A spelling quiz using the Canadian Oxford Dictionary reveals how Canada spells everyday words like toque, travelling, and grey. The host jokes about citizenship tests and pronunciation traps like leftenant, showing where Canadian spelling splits the difference between American and British.
Oh, you think you know how to spell Canadian? You put in the U in neighbour and everything. But we are gonna have a spelling test, you and I. So get out a piece of paper, and the judge is going to be the 2nd edition Canadian Oxford Dictionary, the most recent one. Pause the video until you have a piece of paper. All right, let's go. I'm gonna give you an easy one first of all. Check. Check. Next word is toque. The mayor wore a toque to the wedding. Next word is practice. Hockey practice started again. Practice. Travelling. We were travelling through Sudbury looking for butter tarts. Travelling. Realize. I realize I left the bags of milk outside in the snow. Counsellor. Mental health counsellor. You know, camp counsellor. Cancelled. The bonspiel was cancelled because of fog. Grey. The color grey. The sky turned grey at breakfast. Pajamas. Program. Donut. I ate a donut. And finally, yogurt. Here are the answers. You're gonna get mad at some of these. Don't me, bro. I'm just saying what the dictionary says. So first of all, check. Like, honestly, if you got that one wrong, just like, like, cancel your citizenship. Duke, T-O-Q-U-E. Apparently you can also spell it T-U-Q-U-E, which I don't think any of us do. Practice, the official Canadian way is practice with a C, although the dictionary does say that you can also use it with an S if you want, but it puts the primary form first. So the official ruling here is with a C. Travelling is two L's in Canada. You can see the dictionary makes a note of saying that the US form is one L. "Realize" is with a Z. If you're doing it with an S, that is the British version of doing it, not the Canadian version. "Counselor"— "counsellor" is two L's. It does say you can also do it with one L if you choose to, but two L's is the primary Canadian. "Cancelled"— same thing, although it does say that you— it does not say that you can also do it with one L, it actually says the US form is one L, so one L is just wrong. Okay, "grey" is G-R-E-Y, but you can also use A-Y if you choose to. "Pajamas" is P-A-J. The P-Y-J apparently is outside of North America. "Programme." This one hurt me in my soul. I wanted it to be the M-M-E, and you can. It is also M-M-E, but the primary form is— let's just say it the American way. "Donut." Again, outside of North America, it's the D-O-U-G-H-nut, but inside North America, where we are, it is D-O-N-U-T. And "yoghurt." Uh, I'm sorry. The fuck? Yeah, apparently this is the way to spell "yoghurt." Not this way, and not this way, which I think is the way we've been spelling it. All right, your bonus pronunciation. How do you say this word? Leftenant. Tell me what words I should do in episode 2.
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