From Twitter:
答えは？ Fill in:
A: What’re you drinking?
B: Cola.
A: You mean seltzer? Root beer? Ginger ale?
B. No. Pepsi.
A. Nobody likes Pepsi; all __ is trash, but if we drink it, we get Coke.
B. What’s ‘__?’
A. What you WANT–not “Cola.” No one says “cola.”
a. pop
b. soda pop
c. soda
Answer: The answer is c. soda.
Explanation:
Though it is true that “cola” refers to carbonated drinks, it generally comes from “Coca Cola”, a brand. The actual definition is:
(from Dictionary.com):
a carbonated soft drink containing an extract made from kola nuts, together with sweeteners and other flavorings.
‘Soda’ is more correct as a reference to carbonated water–thus we say “soda water.” As you can see it is not a product but a condition or state-type of water itself. So actually, it would be more correct to say ‘I’ll have a cola’, but, alas, language is not always sensible and maybe not all sodas are made with the extract of cola nuts.
