<p>mcim, I learned English in Germany and we were taught 'soft drink' and 'soda'. I had never heard of pop until I read this thread.</p>
<p>I dunno, but apparently southerners have lots of weird little phrases that no one else has, according to my northern friend.
IE: "bottom's about to fall out" =it will start raining soon
"I'm fixing to [do something]" = I'm going to do something
And I know "y'all" is not exactly proper english, but seriously, it sounds so much better than "yous" or "yous guys". I'm okay with "you guys", but with the s it just sounds retarded. </p>
<p>PS definitely tennis shoes. (although no one would look at you funny if you said sneakers, we say that too occasionally)</p>
<p>I'm from Connecticut and moved to NE Ohio, so I combine the two. I say "soda" for the drink in general, but modify words with "pop" - pop machine, pop tab.</p>
<p>Kinda weird. I also say sneakers! I have a friend from Boston who says "bubbler" for water fountain and "buggy" for shopping cart.</p>
<p>it's soda*.*</p>
<p>I lived in Pittsburgh for over a decade, and everyone there called it pop. I've been forced to change since moving to the metro-DC area. Anytime I say pop people laugh at me or give me strange looks.</p>
<p>everyone in the south says "buggy" for shopping cart, kelseyg, but I didn't know people said it anywhere else. all my northern friends complain about it when I say it, lol.</p>
<p>^I've never heard 'buggy' for shopping cart down here... I guess only parts of the South do that.</p>
<p>Hum... another one- instead of going grocery shopping, I've heard people down here say that they're 'going to go make groceries.'</p>
<p>And y'all is simply a necessity. And it definitely holds more meaning than just 'you all' (such as screaming it and people know you think they're being obnoxious). I've never understood complaints about it.</p>
<p>johnson where are you from, because just about everywhere I've been in the south says buggy, except florida. I know georgia, alabama, tennessee, north carolina...</p>
<p>Soda.</p>
<p>Calling soda/pop "coke" is like calling all breakfast foods "pancakes." It's mind-boggling how a great deal of the country calls a genus by a particular species.</p>
<p>bandaid, q-tip, sharpie, xerox...just with coke, it's only regional</p>
<p>It's not comparable--those are brands that eventually got associated with a specific product. Soda is not a specific product. To call a bandage a "band-aid" would be like calling cola "coke," and even then it's only sensical if Coca-Cola enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the cola industry (which they don't). </p>
<p>It would be laughable to call all writing utensils "sharpies" or to tell someone to make a "xerox" when you're requesting a fax, a photocopy, a scan, or any sort of document transmission.</p>
<p>I used to live in Pittsburgh too, but I don't remember it being called pop.</p>
<p>Easy, people call things by brand names all the time like Jell-O and Jacuzzi, and Band-Aid (who the hell says bandage!) and make a Xerox of that, I say that all the time. You midwesterners/southerners are weird.</p>
<p>Yous Guys>y'all
soda>pop
sneakers>tennis shoes
the shore>the beach (although i think thats only a NJ thing)</p>
<p>yous guys makes you sound like an idiot, by the way.</p>
<p>^It does, but you hear it all the time in Jersey, especially in south Jersey (ewww...south jersey) and y'all sounds so hick way worse than yous guys.</p>
<p>Coke is a brand of cola. Cola is a kind of soda. </p>
<p>Cola is a species. Soda is a genus. </p>
<p>It's one thing to use a brand in place of the species name. It's another thing to use a brand name of the species to supplant the genus name.</p>
<p>what other kinds of soda are there besides cola?</p>
<p>Orange soda. Lemon-lime flavored soda (Sprite, Sierra Mist). Ginger Ale. There's more, you could include stuff like Dr. Pepper (brand is only producer of that kind of soda).</p>
<p>Heh, I'm from South Jersey but I'm close enough to Philly to avoid the South Jersey stereotype. I've always wanted to check out Cowtown though, I hear they have rodeos there and it is named Cowtown. </p>
<p>Just wondering, there has been a rumor of an all 'little people' town somewhere out there. Have you ever traveled through one or heard about it? I might start a thread just about that since I'm curious if its just a myth.</p>
<p>Interesting debate.</p>
<p>I say soda. The way I've learned it is that the coasts normally say soda (mainly the urban areas) whereas anywhere in middle (mid west, south, etc) will vary from pop to coke, with pop being more frequently used. I think as you go into more urban cities or the closer you get to them you start hearing soda more often.</p>
<p>I met people from England last year you also called it pop. then again, they call chips (as in potatoes chips) 'crisps'. And French fries get called 'chips'.</p>
<p>also as far as shoes go, I say sneakers BUT in Spanish one would say (or at least all the spanish speakers I've met say this) 'tenis' which ties into the sport.</p>
<p>Here's another one which is more along the lines of slang. In NYC (can't speak for the rest of the northeast) you'll hear a lot of people use the word "mad" which is just a substitute for 'a lot'. In California, they use the word "hella". I was able to actually point out someone from Cali once. I was doing a computer job and they started speaking and I heard that word come out twice from their mouths. I asked if they were from Cali, and they weren't but they had so many friends from Cali that they picked up small words like that.</p>
<p>What I'm astounded by is that in TV shows, movies, etc, I've never heard anyone say 'tennis shoes' or 'pop'. So does the middle of the country have TV commercials advertising tennis shoes or pop? Do they get confused when someone asks for a soda in the movies? I'd post my own theory on why they call it pop, but it'd probably offend some people.</p>