how come there's no Canada on this map, eh?

Always was and always will be "soda" since I grew up in PA, so that's consistent with the map and my experience.

My cousins in Toronto always call it "pop" and they're wrong about other things, too, so this caused a schism in our family. They distort pronunciations of words like house, mouse, water...weird Canucks.

its gives me the shits that people bring out sparkling when i order water. i make them take it back and give me water usually.

Always been Pop to me.

Watch your step there or the Canucks of TFP will have to take you oat and re-insert "u"s into all those words you stole them from...

Because Canada is unimportant.

And, if someone asks you if you want a coke, you say yes and then tell them what kind.

Soda. Always and forever.

Pop. Soda sounds just too wrong. If I use it, it tends to be joined with pop as in Soda Pop.

Soda to me is just the soda water. If I ask for just soda, people usually ask me what part of the States I am from.

Anybody remember the Pop Shop?

I always specify exactly what I want, when asking for a soft drink, e.g. Diet Coke (which is pretty much the only soft drink I consume, though I do drink other canned beverages, such as tea and lemonade).

However, in our household, we've gotten into the habit of referring to soft drinks as our daughter has been referring to them, ever since she was a toddler: purple juice (for grape soda pop), black juice (for Coke), and clear juice (for Sprite). But it's time for us to bring an end to that practice, because it's not as cute any more. (But, oh! It's bittersweet how quickly our beloved daughter is growing up.)

I grew up in the south (though nowadays I live in the midwest), and as a kid, I often heard soft drinks referred to as "soda wata", i.e. soda water. What was even more grating to my ears, even as a kid, was when someone referred to an orange-flavored soft drink as "ernj soda wata".

Good answer...

Just keep drinking your Orange Crush Coke.

I do. Fond memories there. But it was "The Pop Shoppe." I still see remnants of it around. Apparently some guy stared it up again based out of Burlington.

I lovingly remember the Pop Shoppe. With the return of empties, new pops were like, 5 cents.

right you are! "Shoppe"

The Pop Shoppe Canada's Original Est. 1969

The history tab on their site states that the Pop Shoppe started up again in 2002.

So to you, and to other people advocating specificity, I pose this: You are at a picnic. There are three coolers: One with bottles of water, one with a couple types of beer, and one with 12 cans each of Coke, Sprite, Diet Coke, Fanta, 7Up and Root Beer. You see someone who looks hot and sweaty. How would you complete the following sentence?

"If you're thirsty, that cooler is full of water, that one has beer, and that one has _____________"

"If you're thirsty, that cooler is full of water, that one has beer, and that one has 12 cans each of Coke, Sprite, Diet Coke, Fanta, 7Up and Root Beer".

pop always makes me giggle lol

Im a "coke" girl

Drink. "Hey do you want a drink?" "Will you buy me a drink?" "I'm thirsty, let me go get a drink."

I used to say pop until I got 9ish.

This is the only one that matters. I wish we had real Fanta here, instead of the awful orange soda crap they try to pass off as Fanta.

Gah I am in a Blue state and I don't believe it. I never hear it. "Pop" is a sound. Soda is a drink.

In the contexts you just mentioned, for me and everyone I speak with, drink = alcoholic beverage.

While, "Do you want something to drink?" is generic (with slight alcoholic implications) "Do you want a drink?" could be responded to with "No thanks, I'm driving, just grab me a soda"

Well, I like the use of drink. it is generic enough and I have used it to refer to anything liquid from coffee, through pop to booze. Nice. I just may adopt that going forward. Let the person I am offering resolve the selection.

I also dislike the superior tone of those who think that pop is a childish term simply because it is onamatapeic.

There's nothing you can say to convince me that saying "pop" is any more sophisticated than calling milk "moo juice" :thumbsup:

The graph says Coke is 50-80% but the only person I know that says Coke is my grandpa and only because he worked for them and when he says, "You want a coke?" or "Get me a Coke." He's actually talking specifically about Coke. Everyone else I know says Pop, and a few say soda..

It's Pop for me but more often then not I ask for a coke:)

"Pop" for me, and mostly what I hear around here.

I used to work for CocaCola as a vending machine repair/fountain machine repair and installer. So I have authority - lol.

A "coke" is a coca-cola here, a "cola" is a cola of any brand name, a "pop" is any carbonated flavoured drink, and each specific flavour is known by it's name.
Except of course carbonated non flavoured water, which is called "soda-water".

Soda...



But I don't drink that shit anymore.

Soda, but to be honest nearly everyone else I know calls it pop. The word always grated on me. Either way, I rarely ever would drink the stuff.

Yes sir it is.

Soda. If the map/chart is accurate, I'm in the minority for my area of Texas.

I said "pop" like most Utahns until I moved to North Carolina. The first time I said that, I got a quizzical look. Most everyone there said "soda" or "drink". I started saying soda and still use soda, even though we moved back to Utah.

I say soda.

People not from the South don't understand "Coke". Everything counts under the "Coke" statement. I often explain it to others like Q-Tips. You ask for a Q-Tip you don't always want the name brand, or Cleenex you don't care if it's a Generic brand.

This is how it goes down in real life:

Hey yall want something to drink?

Sure, got any cokes?

Yeah, we got Sprite, Root Beer, and Coke

I'll take a Root Beer, thanks.

Just because you ask for / offer a Coke doesn't mean that's all that's available.

well... go figure eh?

NY - we call it soda.

In the UK, most people seem to call them "Fizzy Drinks".

If someone asked what kind of Coke I wanted, I'd assume I had a choice of Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Cherry Coke, Caffeine Free Coke, etc.

Ever since I visited Canada a few years ago I sometimes say "pop" but only in an ironic way.

I say pop. My dad used to call it sody pop. I can't say soda. It sounds so... fifties.

I call it whatever will get me another one...

you must call it Skogga then huh?

hahahah..she hates carbonated anything... won't even open it.

Had a friend come to NZ from Canada. She said pop, which confused the shit out of us.
"Anyone want me to get some pop while im out..."
Er... what? blank look.

Generally we state it by its branding, "I'll have a coke" "Ill have some 7up"
_No one_ calls it pop, and _no one_ calls it soda.
To the guy who asked what would you call the chilly bin of assorted soft drinks it would be, "ones filled with fizzy drinks", which would generally be followed by the question, what type of fizzy drinks, then answered coke, 7up, fanta etc etc.

Where I grew up in Kansas, the generic was always pop, for any kind of flavored carbonated drink. Soda was unflavored and unsweetened, like "club soda" which is just fizzy carbonated water. Think "Scotch and soda." Or, an "ice cream soda" which is ice cream, soda water, and (usually) some flavoring such as chocolate, butterscotch or strawberry.

Here in Massachusetts it's soda.
But also here in New England they serve frappes, which are called a milkshake, shake, or malt anywhere else in the country.

Another Southernism, like coke instead of pop or soda, from my cousins in central Alabama, is the term "chasing cock."
In Kansas (and Massachusetts too) it would be chasing girls (or chasing pussy.) But in Alabama, boys out chasing cock :confused:is not a homosexual activity.

Lindy