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  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,984 Member
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    earlnabby wrote: »
    dewd2 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    jestog63 wrote: »
    BTW it's coke not soda or pop. They are all coke just different flavors like Dr Pepper, 7-up, mountain dew, orange and rootbeer LOL

    No, they are different things depending on your location.

    Where I live they are called soft drinks - and then one specifies if one means a particular one- coke, pepsi, lemon squash etc
    (I use the term soda on MFP because I think it is more world wide recognisable - I dont use it in real life)

    Soft drinks is understood in the US. It's what restaurants often use.

    I grew up in and live in pop country, but I went to college in the enemy soda part of the country (kidding) and use both somewhat interchangeably. If I ordered diet coke and someone brought me diet pepsi, let alone Dr Pepper or a Diet Dew, that would not be okay!


    oh thats interesting - I never see it referred to as soft drink by americans on this forum.

    In the US it would sound more formal/restaurant speak (kind of like "non-alcoholic beverages") so I would not use it in casual speech, but it doesn't sound weird to me, and I'd expect Americans to understand it for sure.

    Thanks for that.

    Here 'soft drinks' is really the only generic term, unless one means a specific one, eg Coke, raspberry etc.


    Just to be clear, in the U.S. "soda" is a carbonated non-alcoholic drink. "Soft drink" is a wider term that includes non-carbonated and carbonated non-alcoholic drinks. So, juice and iced tea (sweet or unsweet :smile: ) are soft drinks.

    Really? In Central Pennsylvania I've never heard 'soft drink' refer to anything else than carbonated beverages.

    That's probably because carbonated beverages dominate the soft drink category.

    The term originated as alternative to "hard" drinks -- drinks with alcohol.

    That may be true but actual usage for anything other than soda went the way of the Dodo decades ago. 63 years old and I never heard "soft drink" used for something other than soda.

    ETA: the Wikipedia definition

    "A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains carbonated water (although some lemonades are not carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a sugar substitute (in the case of diet drinks), or some combination of these. Soft drinks may also contain caffeine, colorings, preservatives, and/or other ingredients."

    Other than lemonade, no mention of juice, tea, etc. ever being called a soft drink.

    Usually = not always
    My experience with the usage of the term does not mirror yours, and I am younger than you.