Wou-hou, check la madame, est toute énarvée!
Yes! Entry #800! I’m so excited!
J’suis tellement énervé!
Now there’s an expression that means the opposite of what you might expect…
In Québec, j’suis tellement énervé doesn’t have the negative meaning of “annoyed” or “irritated” like it does in France.
It has the positive meaning of “excited.”
Remember, je suis is very often pronounced informally as chu or chui.
I’ll use the spelling j’suis below to show these informal pronunciations.
J’suis tellement énervée, je tiens plus en place.
I’m so excited, I can’t keep still.
Je dors pu, j’suis tellement énervé!
I can’t sleep anymore, I’m so excited!
Je capote, j’suis énervée, excitée…
I can’t calm down, I’m so excited…
J’suis toute énervée, là! J’ai plein de papillons!
I’m so excited! I’m all butterflies!
J’suis tellement énervé de partir.
I’m so excited to leave.
J’étais très énervé à l’idée de le rencontrer.
I was very excited at the idea of meeting him.
J’suis tellement énervée! Je me peux plus! Maudit que j’ai hâte!
I’m so excited! I can’t take it anymore! Damn I can’t wait!
When I was pulling quotes from television shows back when I started OffQc, I remember the expression je me peux plus was used more than a few times in La Galère. If I’m not mistaken, it was Mimi who used to use it. If you’re watching early episodes of the series, you can listen for it.
In that last example above, je me peux plus means essentially the same thing as j’ai hâte. You’ll remember that the Québécois pronounce â like “aww,” so hâte almost-sorta-kinda sounds like the English word “ought,” whereas in France hâte sounds more like the English word “at.”
J’ai hâte! Je me peux plus!
I can’t wait! I can’t take it anymore!
Je me peux pu… dans trois jours, je pars en vacances!
I can’t take it anymore… in three days, I’m going on holiday!
Câline, je me peux pu, j’ai trop hâte de voir ça!
My goodness, I can’t take it anymore, I can’t wait to see it!
The expression je me peux plus can take on another sense: A woman asked online in a forum for pregnant mothers if she could take a quick dip in the pool on a hot day despite having a slightly detached placenta. Another woman responded with this advice for her on hot days:
Moi, j’ai toujours un pouche-pouche d’eau dans le réfrigérateur. Quand je me peux pus, je m’arrose de cette eau très froide et OH que ça fait du bien!
I always keep a spray bottle filled with water in the refrigerator. When I can’t take it anymore, I spray myself with the cold water and OH does it ever feel good!
Here, the idea behind je me peux plus is not being able to withstand any longer (and not “I can’t wait” like in the other examples).
Yes, un pouche-pouche is a spray bottle! Here, it’s used to talk about a spray bottle filled with water; it’s also used to talk about spray bottles filled with perfume. This funny term comes from the sound the spray bottle makes… pouche-pouche. :-D
And now I think this entry has officially gone off topic. We started with being excited and now we’re talking about… pouche-pouches!
P.S. Énarvé is a pronunciation variation of énervé. Pronouncing ar instead of er is more typically associated with older speakers (e.g., varte instead of verte). The exception to this is the ar sound in vulgar words, which can be heard in all age groups, like tabarnak, viarge, marde, as opposed to tabernacle, vierge, merde.
