Lemonade = Sprite/SevenUp?

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Forums · General English Grammar & Vocabulary, Listening & Speaking · General English Vocabulary & Idiom Questions
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Hi, everyone. Yesterday, I was talking to an American friend and she told me that when she was working as a waitress in London somewhere, the customers would refer to Sprite/SevenUp as lemonade. So, when they asked for lemonade, it was the fizzy drinks they were requesting. Now, I've never heard that before and I've lived in the UK for donkeys.

So, I was wondering, does anyone know if "lemonade" is used for the fizzy drinks in any part of the UK?
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I don't know if I would use it for either of those particular products; I'm not familiar enough with their taste or constituents. However, in my parlance "lemonade" can certainly be a fizzy drink as well as a still one.
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Hi,

When I lived in London years ago, one of my London relatives said to me , 'Let's go out for a quick lemonade'.

We came home after 8 pints of beer (each).

When I was a child, lemonade was always fizzy.

Clive
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As your friend was working in a hotel, I would guess the customers were from Australia or NZ where for fifty years the local manufacturers, including schweppes, have sold lemonade as a carbonated beverage (I believe it was because the local recipes were made with soda rather than still water), which is the same as Seven-Up or Sprite in the States. In that pecularly American way, the brand name has been adopted and the generic name lost (think Klenex for a tissue or Jacuzzi for a spa bath).
CliveWe came home after 8 pints of beer (each).

Next time you come to London I'll go out for a lemonade with you Clive.

Lemonade is the name of the drink. Sprite/7 up/all those others are brand names.

Cola is the drink. Coke/Pepsi is the brand.
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Where I come from lemonade is never fizzy. It's lemon juice in sugar water.

I am familiar with the French word limonade, however, which is just what you describe -- a fizzy drink like Sprite. My French dictionary defines it as lemonade (British) or SevenUp (American). This leads me to believe that lemonade as I know it is not what the British call lemonade.

CJ
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Hi, I am an American and I lived in Beck Row, just outside Mildenhall in Suffolk for 3 years. From my interactions with the locals, I learned that what they were calling lemonade was more like Sprite or 7 up. It was a Carbonated lemon flavored drink. I never did learn what they called lemonade as made by Americans. I am guessing they call it American or Yankee lemonade.
AnonymousHi, I am an American and I lived in Beck Row, just outside Mildenhall in Suffolk for 3 years. From my interactions with the locals, I learned that what they were calling lemonade was more like Sprite or 7 up. It was a Carbonated lemon flavored drink. I never did learn what they called lemonade as made by Americans. I am guessing they call it American or Yankee lemonade.
It's called cloudy lemonade, though it tends to be carbonated also rather than flat.
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In south Africa I know places that when you order passion fruit and lemonade they will give you Sprite instead and you will not even notice notice unless you are a genius
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