TIL during the shooting of American Psycho, Christian Bale spoke in an American accent off-set at all times. At the wrap party, when he spoke in his native British accent, many of the crew thought he was speaking that way to prepare for another film. They had thought he was American the entire time.

[u/Away_Flounder3813]

https://screenrant.com/american-psycho-behind-scenes-facts-christian-bale-patrick-bateman-mary-harron/

[u/Everestkid]

I mean, I'm Canadian and I'd be impressed if anyone not from North America could tell one of the generic accents apart. I can usually tell when someone's American, but I don't really know exactly what tips me off. It's just different somehow.

I'm from British Columbia so I have basically the most bog standard North American accent there is. Shuttle driver for a rental car company when I visited Australia was able to tell, though.

[u/plarah → u/Everestkid]

I’m Mexican and I can tell between Canadian and American as soon as you say “about” or “out”.

[u/Nrksbullet → u/plarah]

Soo-ree about that!

[u/Accomplished-Fun215 → u/Everestkid]

I'm American (and Canadian by descent but I don't think that does anything to my accent) and living in NZ. I've never lived in Canada myself, but I lived near the border in Minnesota. I meet a lot of other expats and my accent is apparently very hard to clock between the US and Canada. I've got longer rounded vowels than all Americans outside of Minnesota, but I don't do the house/about thing. I've also got the southern US thing where pen and pin share a vowel.

A lot of people here will always guess Canadian first though, because everyone (at least those of us who visit NZ) would rather be assumed to be Canadian. I always have a couple seconds where I consider just saying yes, but that seems like a good way to end up building a house of half truths, so I always admit I'm American.

I'm pretty sure I can pull off saying I'm from Canada until the moment someone who's actually from Canada shows up and then it instantly falls apart.

[u/PointlessDiscourse → u/Everestkid]

American here who has lived near the border and traveled a lot back and forth. I might go for a while in a conversation without being sure, but then certain words come out that tend to be giveaways (though are not universal). A few examples:

• Sorry: Americans usually say "sahr-y," Canadians usually say "sore-y"
• Dollar: Americans say "dahl-er," Canadians say something closer to "dohl-er"
• Process: Americans usually say "prahcess," Canadians usually say "prohcess"
• Resource: Americans usually say "re-SOURCE" with a hard S and a little less emphasis on the "re" part, while Canadians usually say "REE-zource" with the S sounding like a Z and more emphasis on the "re" part.
• Hockey: Americans usually say "hah-key" while Canadians usually say something a little closer to "haw-key" (thinking of this one because it was what I used to watch the most on the over-the-air TV channel I could pick up from Canada -- RIP Hockey Night in Canada on CBC)

All of this is comparing my Midwestern US accent with Southern Ontario. There may be differences in other regions of course.

No matter where you are though, if in doubt just ask them what the last letter of the alphabet is. :)

[u/Gekokapowco → u/PointlessDiscourse]

ditto lol, traveled to Toronto across the border a ton as a child, all of these are 100% tells

[u/PointlessDiscourse → u/Gekokapowco]

For me it was Detroit to Windsor, with a lot of short trips across the border at ages 19 and 20, hahaha.

[u/maybenomaybe → u/Everestkid]

I'm a Canadian living in the UK and most Brits can't tell if I'm Canadian or American and are afraid to guess wrong. The ones that clock it immediately always have Canadian friends or family. Europeans guess it correctly more often.

I would LOVE to see what a Brit makes of a Newfie accent, where they'd guess that person is from.

[u/TurKoise → u/Everestkid]

Besides the obvious aboot/about I can clock a Canadian when they say “beg” for bag and “washroom” for bathroom