Un conseil : Assurez-vous de bien barrer votre vélo.
At the marché Jean-Talon in Montréal, a yellow sign advises bike owners to lock up their bikes:
Assurez-vous de bien barrer votre vélo. Be sure to lock your bike securely.
Do you remember from earlier posts on OffQc that the Québécois also sometimes call a bike un bécik at the informal level of language?
Bécik entered the language via English. It’s how the Québécois pronounce bicycle.
Barrer is used in Québec in the sense of “to lock up.” It’s pronounced bâré. The â sound comes close to the “aww” sound of English.
The verb barrer appeared in this list of 50 words pronounced with the â sound in Québec, but not written with the accented â.
barrer la porte
to lock the door
barrer son vélo
to lock one’s bike
barrer son bécik
to lock one’s bike
[this one sounds especially québécois]
You can use barrer to talk about locking any kind of door: a house door, bathroom door, bedroom door, shop door, etc.
barrer sa case
barrer son casier
to lock one’s locker
Both case and casier also appeared in the list of 50 â-sound words. They’re pronounced câz and câzié in Québec.
barrer sa case avec un cadenas
barrer son casier avec un cadenas
to lock one’s locker with a padlock
The second a in cadenas also uses the â sound. That darn â sound is all over the place! The Québécois pronounce those last two examples as:
bâré sa câz avec un cadnâ
bâré son câzié avec un cadnâ
Just behind the sign in that same image, we see a bike locked up to a rack. What’s the term used in Québec for a bike rack?
A sign in the marché Jean-Talon (see below) shows us one way to say “bike rack” in French:
un support à vélo
a bike rack
The term support à vélo (or support à vélos) is standard Québécois French. But during spontaneous conversations, you might also hear:
un rack à vélo
un rack à bécik
[these both sound especially québécois; the second one in particular is guaranteed to make your French teacher's skin go all goose pimply]
A rack for bikes is called “un support” in French, but you’ll also hear “un rack.”
