Americans and Candians can usually detect one another’s accent within a few sentences. It’s not as pronounced as, say, the difference between an American and British accent so it can also take a few minutes of conversational exchange before it dawns on either party. And to be fair there are many, many regional accents in the States (Southern, Texas, Boston, New York, Minnesota, Cali, etc.). That’s likely the case in Canada, too.

I live in Washington now and was born/raised in Alaska. Both share borders with Canada. A few things that trigger my Canadian accent detector:

• pronouncing “about”—Americans tend to begin it with a long A sound as in “ow, that hurts”. Abowt. Canadians tend to say it with a longer O sound as in “boat”. Aboat.
• same thing with “process”. Americans say prawcess. Candians (like the British) process emphasizing the long O.
• use of the word “eh”. Many Canadians really do sprinkle their speech with the word “eh”.
• there’s a different cadence to the speech pattern—not sure how to describe it without hearing both live

I’m told by my Canadian friends that Americans have more nasal tones to some of their vowels. And I’m sure if I asked them they’d probably associate some of the regional American accents more strongly with the States than others.

It definitely is very regional. I’m from the North, so I would say that a lot of Canadians sound similar to people from Washington, Minnesota, or North Dakota. But those states share land borders with Canada, whereas the Great Lakes states don’t, and therefore don’t sound as Canadian.

Hearing the differenc between accents is similar to hearing the difference between Southern folk from cities and Southern folk from the country, or even distinguishing some of the various British/Australian/etc. accents.

It’s easier to hear it when you’re from here. I’m not sure an outsider would notice much. Me, I can tell if someone’s from Pennsylvania versus Ohio, Michigan, or Upstate New York. Same with many of the Southern states. I think it’s something you hear more if you’re from here.

Every country will have regional differences in their speech so I would say that there is no true US or Canadian accent as noted above. Dialects and accents are affected by borders but will also cross over and blend where people work and conduct business across borders.

I had a close friend who moved to Seattle from Northern Ontario and even though she had lost much of her Canadian accent there were certain words she would slip on or had never changed.

Some non-accented ways you can tell, based on words…

“Process”:
U.S.: PRAW-cess / Canada: PRO-cess

The letter “Z”:
U.S.: ZEE / Canada: Zed

The facility to relieve oneself:
U.S: Restroom or bathroom / Canada: Washroom

Stating having been to the a school institution after high school:
U.S.: Went to college / Canada: Went to university

There are many other examples. (I have family in both the U.S. and Canada.)

Hi. I am American, but have lived in Canada now for 10 months and I will tell you the exact differences. First of all, it is true that obviously in differnet parts of the country the accents are different, for example in Nova Scotia the accent is a lot worse than in Ontario, but they are all somewhat similar. Here ate the differences.

Americans -about
Canadians- aboot

Americans- out
Canadians- oot…and this goes on and on with an OU word such as South, Mouth, etc.

Americans- 7th grade
Canadians- grade 7

Americans- “I want to get some coffee.”
Canadians- “I have to have a coffee.”

Americans- “I am going to TAKE a shower.”
Canadians- “I’m going to have a shower.”

Americans- every now and then…
Canadians- “the odd time” this is an expression I have heard that I have NEVER heard an American use, at least a midwesterner

Americans- candy bar
Canadians- chocolate bar

Americans- macaroni and cheese
Canadians- Kraft dinner (even if its not kraft, they call macaroni and cheese that)

Americans- “I’m going to call my sister.”
Canadians- “I’m going to phone my sister.”

Americans- “We got a little bit of snow.”
Candadians- “We got a fair bit of snow, eh?”

Americans- say the letter Z as Z
Canadians- say the letter Z as Zed

Americans- when we call someoness names we say it as a statement for ezmaple. “Hey, Tony, come over here.”
Canadians- they say names as questions for example, “To-ny?” There is always a pause in the word and asked as if it is a question.

Americans- when we talk we talk in statements. Every word is said as a statement unless asking a question.

Canadians- talk as if they are asking questions, their intonation goes up and down and up and down.

Americans- (unless you are from Wisconsin or Minessota), pronouce go as go.

Canadians- say “go” like, “Goe” if that makes any sence….

whoops, there are a lot of spelling errors on that, I am not an ignorant American, I just didn’t proofread this!

Sorry Americangirl6001, but those are absurd generalizations. I come from the west coast of Canada and I speak in statements. When I ask a question the intonation rises, just like any other english speaking person. I have never once uttered the word ‘aboot’ unless I am telling non-Canadians that we do not actually prounce ‘about’ that way.

There are as many different ways of speaking English in Canada as there are in the states, England, Scotland, whatever. Accent is a regional thing and are based much more on colloquialisms and slang than anything else. I have met Americans that speak with an identical accent to mine, and I have met Canadians that speak with an accent completely different to mine.

Those of you in Canada can protest all you want, but you do say “eh?” more than Americans do.

No, you guys are not Bob and Doug MacKenzie 24/7. Of course not.

But, at least on the West side, once you cross the 49th north (or land on Vancouver Island), the “eh” factor increases by 500%. I have family in lower B.C. This is not a myth.

Easy. they say Eh after nearly every sentence. i used to think it was a joke till i went there. i’ve never been to the usa so i can’t tell you anything about their accent

Well this might be an old question but as you can see, it really depends. Despite their objections, some Canadians DO have that stereotypical Canadian accent (about = aboat/aboot)... but some don’t. I’ve met those that do and those that don’t. And actually, some Americans who live in States bordering Canada can have a Northern or Canadian type accent. For example, if you watch the movie North Country they have a bit of Canadian accents despite being American (if I’m recalling correctly).

Sometimes, there really is NO difference between an American and Canadian accent but it’s very regional, just like the accents in the UK are too. Naturally, an American with a southern accent is going to sound different from any Canadian. I consider myself to have a fairly non-regional American accent and probably sound the same as a non-regional Canadian accent. I don’t know the exact regional accents in Canada but in the States, accents can vary a lot.

Sometimes even within one State, you can have slight differences. For example, my parents are from the Philadelphia region and pronounce “water” as “Wood-der” but they raised my brother and I in central PA, only a 3 hour drive away, and we pronounce it “Wah-der”. (Most Americans do tend to slur their T’s as D’s). There’s not a massive difference within one State but there is the odd thing here and there.

On top of all that, you get the whole French thing sometimes in Canada.

So it’s impossible to say “Here are the differences and they apply to every American and every Canadian”. That’s just not the case.

There isn’t one accent in Canada or the United States. There are literally dozens of regional accents within both countries.

I am a Canadian living in Montreal and I travel often to the New England states, and I can tell you, there are some subtle differences. Of course, in Canada, like the states, there are different accents. The western, central, eastern and maritimes all have slightly different pronunciations. The Newfie is something entirely on it’s own. It’s a very distinct accent that sounds almost irish.

I agree that we pronounce OU words differently, but where i’m from, at least, its not as much as “aboot” Imagine someone with a british accent saying “Aboat” and that’s what it sounds like.

The Eh thing. Canadians do say Eh, but not like we’re stereotyped to do. We dont finish every sentence with Eh.

Example of how I here Eh used:
American: It’s pretty cold out today, wouldn’t you agree?
Canadian: It’s pretty cold out today eh?

I also hear it as a casual form of ‘pardon me?’
Person: It’s cold out
Friend: Eh?
Person: I said, it’s cold out

Also, I find the older generation uses it alot more frequently than the younger. I believe this is because of satellite and cable TV picking up american stations and bringing them to Canadian homes. In my parents or grandparents time, TVs were only capable of receiving local CTV or CBC stations.