18 Canadian Slang Words You Should Know

Many moons ago, like about 30 full moons ago, I binged Kim’s Convenience on Netflix for about three weeks. I know that sounds like a long time for binge-watching, but the series has a total of 65 episodes! 65 episodes is a lot of episodes but each one is worth every minute. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it. I bet you'll be hooked faster than a fish on a line! Oh and you might even learn some Canadian expressions while you’re at it too!

One of the things I remember from watching the series was how I would sometimes pause the episode to look up what the characters were talking about. Well, that’s because they were using a lot of Canadianisms. Well, duh—the show’s set in Toronto and the Kim family’s Korean-Canadian, so that would just make total sense.

In one of the episodes, they called one of their bills a ‘hydro bill.’ And I thought they were talking about a water bill, but I wasn’t entirely sure. Thanks to the magic of the internet, I learned that a hydro bill isn’t a water bill… but an electricity bill. It is called a hydro bill because much of Canada’s electricity comes from hydroelectric power, and many of their electricity providers have 'hydro' in their name.

PS – @omgimacliche if you’re reading this, hellooooooo!!! Blink once for a hi, twice for a hello, thrice for hi and hello. And I hope you have your ketchup chips!

18 Canadian Slang Words You Should Know

1. two-four: a case of 24 beer bottles
2. loonie: a one-dollar coin
3. toonie: a two-dollar coin
4. freezie: a popsicle
5. fire hall: a fire station
6. stag: a bachelor party
7. stagette: a bachelorette party
8. double-double: a cup of coffee with two creams and two sugars
9. homo milk: whole milk, homogenized milk
10. pop: a soda or a soft drink; a carbonated drink
11. washroom: a bathroom or a restroom
12. tap: a faucet
13. hydro bill: electricity bill
14. parkade: a multistory parking garage building
15. runners: sneakers or tennis shoes; running shoes
16. clicks: aka “kilometers”
17. knapsack: a backpack
18. pencil crayons: colored pencils or coloured pencils