions are very familiar to me, and ones we also used (except chesterfield).
One, though, that I'd never heard of until about ten years ago was an "en suite". In all my years in Canada I'd never heard that one.
The one thing that I still get kidded about routinely by my friends out here, as well as my DH, is my use of "pop" instead of "soft drink" or "soda". I still remember the first time a Florida friend of mine offered me a soda and then handed me a "pop"! Growing up, a soda was always pop with ice cream in it (LOL).
Lynn

Bathrooms are either full or half bath (if no tub). Most houses have a powder room, that would be considered a half bath.

Otherwise could it be levels I wonder?

In Montreal apartments are advertised with number of rooms and a bathroom as the 1/2.
1.5 studio
2.5 studio wi separate kitchen (or bedroom but they usually try to call those ones 3.5)
3.5 - one bedroom, one living, one kitchen and a bath
4.5 - two bedroom
5.5 - three bedroom BUT beware the "double bedroom" - some landlords will advertise a long room with a cased opening in the middle as a double bedroom thus converting a real 4.5 to a 5 5. The trickery is that the interior room in a railroad apartment doesn't have a window.

A typical 6.5 tends to have an interior dining room instead of a fourth bedroom but some are true 4 bedroom apartments.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 20:27

Wow learned something new today robotropolis!

Montreal is its own world when it comes to rentals. "National" moving day (in the nation of Quebec) is Canada day...and the "national" holiday is St. Jean Baptiste on June 24. Canada day is not much celebrated there. I guess Quebec is our Texas.

I moved there not too long after the referendum in the 90s...fun times! I miss it for sure.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 21:04

Our department frequently says that all of Montreal is in its own little world, LOL! : )

Our department frequently says that all of Montreal is in its own little world, LOL! : )

Landlords get verrrry creative with finding little nooks in apartments that could possibly be added to the room count. Here's a 7.5 with two bedrooms. Maybe they're counting the balconies and the parking spot!

Here is a link that might be useful: 7.5 bloomfield

I didn't think that I overused plurals, but I will admit to liking the floors in a room, LOL.

I will say from marcolo's list I am definitely a Canadian.

Carrie (from Alberta)

I'm a former US east coaster living in western Canada, and my husband is a contractor. There are definite differences in language and pronunciation between the US and Canada but also between eastern and western Canada.

I've never heard the following said:
"I don't like the sounds of that."
"I like the floors in this bathroom,"
"This house is in move-in conditions."

"Holy smokes" I remember well from living in the US, esp from TV and the movies.

A Robertson screw/screwdriver isn't a Canadian term, but a particular screw and screwdriver with a square socket drive -- vs. the slot or Phillips drive -- invented by a Canadian (Mr. Robertson) and very popular in Canada. My husband prefers them, and they're wonderful if you happen to be working with only one hand.

The biggest thing I had to wrap my head around were eavestroughs (what a mouthful) vs. gutters, and I learned to tell people I went to university instead of college. I'm still waging a battle, mostly with my mother in law, against "housecoat", "serviette", "pencil crayons".

robotropolis, What if the apartment has 2 baths or 1 1/2 baths? I shared your explanation with my team at work. Some understood, others were still confused. One asked about additional baths.

The extra bathroom is completely ignored in the numbering scheme and only mentioned in the text of the ad. I believe apartments with two bathrooms are rare due to the average age of housing stock (very old). I've never been in one.

For example:

Here is a link that might be useful: 5 1/2, 2 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms

En suite bothers me because it does not name the item that could be found en suite. I would love to have a mini fridge en suite. Is it that embarrassing to say the bathroom is in en suite? Or to say the master bedroom has an en suite bathroom?

A few years back I became determined to find someone with a Newfie accent. Sorry if that is not what you call it up there, it is the only term I know.What made me curious was a few Canadians who were all in agreement that it is hard for other Canadians to understand a Newfie.
I eventually found (on youtube) a man who was a Newfie and I was disappointed.
His accent was interesting but I could understand it.

edited to add that this was they guy I found and I only understood what he said when he spoke slowly

Here is a link that might be useful: newfie accent

This post was edited by emmarene on Wed, Dec 3, 14 at 23:18

Newfoundlander coping with Montreal traffic (extremely salty language)
It's shockin'

Older Newfoundlanders(but they're speaking to strangers so they're making themselves understood). You can really hear the Irish here.

Cape Breton accent Scots and Irish influence here.

Classic Cape Breton accents (also salty) The bootlegger in this call sounds just like my mainlander granddad...can't say he was a bootlegger but he certainly patronized a few in his day.

Nova Scotia kitchen party! There's a weird crossover of French (Acadian) culture and bluegrass up in Nova Scotia. Cheticamp is an Acadian community.

Ooooolllld school kitchen party in Newfoundland.

Fiddle music in Mabou (pronounced MAHH-boo) Cape Breton. Our former Premier of Nova Scotia on the fiddle.

Compare to Flatfoot dancing in Appalachia. Economically I can't say we're far off from Appalachia to be honest, heck even the Appalachian mountain range runs up here (although it's just mostly hills by the time it gets up here)

I'd never heard the accent you linked above. I think it might be called a Bayman or Bay accent.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Thu, Dec 4, 14 at 10:54

In 1955, we moved from Long Beach to Fremont; then two years later back to Long Beach; then a year and a half later back to Fremont.

Zoris and go-aheads were terms we had to learn when we moved; I know there was a third term in California for the rubber sandals, but I'm not sure now what it was (perhaps thongs).

In any case, even if we'd used thongs years earlier in California, it was one of the mysterious terms we encountered when we moved to Connecticut in 1965 (like gross and other words I no longer recall.

I always assumed zori was a Japanese word, and after all these years, the Internet says I was right about that.

Growing up, a soda was always pop with ice cream in it (LOL).

In my childhood, sodas were something on the menu that we never ordered and thus never understood. We did drink root beer with ice cream, but that was always a root beer float.

When I went to college, my friends had discussions about regional words and pronunciations (how many different vowels in Mary, merry, and marry?). We also debated the general terms for carbonated beverages. I ended up adopting soda to refer to fizzy drinks, much to the bemusement of my parents and brother -- and later my co-workers in the Chicago area.