Carbonated Beverages

We seem to have a decently diverse population on dream views, so I figured this is as good a place as any to ask what people call a carbonated drink. This is mostly just because I am curious to see what the different answers are, this is a pretty cool topic to me. ;)

In the United States the most popular terms are pop and soda. Pop is the common term where I live, and is indeed the one I use, but soda is a little more common, it seems to be the main term on both the populous west and east coasts of our country. Most of my friends who live far from me in the U.S. call it soda. Soda-pop is a thing, too, but it seems to be dated. If you say soda-pop in the U.S. now, you are probably at least 60 years old (obviously there are exceptions to all these rules). I have also heard that coke is a pretty popular term for pop, but I haven't had the experience of knowing people who use it myself. Apparently it is the main word for it in parts of the southern United States, but even my friends from the south called it soda. I have no idea what other English-speaking countries call pop, but I would guess that they use one of the first three terms I mentioned. (I would be happy to be wrong about that - if so please correct me!)

In Korea the generic term for a soft drink is 소다 (soda), but that word is rarely used. Usually they refer to the drink more specifically, calling Coca-Cola/Pepsi type drinks 콜라 (cola), and Sprite/7up type drinks 사이다 (cider). Usually they will drink one of these two things, but if it is a different soft drink they will often mention it by the specific name/brand. (Also they don't have or even like root beer. Is root beer mostly just an American thing?)

So in your culture, or another culture/language you know of, what do you call a carbonated drink? This seems to be one of the most flexible words across cultures.

hi, i come from sweden and my 2 favorite drinks are, carbonated water, we call it bubbly water or sparkling water and root beer. Also there is a machine we could buy too make tap water bubbly/carbonated. Here we don't really use the terms soda or pop, it would just be coke or fanta. :-)

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Originally Posted by oneironautics

hi, i come from sweden and my 2 favorite drinks are, carbonated water, we call it bubbly water or sparkling water and root beer. Also there is a machine we could buy too make tap water bubbly/carbonated. Here we don't really use the terms soda or pop, it would just be coke or fanta. :-)

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Aha! I knew root beer was great, and I am glad to see it's not just people in my country who think so. :bow:
That is really interesting that you use coke or fanta. I wonder if a lot of the world is like that, referring to pop by its specific type.

In the England, there seems to be lots of carbonated beverages filling the shelves and people are quite fussy about which they drink. Hence people will specify exactly which product they wish for i.e coke or diet coke, pepsi or diet pepsi, orange fanta or lemon fanta, ginger ale or jamaican ginger beer and a like but there are also a plethora of other ones too numerous to mention which are either a fad or alternative to alcoholic drinks. If someone should order "cola" in a bar/restaurant/cafe they would most likely be given a non-branded version of coke/pepsi which would be fine if they wanted it as a mixer (with alcohol) or did not care as to its taste (were buying it for their small humans). As to water it's sparkling or still or tap (non bottled if your ordering in a restaurant (château Thames)).
Also there are a large amount of new carbonated beverages out there that are
1) carbonated drinks aimed at supposedly sporty people: energy drinks (e.g lucorzade)
2) carbonated drinks for tired people containing caffeine and dubious ingredients (e.g monster)
3) carbonated drinks that are supposed to be healthy for you (e.g purdys)
Myself i'll stick to water unless I need a mixer.

Very particular thread, I like it! For my health and wallet I don't buy this stuff anymore.... I only drink tap-water, milk and tea, but I'm still going to make sure scandinavia is overrepresented in this thread...

In Norway all non-alcoholic, sugared, bubbly drinks are almost exclusively called "brus" from the verb "bruse", which means to fizz.
Carbonated water is called farris,(a brand name that stuck) "saltvann", "bobblevann" or "mineralvann" -vann means water... Mineralvann is also used as an umbrella term for all carbonated drinks.
All types of coke, pepsi etc. are referred to as Cola.
Energy drinks are reffered to by name or called energidrikk.
Root beer is available in most stores but I don't think I've ever seen anybody drink it. We call it ingefærøl (ginger beer)


Brand names are used a lot for everything.

Talking to children we often call beer "voksenbrus" Adult-Soda:lol:

I want to pass a law to call all fizzy drinks "bobblevann" just because I like the name so much.

(Incidentally, the cheapest cola brands are recommended to be used as cleaning products due to their acidity.)

I call a soft drink a non-alcoholic drink. If the soft drink is carbonated and I'm being general, I call it soda. If the soda is root beer, I call it root beer regardless of brand name. If the soda is cola, I call it by the brand name if I know it. If the soda is Fanta, I call it orange soda. If the soda is mineral water, I call it sparkling water. If the soda is a flavored sparkling water, I specify what flavor sparkling water it is.

I’m from Australia, and it varies from state to state. In South Australia it’s Fizzy Drink or Soft Drink. In Tasmania it’s Cordial (well, it was in the 1980’s).

We use the term “soda” for Soda Water. It’s just water with carbonation only (perhaps what Americans call Club Soda??) . No sugar or flavours. Then to make it more confusing we have “Mineral Water” which is also plain carbonated water, but I think the difference is that it is spring water, not tap water. Then there’s Tonic Water too... it’s awful stuff.

When it comes to other fizzy drinks, the bigger the brand, the more likely we are to use it’s actual name ie Coke, Pepsi, Fanta or Solo (although Sprite often just gets called “lemonade”)... we never ask for cola, only supermarkets sell any cola other than Coke or Pepsi. Root Beer is not sold here except as an expensive import in certain American theme stores and the occasional supermarket like Foodland (in SA).

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Originally Posted by LighrkVader

In Norway all non-alcoholic, sugared, bubbly drinks are almost exclusively called "brus" from the verb "bruse", which means to fizz.

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Brus, I like that one. Simple and easy to remember.

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Originally Posted by LighrkVader

Talking to children we often call beer "voksenbrus" Adult-Soda:lol:

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That is great. :chuckle: I love it.

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Originally Posted by dolphin

I call a soft drink a non-alcoholic drink. If the soft drink is carbonated and I'm being general, I call it soda.

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Oh, that must be where the word soft drink comes from. Wow, that seems obvious now that I think of it. I feel dumb now, haha. To my defense, I don't drink, so I don't know much about it. :) Now that I think of it though, it is interesting how Americans seem to be the opposite with alcohol, where we call each alcoholic drink by its type or sometimes even brand name. In Korea there is a general term for all alcoholic drinks, 술 (sul), and it is used a little more often than any distinctive wording. I suppose it is similar to how we say "do you wanna go get a drink?" and it is obvious we mean alcohol.

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Originally Posted by Finny

I’m from Australia, and it varies from state to state. In South Australia it’s Fizzy Drink or Soft Drink. In Tasmania it’s Cordial (well, it was in the 1980’s).

We use the term “soda” for Soda Water. It’s just water with carbonation only (perhaps what Americans call Club Soda??) .

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About the club soda, that sounds right. I really don't like club soda. :P When I lived in Korea I was friends with this girl from Australia, and now that you mention it, I don't think she ever said the word soda.

Pop is basically a catch all term for fizzy non-alcoholic drinks here in England. Obviously, if we want something specific we'll say "Fanta" or whatever. Occasionally, we use coke as a general term, but that's sometimes confusing. It's a bit like calling a console a "Nintendo". Works fine if you're refering to a Switch. Not so much if you're on about a Playstation.

I'm in Scotland, we call it "fizzy juice" or "soft drink". Some Scots call it "ginger", but I don't use that one much.

Side-note: <3 Lucozade Original

So my professor is from Spain and I asked her this same question.

She said in Spain the general term is usually bebida con gas (which essentially means drink with fizz), but often at a restaurant or such they will ask specifically by brand name such as "would you like a Coca-Cola?"

We call it Soda and I love Root beer and Mountain Dew

I call soft drinks, soft drinks or by their name such as pepsi, coke, fanta, sprite, mountain dew etc. My parents call them "cool drinks." I used to drink them a lot in my teens, but rarely drink them nowadays mostly because of health concerns. ^^

So has anybody drank a Coke (Coca-Cola) or any other soft drink in an LD, ....what did it taste like?

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Originally Posted by Fly_by_Night

So has anybody drank a Coke (Coca-Cola) or any other soft drink in an LD, ....what did it taste like?

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Oh yes, I have and surprisingly tasted like the real thing. In fact, I had a dream recently where my significant other and were walking about and get Pepsi from a vending machine because we were thirsty. ^^