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Quiz their spelling

The average American will probably know the basic quirks of Canadian spelling; colour instead of color, cheque instead of check, etc. But they will get tripped up on the more subtle difference: “Defence” instead of “defense,” “calibre” instead of “caliber,” “grey” instead of “gray” and “medallist” instead of “medalist.” This is admittedly the weakest indicator on this list, however. With U.S. ebooks and web content now flooding over the border without a Canadian editor to punch them up with extra U’s, a generation is growing up callously unaware that Sir Isaac Brock died at Queenston Heights to preserve their right to spell “harbour.”

“What’s this called?”

Again, many U.S. citizens will likely know that a “knit cap” is called a “tuque” in Canada. But they can be tripped up on more innocuous words. Geekdad.com blogger Jules Sherred has become an unofficial expert on “Canadianisms.” Through informal surveys of GeekDad readers, Sherred has identified 55 words in common usage by Canadians, but strangely foreign to Americans. Four of the best examples are below:

“Runners” for running shoes

“Parkade” for parking garage

“Twenty-sixer” to describe a 750 ml bottle of spirits

“Freezies” for a popsicle that comes in a plastic tube

Identify a Tragically Hip song

From Neil Young to Avril Lavigne to Celine Dion, Canadian pop stars usually collect most of their royalty cheques in greenbacks — and often only return back to Canada for the occasional Juno award. This has stubbornly refused to happen with the Hip. Nine of the group’s albums have reached number one in Canada. In the United States, meanwhile, they’ve never even cracked the top 100. In the words of the BBC, they are “the most Canadian band in the world.” Even a Canadian who does not own a Hip album will have spent much of their life unwittingly basting in Tragically Hip radio spins. The American, by contrast, will have known a sunless existence devoid of this blessing.