Europa slaat terug
I wonder how many American kids will know the answers to these since I did not.
1. Does Canada use American or British spelling?
The answer is both.
British Spelling Preferences
-our endings: Canadians traditionally write words like colour, flavour, and neighbour (instead of the American color, flavor, and neighbor). [1]
-re endings: Words like centre, theatre, and metre follow British norms rather than the American center, theater, and meter. [1]
Double consonants: Canadian spelling often retains double consonants in derived forms, such as travelled and cancelling (compared to American traveled and canceling).
American Spelling Preferences
-ize endings: Canadians generally prefer -ize over the traditional British -ise for words like realize and organize (though both are often understood). [1]
Practical overlap: Due to close trade ties and heavy exposure to American media, everyday commercial terms like tire (instead of the British tyre) are standard in Canada. [1, 2]
General Rule
In formal writing, Canadian publishing, and government documents, British-style spellings (-our, -re) are the official standard. However, because computer spell-checkers default to US English, American spellings are widely tolerated and commonly seen in informal, everyday writing. [1, 2]
If you'd like, let me know which specific words you are unsure about, and I can tell you the preferred Canadian spelling.
2. Does Canada use the British Currency or does it use its own currency with British Monarchs printed on it?
Canada uses its own official currency called the Canadian dollar (CAD). [1]
Current Currency
Name: Canadian dollar (symbol: $, code: CAD)
Management: Issued and managed exclusively by the Bank of Canada.
Why the confusion? Canada features the reigning British monarch (King Charles III) on its coins and the $20 bill because Canada is a constitutional monarchy, but he appears as Canada's own head of state, not as a foreign ruler. [1, 2, 3]
Historical Context
Colonial era: Before 1858, parts of Canada used a colonial Canadian pound that followed the British system.
The switch to dollars: Canada stopped using the pound and adopted the Canadian dollar in 1858 to move to a simpler decimal system and improve trade with the United States. Most users on Redditagree that countries like Canada shifted from the old penny-shilling-pound setup to decimal dollars for easier daily math and commerce. [1, 2, 3]
If you'd like, I can share information on:
Current exchange rates between the British pound and the Canadian dollar
Which historical figures or designs appear on Canadian banknotes today
Now I know more about Canada than I know about my own neighbors in my apartment building. There is a strange sort of fate that traps a man age 55 asked to live in a building full of college age kids who is also blind and deaf in the ways of the Matrix. To be fair though, in my prior residences where I lived amongst adults I didn’t know their spelling or currency either. Solitary by experiences, solitary by nature I don’t actually mind.
I am told most Americans do know their neighborhood and people do hang out with their neighbors and relax over a barbecue that lasts as long as a typical dinner in Italy from 7 to 11. And if you wonder like I do, why Italians don’t gain weight, I don’t know the answer to that. Maybe it’s their metabolism, the after dinner party or something else. My dinner usually consists of some type of protein and lasts for about as long as it takes a dog to empty their bowl.
Humans should live like the Americans do, without financial stress, without worrying about going to work or checking their phones or responding to group chats and without the need to constantly bicker online or get their online smack for dopamine.
Anyway, the Europeans decided to offer an associate membership to Canada. That’s the second hit to Great Britain in as many days. The first was Trump suggesting Irish reunification, where one party uses the Euro, the other uses the British Pound. This betrayal from close allies must not have been easy to digest.
