Québec French!

Quite some time ago, i got an ask about québécois resources (and in a very stupid mistake managed to delete the ask [okay truthfully, i replied to the ask by mistake and then had to delete it, i’m an idiot]). So here are a bunch of things you can look at, watch and listen to improve your knowledge of Québec French.

GENERAL

OffQc: vocab, expressions, pretty much anything really

Office québécois de la langue française: in case you ever want to know if a word can be used in Québec

My quebec-french tag (shameless self-promo)

@lemonadeandlanguages‘s words of the day

Je parle québécois: vocab, expressions, a bunch of stuff really

QcFrench: vocab

CCDMD : grammar

VIDEOS

Québécois pour les nuls - Solangeteparle

Parler Québécois en 5 minutes - Denyzee

8 Things Québécois People Say - Mark Hachem

Some youtubers:

PL Cloutier

Lysandre Nadeau

Thomas Gauthier

Gaboom Films (pour les jokes de papa)

MUSIC

Louis-Jean Cormier

Karkwa

Harmonium

Les trois accords

Les Colocs

Jean Leloup

Les Soeurs Boulay

Pierre Lapointe

Hubert Lenoir

Loud

Les Louanges [he’s from my city]

Dans Brume [totally promoting my friend’s band]

TV SHOWS

Unité 9

Trop.

Féminin/féminin

Série noire

Occupation double [reality tv]

Fugueuse

Some of these shows you can find on tou.tv but you will need a VPN if you’re watching from outside Canada. Série noire is on Netflix in Canada.

BOOKS

I know it might sound like a weird thing to include a reading section, because written French is the same here and in Europe. except it’s not, not when it comes to dialogues and expressions. So here are some books with very typical québec writing. (most of these books are really recent so you might have a bit of a hard time finding free versions, but they’re worth the price)

Royal by Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard (THE BEST)

L’allégorie des truites arc-en-ciel by Marie-Christine Chartier

Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner

Six degrés de liberté by Nicolas Dickner

noms fictifs by Olivier Sylvestre

Géolocaliser l’amour by Simon Boulerice

absolutely anything by Michel Tremblay (#joual)

Et au pire, on se mariera by Sophie Bienvenu

L’orangeraie by Larry Tremblay (okay technically not really québécois sounding from what i remember of it but it’s one of the best books i’ve read)

RADIO

Radio-Canada has some radio stations you can listen to online (i hope you can listen to them outside of Canada?). Some are more about music [icimusique], some more about the news and people talking [icipremière]. 

WKND [said weekend or wknd]: my favourite radio station. this is almost only music, so you might not get to hear people talk, but if you listen at night or early in the morning (québec time) there are a bunch of french songs (thanks to the CRTC)

ALSO

Subjunctive is a mood typically used to express wishes, desires, emotions, opinions, doubts, and necessities.

To form the present subjunctive, take the present indicative 3rd person plural form (ils/elles) of most verbs, remove the ending -ent, and add the following endings:

-e -es -e -ions -iez -ent

Verbs which take on irregular formations include avoir, être, faire, aller, savoir, pouvoir, and vouloir

The present subjunctive is used with expressions which could fall into 5 general categories:

1. NECESSITY

il faut que // it is necessary to

il est important que // it is important that

il est nécessaire que // it is essential that

il est temps que // it is time that

il est urgent que // it is urgent that

il est exigé que // it is required that

ex: Il est essentiel que je finisse mes devoirs. // It is essential that I finish my homework.

2. DESIRE

aimer (mieux) que // to prefer that

défendre que // to forbid that

demander que // to ask that

exiger que // to demand/require that

ordonner que // to order that

permettre que // to permit that

préférer que // to prefer that

souhaiter que // to wish/hope that

vouloir que // to want/wish that

ex: Mes parents défendent que je sorte pendant la semaine. // My parents forbid that I go out during the week.

3. DOUBT

il est douteux que // it is doubtful that

il est (im)possible que // it is (im)possible that

il est improbable que // it is improbable that

il n’est pas certain/sûr que // it is not sure that

il n’est pas clair que // it is not clear that

il n’est pas vrai que // it is not true that

il se peut que // it is possible that

il semble que // it seems that

douter que // to doubt that

ex: Il se peut que ces touristes ne parlent pas français. // It is possible that these tourists do not speak french.

4. EMOTION

il est bon que // it is good that

il est dommage que // it is a pity that

il est triste que // it is sad that

il est surprenant que // it is surprising that

il est regrettable que // it is regrettable that

il est étonnant que // it is astonishing that

il est bizarre que // it is odd that

il est curieux que // it is curious that

il est (mal)heureux que // it is (un)fortunate that

il est honteux que // it is a shame that

il est (in)utile que // it is useless/useful that

il est incroyable que // it is incredible that

ex: Il est très utile que nous apprenions le français. // It is very useful that we learn french.

5. OPINION

il est normal que // it is normal that

il est logique que // it is logical that

il est naturel que // it is natural that

il est (in)juste que // it is (un)just that

il est rare que // it is rare that

il est préférable que // it is preferable that

il est convenable que // it is fitting/proper that

il vaut mieux que // it is better that

Tumblrs new coloured text had great potential for on-the-fly glossing / showing context:

I love you

je t’aime

nijiqame

ndiyakuthanda

ke a o rata

mi olin e sina

איך האָב דיך ליב [ix hob dix lib]

QUAND (WHEN)

can be replaced by “lorsque” : lorsque je serai roi, je te renverrai tout de suite (when i’m the king, i’ll fire you right away)

QUANT À 

is a prepositional locution meaning “when it comes to” (en ce qui concerne x) : quant à vous, je vous félicite sincèrement (when it comes to you, you have my sincere congratulations).

This is cool.

CBC has posted an editorial written in Inuktitut. Inuktitut is the Inuit language spoken primarily in Nunavut.

The editorial is about asking why the Premier of Nunavut ended up being voted out losing a confidence vote.

J'pense qu'y est temps que j'me réveille,

que mon cadran sonne

Yé temps que tes conneries arrêtent de m'taper dans y'eule.

arrête d'épingler les affiches de mes défauts

sur des murs que t'as construit

8/2/2018

Saying “beaucoup” over and over can get tiring for you and for your audience so here are some ways to try and avoid using it too much.

Bien de(s) + nom + action (la plupart du temps) [formal]: Il y a bien des choses à faire. - There is a lot of stuff to do.

Bondé de + personnes : C’est bondé de monde ici. - There are a lot of people here.

Des/un tas de + nom : J’ai signé des tas de papiers pour mon boulot. - I signed a lot/heap of papers for my job.

Énormément [formal]: Nous aimons énormément cette ville, mais on doit déménager. - We love this city a lot/tremendously but we have to move.

Plein de + nom [informal] : On a plein de raisons de te détester. - We have a lot of reasons to hate you.

Tarpin de + nom [informal, from the south of France] : Il y a tarpin (trop) de personnes à cette putain de fête. - There are a lot (too many) people at this fucking party.

Vachement de + nom [informal] : J’ai faim et on n’a pas vachement de choix. - I’m hungry and we don’t have a lot of options/choices.

hello,

a direct object (complément d’objet direct - COD) :

- is placed right after the verb,

- answers the question what/who,

- refers to the person or thing making the action

ex : le chat mange des croquettes. le chat mange quoi ? des croquettes

an indirect object (complément d’objet indirect - COI) :

- is separated from the verb by a preposition (the main ones being : à - at, chez - at (someone’s place), dans - in, de - of, from, since, by…, entre - between, jusque - as far as, hors - except (for), par - by, with, out of, pour - for, sans - without et vers - towards),

- answers the question of who? of what? to who? to what?,

- refers to the person or thing experiencing the action,

- can be : a noun/nominal group (nous sommes partis sans lui), a pronoun (tu leur expliqueras), an infinitive (il est allé jusqu’à prendre la route de nuit) or a subordinate clause (nous avons obéi à ce que tu as demandé)

ex : sophie discute avec jules. sophie discute avec qui ? jules 

n.b. : don’t mix up indirect object and possessive phrase (complément du nom). ex : le frère de son ami est là aussi

a second object (complément d’objet second - COS) :

- completes a verb that already has a direct object,

- is introduced by a preposition (except if it is a pronoun),

- can be placed before or after the verb

ex : marianne envoie un sms (COD) à sa voisine (COS) : marianne lui (COS) envoie un sms (COD)

Disclaimer: I am not from Quebec and French is not my first language. These are just the resources I’ve been able to find online and things which have been recommended to me. I make no guarantees about availability for all regions, etc. I’ve linked to the list so I can keep it updated as I find new resources! Let me know if there’s something you think should be added!

Hello/Bonjour ! *version française suit*

If you are a native English speaker from Canada or a native English speaker from the United States, please consider taking 10-15 minutes of your day to complete this survey about patterns in Canadian and American English. It’s part of a study on second language acquisition of English. 

Please share with your North American friends!

Si vous êtes un.e francophone québécois.e, veuillez considérer remplir ce formulaire qui prendra 15-20 minutes de votre temps. Le formulaire pose des questions par rapport à vos habitudes en anglais et fait partie d’une enquête sur l’apprentissage de l’anglais en tant que langue seconde.  

Je vous encourage à partager ce sondage avec vos ami.e.s québécois.e.s aussi!