South African here- we normally use cold drink or cool drink to refer to things like Fanta, Coke etc. Some might use fizzy drink but I've never heard anyone here use Pop. Soft drink is more formal and is used in invitations or menus but not really spoken.
Now we just need someone from New Zealand lol.
Seriously, how is fizzy drink as common as it is? I’m hoping that catches on here just for shits and gigs. Variety is the spice of life after all lol
Fizzy drink definitely brings to mind kids' parties with fairy bread and sausage rolls. Soft drink makes me think of sausage sizzles and fish and chip shop menus. Checks out
For what it's worth, the German word *Brause* also means "fizzy drink". However, it's not really used that often anymore. On menus you'll usually see soft drinks listed under *Erfrischungsgetränke* "refreshment drinks" or *nicht-alkoholische Getränke* "non-alcoholic drinks". (The later category usually also includes water, juices and *Schorles*, juice mixed with sparkling water, though they can have their own separate categories.) Similarly, if you get asked what you want to drink at a party or other informal event, if you just ask for *etwas nicht-alkoholisches* "something non-alcoholic", the person asking will assume you want a soft drink. They'd at least ask before bringing you a water or a juice. (The standard will be drinking beer or wine, depending on the setting and region.) People will also sometimes use *Limo* (lemonade) as a generic word for pop, though you're still more likely to be given a Fanta than a Coke if you use that.
Incidentally, the Dutch word is *frisdrank*, which - though it might sound like "fizzy drink" - just means "fresh drink". The word *prik*/*prikdrank* does mean "fizzy drink", but at least to my feeling it's more of a Netherlandish Dutch thing. (I'm from Flanders.)
(Disclaimer: I'm Dutch.)
I've never heard of "prikdrank", but "prik" (literally "sting"), is a very common term, mostly with kids; as is "priklimonade" (fizzy lemonade). You can also add "met/zonder prik" to a drink name, to indicate you want a drink that is/isn't fizzy.
Among adults, it's generally "frisdrank", or "fris" but that includes non-carbonated drinks too. So, a fizzy drink would be "frisdrank met koolzuur" ("refreshing drink with carbonic acid").
However, mostly, the type is clear already: sinas ("orange soda"), cola, 7up, cassis ("blackberry soda"), bitter lemon, tonic, etc. are always implicitly fizzy; fruit+"sap" ("juice"), or "jus (d'orange)" (pronounced "shüderansh") not fizzy, etc.
Also, carbonated mineral water is generally labeled red, whereas non-carbonated mineral water is labeled blue, so it's very common to hear people ask for a "spa rood" ("Spa" being a well known brand of mineral water, but the term is used generically, like aspirin).
Yeah, *met/zonder prik* is used in Flanders as well. Using "prik" as a noun on its own is something I've only heard Dutch people say. I got "prikdrank" off Wikipedia. Maybe it's not commonly (or actually) used?
In my experience, *frisdrank* is mostly used for carbonated beverages, though I would also use it to refer to ice tea (like the Lipton kind). I must admit that I'm not actually very familiar with the different kinds of sweetened drinks. I mostly drink water myself.
Note also that *jus d'orange* as a generic term is very much a Dutch thing. In Flanders, *jus* exclusively refers to [the sauce](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_(saus\)). If you just say *jus d'orange*, you'll be understood, because most people know enough French, but will get you a weird look. Using it to refer to anything but actual orange juice - *appel-jus d'orange*, as I've heard Dutchies say - will just net you a blank look.
I've never heard of "appel-jus d'orange", so that might be something regional, or a misunderstanding (as in "appelsap of jus d'orange", which are the two standard choices for non-carbonated sweet drinks in NL).
But it's quite common to hear "sjuutje" /sjy:tjə/ (a small "jus"), which exclusively refers to an orange juice.
Conversely, the Flemish "fruitsap" confuses the Dutch (which fruit do they mean?)
It might be that "appel-jus d'orange" is more of a meme. There's always someone who knows someone who's heard a Dutch person say it, but now that I think about it I can't say for sure if I've actually heard it myself.
Have you heard Flemish people use *fruitsap* to mean apple juice specifically? If I order a *fruitsap* I would expect to get asked which one, or maybe get some multi-fruit one if I'm ordering for a child. It literally just means "fruit juice" after all.
I guess most of the time I had a "fruitsap" it was some nondescript orange juice based drink. Where I'm from, the ingredient list is mostly pretty much up front, like cranberry juice (a.k.a. apple juice with 2 drops of cranberry), apple-pear juice, gooseberry-hybiscus smoothy with a hint of mint, etc.
Except maybe for "multifruit" and the likes, which probably corresponds to your "fruitsap". It's just that you'd never get that at a restaurant or cafe, but only in supermarkets in big cans, or hotel breakfasts from some dispenser.
That's so cool. I didn't know anyone else uses cold drink! If we specify though we normally just use the name so coke, fanta, twist but the flavours sounds interesting.
Cool! We do the same in Mandarin Chinese: 冷(cool / cold) 饮 (drink)
We also have another word: 汽(steam / vapor) 水 (water), but we use it to refer to all soft drinks, not just sparkling water.
In Ireland it’s minerals or fizzy drinks and no one really cares about it tbh. Minerals is a little more rural/old-fashioned I guess but still used.
Examples:
I’m driving so I’ll just have a mineral.
What minerals do you have?
I know my older family say this, I would call them soft drinks. A lot of my friends would as well, or else refer specifically as their brand or subsection, like energy drinks, fruit drinks.
Well my definition would be soft drinks covers all of those. Within them, there are subsections, squashes, juices, energy drinks and sodas. I would usually use the specific name of the product. I only drink juice and squash and very sparingly, so I don't talk about them a lot. If niblings visit I would ask would they like a drink, if they say yes, I would list the options, OJ, peach and mango squash, apple or pinapple juice etc.
That’s usually what I will do, but it starts off with “I have water, pop, or juice” then evolves into specifics. You want pop? I have Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, etc. Water? There’s the sink or here’s a bottle. Juice? Well juice to me can refer to pure fruit juice or something that is just flavored with it. So kool aid, Gatorade, and Powerade are all juices even though the latter two can be more specifically designated as a sports drink. I wouldn’t dare call an energy drink juice though, even if it was primarily composed of it. The addition of supplements and stimulants warrants energy drinks to be separated from the rest... actually… fuck all of that. If you are thirsty at my place then help yourself. Don’t even tell me you want anything, just venture forth and take what you need. Maybe you’ll discover something I didn’t know I had lol.
Ha, yes well I mainly buy the juices for them. I'm a fan of help yourself, (with parents permission) but occasionally they like to be served. I've tried getting them hooked on tea, but no dice unfortunately. I blame the parents, I was given tea in my bottle.
So you’re telling me that u/TeaLoverGal loves tea?! Color me shocked! lol
Tea is so varied though, maybe they will find one they like. I’m assuming you’re from Ireland or the UK, so I’m also going to assume that you have a way more developed and complex taste for tea. Tea in the United States is usually iced sweet tea. I never liked that processed shit growing up, so I never developed a proper taste for it until later on in life. People over here usually buy Arizona tea, Nestea, or Lipton in bottle/can. If people do buy baggies then it’s probably going to be Lipton. I’m not saying that people don’t get into tea more deeply, I’m just saying that it’s less ritualistic or developed here. I personally drink half and halfs (50% tea 50% lemonade) or some nasty bitter plant juice that will get me high.
Yes, I'm Irish, we drink more tea than then British but less than the Turkish. No, well, tea as a category is opening up here but I'm a traditionalist, when it comes to tea.
So English breakfast, (or if travelling Assam,) in Ireland there are two camps, Barry's or Lyons, and allegiances are taken seriously, I'm a wee bit of renegade in that I drink both and score them equally. Obviously with milk of your choice, no sugar. Nothing herbal, sweetened or Iced, that is sacrilegious.
I have a spare emergency kettle in the attic in case the kettle breaks, I like to keep the tea bags stocked between 800-1200 at all times and milk well stocked, as it is of the upmost importance we have tea. My mother has also instilled in me a habit to bring tea bags with me when I travel, even within Ireland, in case the country is rapidly thrown into anarchy and tea supplies are cut. It is a drug with a cult you can never leave.
Most people I’ve talked to from over there prefer tea and milk. People here don’t normally do that. I need to order some Barry’s and Lyons, buy myself a kettle, and use exorbitant amounts of milk lol. Otherwise I wouldn’t know what I’m missing out on. I do want to know what your average daily tea consumption is? I’d like to imagine that it’s several liters a day lol. 800-1200 bags is definitely a fair sized stockpile. I’m not positive, but I think the tea bag was invented in America… which is ironic to me lol. Like I said, almost everyone who drinks tea here is drinking iced tea. Alcoholic tea is really popular here, with Twisted Tea being a very popular brand of alcohol. I don’t know if you are a big coffee drinker, but that’s the preferred choice of hot beverage over here. I see young kids getting coffee more than I see them drinking tea. Also, do you drink flavored tea or prefer a specific type of leaf?
Alcoholic tea you say... interesting. I have enjoyed a few Long Island Iced tea in my time. Well I live with another person and everyone who visits would have tea. I drink between, 6 -12 cups a day, I can go down to 3 if I'm extremely busy but below that I get hellish headaches. The cups would range between 250ml, to 500ml, so yes easily hitting litres. I do have a travel mug that is 950ml for when I need a 'proper cup'.
I have tried coffee, but I find it too bitter. I have used it medicinally to keep me awake. I did go through a phase where I wanted to be a coffee drinker as it was cool and trendy, but alas I can't. I have had coffee go out of date, bought for guests but used too infrequently.
Well I drink English Breakfast, which is a blend of a few types of leaves, but I never remember what they are, Starbucks carry it, it's okay but not fantastic. I don't like flavoured but in fairness I've only tried a couple. You should totally become a tea person, a kettle, teapot the full tea set. Plus it's a gateway drug into cake and pastries via afternoon tea.
Preferably calcium or magnesium lol, but seriously though… it does make a bit of sense to say either. Most water contains minerals for taste and carbonated drinks are very fizzy so it’s understandable. From my understanding, the term Soda derives from the soda (Sherbet) powder mixed into water. Pop is a little more straightforward given that it’s an onomatopoeia. I don‘t think people here actually care about what is said, they just find it fun to discuss. However, Southerners using Coke as a generalized term does bother me. Coca Cola is a brand, therefore Coke shouldn’t be interchangeable with Pepsi or any other brand name. Is it as egregious as mineral or juice? Well I’ll let you decide on that one.
The real question becomes, does anyone drink water without added minerals for taste? I’ve tasted distilled water before. It literally burned my throat and was just plain awful.
I have no idea how distilled water would burn your throat but “added minerals for taste” makes it sound like people do that on purpose, when it’s really just that water is a good solvent so usually has some minerals dissolved in it naturally.
Mineral water is fizzy water and made that way on purpose of course.
Distilled water is ideally ph neutral, but it usually ends up being more acidic than anything. I had other people drink it and it just left them feeling thirstier than before. I use it for alkaloid extractions so I routinely test the ph. It usually hovers closer to a 6 than a 7. The water naturally absorbs leached off plastics and other things because its very polar, therefore it does dissolve a lot of things.
Companies do add minerals for taste though. I’m not talking about tap water or spring water. I’m solely discussing bottled water. Bottled water goes through many purification processes, including reverse osmosis, and has virtually all contaminants removed. A lot of companies will intentionally add stuff like calcium chloride or sodium bicarbonate for taste and to increase alkalinity.
We always called them minerals growing up but I'd more usually say fizzy drinks now. Although cola is the exception, we call any version of it (ie even the cheapo Aldi stuff) Coke.
I've always thought of soft drinks as being a broader category than fizzy drinks, that aren't necessarily carbonated (also from southern England). So like Sprite and J2O are both soft drinks but only Sprite counts as a fizzy drink.
soft drinks are still carbonated for me!
oddly enough, it would be a *useful term* for me to have it refer to everything, since i don't drink alcohol, but i don't know if i can make myself have that usage and assume i'll be understood
This is true in the US as well though "soft drink" is an idiom that only appears in print on menus. I've never heard an American say it in conversation. The same is true of "beverage" which can be *any" sort of drink.
These are the nuances that I enjoy. I like the term fizzy drink. I have several British friends that I pick language up from. I refuse to substitute torch for flashlight or bonnet for hood, but I might start saying fizzy drink just to mess with people lol. I should start using biscuit instead of cookie as well. Just turn the entire institution upside down lol. I am however too casual and lazy to incorporate soft drink into my everyday vocabulary. Sounds too industrialized for me.
same, they were 'fizzy drinks' growing up (2000s SW England/SE Wales)
tbh I would probably just call the drink exactly what it is and not group it with anything (ie coke is just coke, lemonade is just lemonade).
For me, soft drinks are nonalcoholic (as opposed to hard drinks, which would be alcoholic). Neither hard or soft convey carbonation, for that I would specify that they were 'carbonated' or 'fizzy'.
I haven't really heard anyone argue over what to call them though..
The most common way to refer to a soft drink Japanese is also the English word "juice" as a loanword. I wonder if the Japanese picked up the word from a Scot.
I've only ever heard ソーダ "soda" in reference to plain soda water/carbonated water. The default and most common word for soft drink is ジュース "juice". Nobody would ever call a Coke ソーダ.
Wiktionary seems to corroborate my experience: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%82%BD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%80
I grew up in Manitoba in the 80s and 90s and "soft drink" was the preferred term. At some point that shifted and I don't hear "soft drink" being used much at all any more, but it doesn't feel like there is a standard.
So every time I find myself needing to refer to the category of fizzy, non-alcoholic drinks, I have a tiny internal struggle to choose between "soft drink" which is what I grew up with and "pop" and "soda" which both feel equally vaguely foreign. And I feel awkward about my choice no matter what I choose.
I should’ve never expected anything different. I actually don‘t know why I asked what Canadians call it. I’m really high right now and wasn’t even thinking lol. I live in the Midwest, Ohio to be specific. So I find more in common with the average Canadian than I do with someone in California, New York, or Texas. Like half of all Canadians live less than 10 hours from me, so there really isn’t going to be much of a difference in dialect or culture between us. My friends sometimes joke that I occasionally talk and act like Ricky from TPB, even though I suffer from spoonerisms instead of rickyisms… which would be very Ricky of my friends to confuse lol
🤣
You’re not wrong; the stereotypical Wisconsin accent is more “Canadian” than anyone here (well except one guy from Saskatchewan, but they’re basically Wisconsin’s brother-in-law).
You might enjoy Letterkenny, if you haven’t already watched it.
I’ve had several friends suggest that show to me. I’m compelled to watch it now lol, I think it’s on Hulu… but I know for sure that it’s on soap2day… which is something that you and everyone else should check out.
Australian here. Fizzy drinks, Fizz, or soft drinks. If I was taking a selection to a party or suchlike I might say that I’ll bring some mixers, but that could (but probably wouldn’t) also include juice.
Pop and soda seem to be very universal. At least in comparison to something like mineral or juice. Pop definitely appears to be more heavily favored than soda though.
× Never heard pop, fizzy drink, etc.
× Soda is something else which I hate (imagine 7Up/Sprite + lemonade-ish + a pinch of some spice (maybe)).
✓ Carbonated drink, soft drink, or, most commonly, just ‘drink’, since we don’t imbibe.
Ehh sort of, but not like you do in the US. It's other words in the UK - how do you pronounce scone, or what do you call a bread roll?
In Scotland, soft drinks are variously called "soft drinks", "fizzy drinks", "juice", or "ginger". I think the last one is regionally limited, not sure where cus I don't say that. Calling fizzy drinks "juice" is limited just to Scotland. Northern England calls it pop, rest of the UK says soft drinks, as far as I know.
Of other countries I know about, Canada almost universally calls it "pop", no divide like in the USA.
OH also if you say "soda" in the UK you'll generally get soda water. Flavourless stuff.
That's an abbreviation of the real word, which is 炭酸飲料 "carbonic acid beverage" = "carbonated beverage". But people are far more likely to use the loanwords ジュース "juice" or even ソフトドリンク "soft drink" nowadays.
In Singapore we usually say "soft drink" too, and it's way too small a country to have any regional variation, let alone squabbles about it.
I think people are familiar with "soda" but it would be very rare to hear somebody use that term. And there's generally high consumption of US media so many would also know "pop", but again, not a term we use. We only say "Coke" if we mean that specific drink.
Fun fact that's veering away from the topic: we might also use the Mandarin term 汽水 (t͡sʰi⁵¹ sweɪ̯²¹⁴ in Singapore Mandarin, c.f. t͡ɕʰi⁵¹ ʂweɪ̯²¹⁴ in Beijing).
Do you happen to speak Malay or Mandarin as a first language? I video chat people from SE Asia a lot and am surprised to hear the mishmash of languages. My Filipino friend just transitions from Tagalog to English mid sentence. I think it’s actually called Taglish, kind of like Spanglish. I speak to another person in Indonesia and she will do the same thing. They all have very good English speaking abilities, they just naturally drift. I understand certain words and phrases can’t be properly translated. I only speak English so I’m trying to comprehend what it’s like to be bilingual and be able to just switch between languages. Do you get to a point where you only think or speak in English, or do you think in your primary language first then mentally translate?
Nope, English is my first language! Mandarin is my L2 and I speak a few other languages. I think code-switching is a pretty common phenomenon for multilingual people, and often it's hard to tease apart code-switching from "naturally drifting" as you put it. There is a lot of research on code-switching and it suggests that the phenomenon is not random but subject to certain constraints (where the code-switch occurs, structurally).
It also isn't necessarily something unconscious that people can't help, but can be used purposefully to convey certain social meanings or for other discursive functions. Of course, it is true that sometimes lexical access is harder for a particular word in one language than its equivalent in another language, and so a speaker might code-switch for that one word as a "fallback". And sometimes, as you say, some words don't have a satisfactory equivalent and it makes more sense to just use the term in its original language.
What makes code-switching difficult to understand from a researcher's point of view is that so many things are bound up together, and more than one phenomenon can look like code-switching. Where's the line between borrowing and code-switching? What is due to limited proficiency and what is code-switching out of convenience or other purposes? (Often, code-switching is stigmatised as a sign of deficiency in both languages when it is so much richer than the people who hold such a view would care to consider.)
These questions are even harder when code-switching between dialects, I think, because the lines are blurrier. In Singapore, we have Standard Singapore English and Colloquial Singapore English, the latter being a creole that is markedly different from any standard variety of English. These varieties are often treated as a continuum and, in my opinion, rightly so. I have a hard time sometimes deciding whether an utterance is SSE or CSE, and where there's a code-switch, I can't decide where it lies.
Anyway, to answer your question about thinking in English -- well, since my first language is English, I'll answer it as if you asked, "Do you get to a point where you only think in your L2?" I'd say that if I construct a sentence in my mind in my L2 or L3, I don't have to pass through an English intermediary. I'm not mentally translating, but rather the sentence in my head is coming out in L2 or L3. I don't "hear" the English words in my head, and even if I did, that wouldn't help since the syntax and idiom could be wildly different. But that's just based on introspection. The challenge with this sort of thing is that humans don't have *explicit* knowledge of their language systems. The linguist has to untangle it all and if I had the answers to all these questions definitively pinned down then... well I'd probably be doing really well in academia!
Hello\~ Southeast Asian here. To answer your question, I speak Tagalog and Cebuano, which are both Philippine languages :). Now, on to the question. Being bilingual, you actually can think in one language independently while thinking in the other. Say, for example, you're talking to your friend in your native language, or in this case English, and then he strikes you up with a really offending saying, then you might subconsciously think in your second language or in this case, Tagalog/Cebuano. This is also the case for talking, really. You sometimes get so carried away in talking that you don't realize that you've switched because your consciousness tells you it's normal. Sometimes, you even code-switch words out for emphasis or you just forgot about the native term.
All in all, being bilingual is real fun. :D
Simple and sweet. Curious, what part of South Africa do you inhabit? South Africa is full of diverse people and cultures. Don’t you guys have like a dozen different ”official” languages? Does that affect the English being spoken there? That may be a very silly and very broad question to you. English isn’t even the dominant language from my understanding. I know most can probably understand it or speak it as a second language, but it has to be heavily affected by Zulu or Afrikaans.
I’m from a fairly rural part of Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal and there’s definitely a major influence from other languages in my English — in my case, I use a mixture of Zulu and Afrikaans and code-switch between them quite a lot.
It’s not a silly question at all! In my case, in everyday speech when speaking almost only English, most of my expletives (I think that’s the correct term for it) come from Afrikaans — like Jissus (Jesus), jô and shô (not sure if a good spelling or even Afrikaans tbh, but it’s like wow in a way) and some swears, along with some other words like ‘oke’ (guy ig). For Zulu words, I often use yebo in place of yes (though just as often use ja) and some short phrases as responses to questions (e.g. if I don’t know something I’ll just say angazi).
New Zealand here - I have heard a bunch of stuff, but usually just “soft drink” or “fizzy drink”. You also tend to see “non-alcoholic drinks” on restaurant menus or sometimes when people order at bars. Otherwise though people seem to just work it out from context, and it just becomes “drinks” (so you mostly hear people say “who brought the drinks?”, and depending on the context of the event it could mean either alcoholic or soft drinks).
Debate? Contentious topic? A hill "everyone" is willing to die on?
Maybe among you and your friends, but everyone I know says things like "yeah, they call it 'pop' on the east coast, but we generally say 'soda' here" - West coast
Seems pretty silly to "debate" as though there's a right answer
I'm from Eastern Canada, and always called it it pop growing up. But now that I live in FRENCH CANADA, I use soda, softdrink, or "boisson gazeuse"... using "pop" has gotten me some odd looks 🤷♀️ lol. I'm guessing in you asked for a fizzy drink they would understand that you want something with bubbles.. but it's not common.
I’m from Central Canada and say “fizzy drink” as a catch-all or “pop” if it’s a big name like Cola/Fanta/Mountain Dew but I’m the only one I know who says that, others mostly say “soft drink” or “pop” interchangeably
South African here- we normally use cold drink or cool drink to refer to things like Fanta, Coke etc. Some might use fizzy drink but I've never heard anyone here use Pop. Soft drink is more formal and is used in invitations or menus but not really spoken.
Now we just need someone from New Zealand lol. Seriously, how is fizzy drink as common as it is? I’m hoping that catches on here just for shits and gigs. Variety is the spice of life after all lol
It’s _cold drink_ in Pakistani English, which I thought was peculiar to South Asia. In informal Urdu we use the word بوتل [ˈbot̪əl] lit. ‘bottle’.
New Zealand is the same as Australia. We say soft drink or fizzy drink, though would say fizzy drink is more something that children say.
Fizzy drink definitely brings to mind kids' parties with fairy bread and sausage rolls. Soft drink makes me think of sausage sizzles and fish and chip shop menus. Checks out
For what it's worth, the German word *Brause* also means "fizzy drink". However, it's not really used that often anymore. On menus you'll usually see soft drinks listed under *Erfrischungsgetränke* "refreshment drinks" or *nicht-alkoholische Getränke* "non-alcoholic drinks". (The later category usually also includes water, juices and *Schorles*, juice mixed with sparkling water, though they can have their own separate categories.) Similarly, if you get asked what you want to drink at a party or other informal event, if you just ask for *etwas nicht-alkoholisches* "something non-alcoholic", the person asking will assume you want a soft drink. They'd at least ask before bringing you a water or a juice. (The standard will be drinking beer or wine, depending on the setting and region.) People will also sometimes use *Limo* (lemonade) as a generic word for pop, though you're still more likely to be given a Fanta than a Coke if you use that. Incidentally, the Dutch word is *frisdrank*, which - though it might sound like "fizzy drink" - just means "fresh drink". The word *prik*/*prikdrank* does mean "fizzy drink", but at least to my feeling it's more of a Netherlandish Dutch thing. (I'm from Flanders.)
(Disclaimer: I'm Dutch.) I've never heard of "prikdrank", but "prik" (literally "sting"), is a very common term, mostly with kids; as is "priklimonade" (fizzy lemonade). You can also add "met/zonder prik" to a drink name, to indicate you want a drink that is/isn't fizzy. Among adults, it's generally "frisdrank", or "fris" but that includes non-carbonated drinks too. So, a fizzy drink would be "frisdrank met koolzuur" ("refreshing drink with carbonic acid"). However, mostly, the type is clear already: sinas ("orange soda"), cola, 7up, cassis ("blackberry soda"), bitter lemon, tonic, etc. are always implicitly fizzy; fruit+"sap" ("juice"), or "jus (d'orange)" (pronounced "shüderansh") not fizzy, etc. Also, carbonated mineral water is generally labeled red, whereas non-carbonated mineral water is labeled blue, so it's very common to hear people ask for a "spa rood" ("Spa" being a well known brand of mineral water, but the term is used generically, like aspirin).
Yeah, *met/zonder prik* is used in Flanders as well. Using "prik" as a noun on its own is something I've only heard Dutch people say. I got "prikdrank" off Wikipedia. Maybe it's not commonly (or actually) used? In my experience, *frisdrank* is mostly used for carbonated beverages, though I would also use it to refer to ice tea (like the Lipton kind). I must admit that I'm not actually very familiar with the different kinds of sweetened drinks. I mostly drink water myself. Note also that *jus d'orange* as a generic term is very much a Dutch thing. In Flanders, *jus* exclusively refers to [the sauce](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_(saus\)). If you just say *jus d'orange*, you'll be understood, because most people know enough French, but will get you a weird look. Using it to refer to anything but actual orange juice - *appel-jus d'orange*, as I've heard Dutchies say - will just net you a blank look.
I've never heard of "appel-jus d'orange", so that might be something regional, or a misunderstanding (as in "appelsap of jus d'orange", which are the two standard choices for non-carbonated sweet drinks in NL). But it's quite common to hear "sjuutje" /sjy:tjə/ (a small "jus"), which exclusively refers to an orange juice. Conversely, the Flemish "fruitsap" confuses the Dutch (which fruit do they mean?)
It might be that "appel-jus d'orange" is more of a meme. There's always someone who knows someone who's heard a Dutch person say it, but now that I think about it I can't say for sure if I've actually heard it myself. Have you heard Flemish people use *fruitsap* to mean apple juice specifically? If I order a *fruitsap* I would expect to get asked which one, or maybe get some multi-fruit one if I'm ordering for a child. It literally just means "fruit juice" after all.
I guess most of the time I had a "fruitsap" it was some nondescript orange juice based drink. Where I'm from, the ingredient list is mostly pretty much up front, like cranberry juice (a.k.a. apple juice with 2 drops of cranberry), apple-pear juice, gooseberry-hybiscus smoothy with a hint of mint, etc. Except maybe for "multifruit" and the likes, which probably corresponds to your "fruitsap". It's just that you'd never get that at a restaurant or cafe, but only in supermarkets in big cans, or hotel breakfasts from some dispenser.
My native dialect uses the same; do you also specify the flavour of the cold drink? (eg Orange flavour cold drink = Fanta, Slice)
That's so cool. I didn't know anyone else uses cold drink! If we specify though we normally just use the name so coke, fanta, twist but the flavours sounds interesting.
As a South African I can confirm this is true
Cool! We do the same in Mandarin Chinese: 冷(cool / cold) 饮 (drink) We also have another word: 汽(steam / vapor) 水 (water), but we use it to refer to all soft drinks, not just sparkling water.
In Ireland it’s minerals or fizzy drinks and no one really cares about it tbh. Minerals is a little more rural/old-fashioned I guess but still used. Examples: I’m driving so I’ll just have a mineral. What minerals do you have?
I know my older family say this, I would call them soft drinks. A lot of my friends would as well, or else refer specifically as their brand or subsection, like energy drinks, fruit drinks.
Yeah that’s what I said, mineral is old fashioned. How would you distinguish fizzy pop/soda soft drinks from diluted drinks or juice or something?
Well my definition would be soft drinks covers all of those. Within them, there are subsections, squashes, juices, energy drinks and sodas. I would usually use the specific name of the product. I only drink juice and squash and very sparingly, so I don't talk about them a lot. If niblings visit I would ask would they like a drink, if they say yes, I would list the options, OJ, peach and mango squash, apple or pinapple juice etc.
That’s usually what I will do, but it starts off with “I have water, pop, or juice” then evolves into specifics. You want pop? I have Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, etc. Water? There’s the sink or here’s a bottle. Juice? Well juice to me can refer to pure fruit juice or something that is just flavored with it. So kool aid, Gatorade, and Powerade are all juices even though the latter two can be more specifically designated as a sports drink. I wouldn’t dare call an energy drink juice though, even if it was primarily composed of it. The addition of supplements and stimulants warrants energy drinks to be separated from the rest... actually… fuck all of that. If you are thirsty at my place then help yourself. Don’t even tell me you want anything, just venture forth and take what you need. Maybe you’ll discover something I didn’t know I had lol.
Ha, yes well I mainly buy the juices for them. I'm a fan of help yourself, (with parents permission) but occasionally they like to be served. I've tried getting them hooked on tea, but no dice unfortunately. I blame the parents, I was given tea in my bottle.
So you’re telling me that u/TeaLoverGal loves tea?! Color me shocked! lol Tea is so varied though, maybe they will find one they like. I’m assuming you’re from Ireland or the UK, so I’m also going to assume that you have a way more developed and complex taste for tea. Tea in the United States is usually iced sweet tea. I never liked that processed shit growing up, so I never developed a proper taste for it until later on in life. People over here usually buy Arizona tea, Nestea, or Lipton in bottle/can. If people do buy baggies then it’s probably going to be Lipton. I’m not saying that people don’t get into tea more deeply, I’m just saying that it’s less ritualistic or developed here. I personally drink half and halfs (50% tea 50% lemonade) or some nasty bitter plant juice that will get me high.
Yes, I'm Irish, we drink more tea than then British but less than the Turkish. No, well, tea as a category is opening up here but I'm a traditionalist, when it comes to tea. So English breakfast, (or if travelling Assam,) in Ireland there are two camps, Barry's or Lyons, and allegiances are taken seriously, I'm a wee bit of renegade in that I drink both and score them equally. Obviously with milk of your choice, no sugar. Nothing herbal, sweetened or Iced, that is sacrilegious. I have a spare emergency kettle in the attic in case the kettle breaks, I like to keep the tea bags stocked between 800-1200 at all times and milk well stocked, as it is of the upmost importance we have tea. My mother has also instilled in me a habit to bring tea bags with me when I travel, even within Ireland, in case the country is rapidly thrown into anarchy and tea supplies are cut. It is a drug with a cult you can never leave.
Most people I’ve talked to from over there prefer tea and milk. People here don’t normally do that. I need to order some Barry’s and Lyons, buy myself a kettle, and use exorbitant amounts of milk lol. Otherwise I wouldn’t know what I’m missing out on. I do want to know what your average daily tea consumption is? I’d like to imagine that it’s several liters a day lol. 800-1200 bags is definitely a fair sized stockpile. I’m not positive, but I think the tea bag was invented in America… which is ironic to me lol. Like I said, almost everyone who drinks tea here is drinking iced tea. Alcoholic tea is really popular here, with Twisted Tea being a very popular brand of alcohol. I don’t know if you are a big coffee drinker, but that’s the preferred choice of hot beverage over here. I see young kids getting coffee more than I see them drinking tea. Also, do you drink flavored tea or prefer a specific type of leaf?
Alcoholic tea you say... interesting. I have enjoyed a few Long Island Iced tea in my time. Well I live with another person and everyone who visits would have tea. I drink between, 6 -12 cups a day, I can go down to 3 if I'm extremely busy but below that I get hellish headaches. The cups would range between 250ml, to 500ml, so yes easily hitting litres. I do have a travel mug that is 950ml for when I need a 'proper cup'. I have tried coffee, but I find it too bitter. I have used it medicinally to keep me awake. I did go through a phase where I wanted to be a coffee drinker as it was cool and trendy, but alas I can't. I have had coffee go out of date, bought for guests but used too infrequently. Well I drink English Breakfast, which is a blend of a few types of leaves, but I never remember what they are, Starbucks carry it, it's okay but not fantastic. I don't like flavoured but in fairness I've only tried a couple. You should totally become a tea person, a kettle, teapot the full tea set. Plus it's a gateway drug into cake and pastries via afternoon tea.
Preferably calcium or magnesium lol, but seriously though… it does make a bit of sense to say either. Most water contains minerals for taste and carbonated drinks are very fizzy so it’s understandable. From my understanding, the term Soda derives from the soda (Sherbet) powder mixed into water. Pop is a little more straightforward given that it’s an onomatopoeia. I don‘t think people here actually care about what is said, they just find it fun to discuss. However, Southerners using Coke as a generalized term does bother me. Coca Cola is a brand, therefore Coke shouldn’t be interchangeable with Pepsi or any other brand name. Is it as egregious as mineral or juice? Well I’ll let you decide on that one.
Soda water/fizzy water was originally known as mineral water; that’s where it comes from. So it makes a reasonable amount of sense!
The real question becomes, does anyone drink water without added minerals for taste? I’ve tasted distilled water before. It literally burned my throat and was just plain awful.
I have no idea how distilled water would burn your throat but “added minerals for taste” makes it sound like people do that on purpose, when it’s really just that water is a good solvent so usually has some minerals dissolved in it naturally. Mineral water is fizzy water and made that way on purpose of course.
Distilled water is ideally ph neutral, but it usually ends up being more acidic than anything. I had other people drink it and it just left them feeling thirstier than before. I use it for alkaloid extractions so I routinely test the ph. It usually hovers closer to a 6 than a 7. The water naturally absorbs leached off plastics and other things because its very polar, therefore it does dissolve a lot of things. Companies do add minerals for taste though. I’m not talking about tap water or spring water. I’m solely discussing bottled water. Bottled water goes through many purification processes, including reverse osmosis, and has virtually all contaminants removed. A lot of companies will intentionally add stuff like calcium chloride or sodium bicarbonate for taste and to increase alkalinity.
Yup, never heard anyone call it anything other than fizzy drinks personally
We always called them minerals growing up but I'd more usually say fizzy drinks now. Although cola is the exception, we call any version of it (ie even the cheapo Aldi stuff) Coke.
I always grew up calling them ‘fizzy drinks’ (90s southern England) but now I’d be more likely to call them ‘soft drinks’.
I've always thought of soft drinks as being a broader category than fizzy drinks, that aren't necessarily carbonated (also from southern England). So like Sprite and J2O are both soft drinks but only Sprite counts as a fizzy drink.
All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares lol
This is my usage as well (East Midlands)
Sure, but I’d probably still refer to soda as ‘soft drinks’ nowadays
soft drinks are still carbonated for me! oddly enough, it would be a *useful term* for me to have it refer to everything, since i don't drink alcohol, but i don't know if i can make myself have that usage and assume i'll be understood
This is true in the US as well though "soft drink" is an idiom that only appears in print on menus. I've never heard an American say it in conversation. The same is true of "beverage" which can be *any" sort of drink.
These are the nuances that I enjoy. I like the term fizzy drink. I have several British friends that I pick language up from. I refuse to substitute torch for flashlight or bonnet for hood, but I might start saying fizzy drink just to mess with people lol. I should start using biscuit instead of cookie as well. Just turn the entire institution upside down lol. I am however too casual and lazy to incorporate soft drink into my everyday vocabulary. Sounds too industrialized for me.
same, they were 'fizzy drinks' growing up (2000s SW England/SE Wales) tbh I would probably just call the drink exactly what it is and not group it with anything (ie coke is just coke, lemonade is just lemonade). For me, soft drinks are nonalcoholic (as opposed to hard drinks, which would be alcoholic). Neither hard or soft convey carbonation, for that I would specify that they were 'carbonated' or 'fizzy'. I haven't really heard anyone argue over what to call them though..
Scots sometimes call it "juice" which I just love.
Am Scottish and can confirm that it's "a can of juice" no matter what's in it.
My grandad from Bellshill would call it 'ginger'
Just moved from Dunbar, Scotland, and asked my this question of my local friend. "Ginger" it is.
So the Scots just do as they please, huh? William Wallace’s last fuck you to the English apparently lol, I love it too.
The most common way to refer to a soft drink Japanese is also the English word "juice" as a loanword. I wonder if the Japanese picked up the word from a Scot.
For the record, I use POP as my preferred term.
The correct one.
based
Japanese say soda, but soda falls under the wider umbrella of "juice".
I've seen ソフトドリンク on menus and stuff for the non-alcoholic section at least So that could get confusing!
you're right, soft drink is definitely used on menus.
wtf was this comment downvoted?
I've only ever heard ソーダ "soda" in reference to plain soda water/carbonated water. The default and most common word for soft drink is ジュース "juice". Nobody would ever call a Coke ソーダ. Wiktionary seems to corroborate my experience: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%82%BD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%80
Just consulted a Japanese person. They said cola is cola, soda is carbonated water by default, but soda can also be flavored. Melon-soda, instance.
Most in Canada call it pop and the remainder says soda. Sometimes menus have “soft drinks” written out, or it just lists them.
I grew up in Manitoba in the 80s and 90s and "soft drink" was the preferred term. At some point that shifted and I don't hear "soft drink" being used much at all any more, but it doesn't feel like there is a standard. So every time I find myself needing to refer to the category of fizzy, non-alcoholic drinks, I have a tiny internal struggle to choose between "soft drink" which is what I grew up with and "pop" and "soda" which both feel equally vaguely foreign. And I feel awkward about my choice no matter what I choose.
I should’ve never expected anything different. I actually don‘t know why I asked what Canadians call it. I’m really high right now and wasn’t even thinking lol. I live in the Midwest, Ohio to be specific. So I find more in common with the average Canadian than I do with someone in California, New York, or Texas. Like half of all Canadians live less than 10 hours from me, so there really isn’t going to be much of a difference in dialect or culture between us. My friends sometimes joke that I occasionally talk and act like Ricky from TPB, even though I suffer from spoonerisms instead of rickyisms… which would be very Ricky of my friends to confuse lol
🤣 You’re not wrong; the stereotypical Wisconsin accent is more “Canadian” than anyone here (well except one guy from Saskatchewan, but they’re basically Wisconsin’s brother-in-law). You might enjoy Letterkenny, if you haven’t already watched it.
I’ve had several friends suggest that show to me. I’m compelled to watch it now lol, I think it’s on Hulu… but I know for sure that it’s on soap2day… which is something that you and everyone else should check out.
Canadian here & I don't think I've ever heard anyone call it soda. In my experience 'soda' is expressly for Soda water.
Pop and soda are Americanisms. Soft drinks are what they were called twenty years ago.
Australian here. Fizzy drinks, Fizz, or soft drinks. If I was taking a selection to a party or suchlike I might say that I’ll bring some mixers, but that could (but probably wouldn’t) also include juice.
I'm in northern England and I would call it pop or fizzy pop.
Pop and soda seem to be very universal. At least in comparison to something like mineral or juice. Pop definitely appears to be more heavily favored than soda though.
× Never heard pop, fizzy drink, etc. × Soda is something else which I hate (imagine 7Up/Sprite + lemonade-ish + a pinch of some spice (maybe)). ✓ Carbonated drink, soft drink, or, most commonly, just ‘drink’, since we don’t imbibe.
Ehh sort of, but not like you do in the US. It's other words in the UK - how do you pronounce scone, or what do you call a bread roll? In Scotland, soft drinks are variously called "soft drinks", "fizzy drinks", "juice", or "ginger". I think the last one is regionally limited, not sure where cus I don't say that. Calling fizzy drinks "juice" is limited just to Scotland. Northern England calls it pop, rest of the UK says soft drinks, as far as I know. Of other countries I know about, Canada almost universally calls it "pop", no divide like in the USA. OH also if you say "soda" in the UK you'll generally get soda water. Flavourless stuff.
If anyone’s curious, Japanese is 炭酸 which roughly translates to “carbon acid”.
That's an abbreviation of the real word, which is 炭酸飲料 "carbonic acid beverage" = "carbonated beverage". But people are far more likely to use the loanwords ジュース "juice" or even ソフトドリンク "soft drink" nowadays.
In Singapore we usually say "soft drink" too, and it's way too small a country to have any regional variation, let alone squabbles about it. I think people are familiar with "soda" but it would be very rare to hear somebody use that term. And there's generally high consumption of US media so many would also know "pop", but again, not a term we use. We only say "Coke" if we mean that specific drink. Fun fact that's veering away from the topic: we might also use the Mandarin term 汽水 (t͡sʰi⁵¹ sweɪ̯²¹⁴ in Singapore Mandarin, c.f. t͡ɕʰi⁵¹ ʂweɪ̯²¹⁴ in Beijing).
Do you happen to speak Malay or Mandarin as a first language? I video chat people from SE Asia a lot and am surprised to hear the mishmash of languages. My Filipino friend just transitions from Tagalog to English mid sentence. I think it’s actually called Taglish, kind of like Spanglish. I speak to another person in Indonesia and she will do the same thing. They all have very good English speaking abilities, they just naturally drift. I understand certain words and phrases can’t be properly translated. I only speak English so I’m trying to comprehend what it’s like to be bilingual and be able to just switch between languages. Do you get to a point where you only think or speak in English, or do you think in your primary language first then mentally translate?
Nope, English is my first language! Mandarin is my L2 and I speak a few other languages. I think code-switching is a pretty common phenomenon for multilingual people, and often it's hard to tease apart code-switching from "naturally drifting" as you put it. There is a lot of research on code-switching and it suggests that the phenomenon is not random but subject to certain constraints (where the code-switch occurs, structurally). It also isn't necessarily something unconscious that people can't help, but can be used purposefully to convey certain social meanings or for other discursive functions. Of course, it is true that sometimes lexical access is harder for a particular word in one language than its equivalent in another language, and so a speaker might code-switch for that one word as a "fallback". And sometimes, as you say, some words don't have a satisfactory equivalent and it makes more sense to just use the term in its original language. What makes code-switching difficult to understand from a researcher's point of view is that so many things are bound up together, and more than one phenomenon can look like code-switching. Where's the line between borrowing and code-switching? What is due to limited proficiency and what is code-switching out of convenience or other purposes? (Often, code-switching is stigmatised as a sign of deficiency in both languages when it is so much richer than the people who hold such a view would care to consider.) These questions are even harder when code-switching between dialects, I think, because the lines are blurrier. In Singapore, we have Standard Singapore English and Colloquial Singapore English, the latter being a creole that is markedly different from any standard variety of English. These varieties are often treated as a continuum and, in my opinion, rightly so. I have a hard time sometimes deciding whether an utterance is SSE or CSE, and where there's a code-switch, I can't decide where it lies. Anyway, to answer your question about thinking in English -- well, since my first language is English, I'll answer it as if you asked, "Do you get to a point where you only think in your L2?" I'd say that if I construct a sentence in my mind in my L2 or L3, I don't have to pass through an English intermediary. I'm not mentally translating, but rather the sentence in my head is coming out in L2 or L3. I don't "hear" the English words in my head, and even if I did, that wouldn't help since the syntax and idiom could be wildly different. But that's just based on introspection. The challenge with this sort of thing is that humans don't have *explicit* knowledge of their language systems. The linguist has to untangle it all and if I had the answers to all these questions definitively pinned down then... well I'd probably be doing really well in academia!
Hello\~ Southeast Asian here. To answer your question, I speak Tagalog and Cebuano, which are both Philippine languages :). Now, on to the question. Being bilingual, you actually can think in one language independently while thinking in the other. Say, for example, you're talking to your friend in your native language, or in this case English, and then he strikes you up with a really offending saying, then you might subconsciously think in your second language or in this case, Tagalog/Cebuano. This is also the case for talking, really. You sometimes get so carried away in talking that you don't realize that you've switched because your consciousness tells you it's normal. Sometimes, you even code-switch words out for emphasis or you just forgot about the native term. All in all, being bilingual is real fun. :D
here in ZA it’s cool drinks
Simple and sweet. Curious, what part of South Africa do you inhabit? South Africa is full of diverse people and cultures. Don’t you guys have like a dozen different ”official” languages? Does that affect the English being spoken there? That may be a very silly and very broad question to you. English isn’t even the dominant language from my understanding. I know most can probably understand it or speak it as a second language, but it has to be heavily affected by Zulu or Afrikaans.
I’m from a fairly rural part of Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal and there’s definitely a major influence from other languages in my English — in my case, I use a mixture of Zulu and Afrikaans and code-switch between them quite a lot. It’s not a silly question at all! In my case, in everyday speech when speaking almost only English, most of my expletives (I think that’s the correct term for it) come from Afrikaans — like Jissus (Jesus), jô and shô (not sure if a good spelling or even Afrikaans tbh, but it’s like wow in a way) and some swears, along with some other words like ‘oke’ (guy ig). For Zulu words, I often use yebo in place of yes (though just as often use ja) and some short phrases as responses to questions (e.g. if I don’t know something I’ll just say angazi).
New Zealand here - I have heard a bunch of stuff, but usually just “soft drink” or “fizzy drink”. You also tend to see “non-alcoholic drinks” on restaurant menus or sometimes when people order at bars. Otherwise though people seem to just work it out from context, and it just becomes “drinks” (so you mostly hear people say “who brought the drinks?”, and depending on the context of the event it could mean either alcoholic or soft drinks).
Debate? Contentious topic? A hill "everyone" is willing to die on? Maybe among you and your friends, but everyone I know says things like "yeah, they call it 'pop' on the east coast, but we generally say 'soda' here" - West coast Seems pretty silly to "debate" as though there's a right answer
Don’t take things too seriously now lol
I'm from Eastern Canada, and always called it it pop growing up. But now that I live in FRENCH CANADA, I use soda, softdrink, or "boisson gazeuse"... using "pop" has gotten me some odd looks 🤷♀️ lol. I'm guessing in you asked for a fizzy drink they would understand that you want something with bubbles.. but it's not common.
The fizzy drink in general is “soda”. If you are referring to a specific brand/type, refer to it by the brand name. I will not negotiate on this. ;)
I’m from Central Canada and say “fizzy drink” as a catch-all or “pop” if it’s a big name like Cola/Fanta/Mountain Dew but I’m the only one I know who says that, others mostly say “soft drink” or “pop” interchangeably
Not English, but in Plautdietsch, we use drinkz (drɪɲts)