Countries that have es in their names united states and ireland tend to spell it whiskey plural whiskeys countries without es in their names canada scotland and japan spell it whisky plural whiskies. Its a term used for many types of invigorating spirits over time for example eau de vie in modern usage whisky is from scotland and whiskey is from ireland the difference comes from the translation of words from the scottish and irish gaelic forms. Well that depends on the country of origin if the liquor originated in the united states or ireland use whiskey if the liquor originated in scotland canada or japan use whisky. There are several differences to note when it comes to identifying and tasting scotch and irish whiskey and many of them are actually surprisingly obvious from the first sip we will break down the top three differences between these similar spirits 1 irish whiskey and scotch whisky are spelled differently