What do you call it? Pop, soda, soft drink or coke?

This is interesting. What’s your word for a carbonated non-alcoholic beverage: pop, soda, soft drink or coke? It turns out that you can tell a lot about where somebody comes from by their answer to that question. I had never used the word “soda” before heading to Purdue for college. We always used “pop”.

When I was in the Peace Corps in the Philippines the word for “pop” or “soft drink” was often “Coke.” However, occasionally people would use “soft drinks.” If you’d stop by a little snack shop in the area where I was assigned, to find out what kinds of pop they served you’d ask, “Ano ang cokes nyo, Day?” and the waitress would answer, “7 Up”, “Mirinda” or even “Coke” and sometimes “Pepsi”! Fun! The natural follow-up question is, “Can you guess where I was assigned in the Philippines?”

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4 Responses to What do you call it? Pop, soda, soft drink or coke?

  1. Pingback: Soda Drinks: Why Are They Dangerous? | Just Spit It Out Already!

  2. Pete, I agree that “relying on words alone is dangerous” — and you provide a fun example of that!

    Please thoroughly enjoy your technology break; I agree that it is refreshing and rejuvenating to simply unplug from time to time!

  3. Pingback: Soda – POP – or Coke? | learnactshare

  4. kynseehamar says:

    Reblogged this on Ms. Hamar's Classroom and commented:
    What do you call it?!?

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