A TikToker Says They Can Tell If You're Canadian By How You Say One Word But Canucks Disagree

Do you sound Canadian? According to one TikToker, it's easy to tell.

TikToker Ty of English with Ty, who provides tips for learning English online, says he can tell if you're Canadian by your pronunciation of one word, but, ironically, Canadians seem to wholeheartedly disagree.

In a video on his page, @englischlernenx, Ty asks viewers if they sound British, American or Canadian.

"How do you say this word?" he asks in the clip, which has amassed over 196,000 likes.

The word in question might make Canucks roll their eyes. The word "out" is shown on the screen, with instructions to viewers to "say the word now."

"In British English and American English, it's simply 'out,'" says Ty. "In Canadian English, it's more like 'öut,'" he says, pronouncing the word more like "oought."

He then includes a clip from the 2005 sitcom How I Met Your Mother demonstrating the pronunciation.

The clip in question sees the character Robin (played by Cobie Smulders), who is Canadian in the show, pronounce the word "out" as Ty did.

Canadians in the comments sounded off appropriately, with many noting that no one in Canada really pronounces "out" that way.

"As a Canadian, nobody says öut," said one commenter, along with many others.

"Next you'll be saying we say 'aboot' for 'about,'" said another person.

"What Canadians are you talking about?" asked other commenters.

Even the clip from How I Met Your Mother is more or less poking fun at the Canadian accent, rather than trying to mimic it, as others pointed out.

"That isn't how it's said," said one person. "We say it like British/American, that show was basically making fun of the Canadian accent."

The idea that Canadians say "oot" (and "aboot") seems to be one of those persisting Canadian stereotypes, like that we have a chronic need to apologize (which may or may not be true).

But as the Oxford English Dictionary demonstrates, the "ou" sound found in "out" is most commonly pronounced with an "au" sound in Canada, such as in "mound."

It's said that the misconception is due to "Canadian raising." According to English professor Taylor Roberts, this phenomenon in Canadian speech can make the pronunciation of "about" often sound like "aboot," but it's only an illusion.

While there are definitely regional differences across the country, it seems like most Canadians in the comments of the video agree — no one in Canada says "öut."

Even if the rest of the world doesn't always recognize the Canadian accent, it does apparently find it appealing. In 2022, a study conducted by learning platform Preply found the Canadian accent to be one of the sexiest accents in the world.