soda VS soft drink / carbonated water VS sparkling water

Question

Hello everyone! I'm building a vocabulary about drinks and I'd like to know which terms are the most common in the USA and if there's differences between them:

soda VS soft drink / carbonated water VS sparkling water

Answer 1

Soda and soft drink are the same thing. You may also hear the terms pop and cold drink. Cold drink is more of a Southern thing, maybe even limited to certain parts of Louisiana.

I think carbonated water and sparkling water are the same, but I don't drink the stuff so I'm not a 100% sure.

Good answer. I was going to mention "pop" which, I think, is used mostly in the norther midwestern US. - kirk1, Feb 19, 2013

Mil gracias. - maestroantonio, Feb 19, 2013

Answer 2

Creo que "soda" y "sparkling water" son los términos más populares. I think soda and sparkling water are the more popular terms.

Answer 3

• Soft drink sounds more formal than soda, but they mean the same thing.
• Sparkling water is more common.

Mil gracias también. - maestroantonio, Feb 19, 2013

But if you add water as in "soda water", it means something a little different. Sorry maestro that English is also a complicated language. - kirk1, Feb 19, 2013

Answer 4

Maestro, Here's my contribution:

If you are in a situation where alcoholic beverages are available, it would be very common to ask for a "soft drink" if you don't want alcohol.

In general situations most commonly here in the Midwest USA we say pop or soda.

In addition people also use: soda pop, and sometimes coke to refer to any flavored carbonated beverage.

I don't apparently keep company with people who drink carbonated water, but I think sparkling water sounds more familiar to me so pieman's probably right on that.

Answer 5

You can use both they mean the same thing, pop is another word. It depends what area of the country you are in. In the east they say soda, in the midwest they say pop or soft drink and in the south they say coke, for any type of beverage.