Pus capab’, moé !
Moi là, l’hiver, pas capable!
Literal translation:
Personally, the winter, not capable!
Huh??
Not capable of what?
Not capable of standing the winter, of course!
Moi là, l’hiver, pas capable!
Personally, I can’t stand the winter!
The le in capable often drops in colloquial speech: capab’. It sounds like capabe.
Moi là, l’hiver, pas capab’!
Honnêtement là, c’te fille-là, pas capab’!
Honestly, I can’t stand that girl!
C’te is an informally contracted form of cette. To understand what c’te sounds like, first say te. Now put an s sound at the beginning of it: ste.
People also say chu pas capab’. Remember, chu is an informally contracted form of je suis. So chu pas capab’ is a contracted form of the much less informal sounding je ne suis pas capable.
Chu pas can contract even further to ch’pas. Maybe this contraction will remind you of Lisa LeBlanc’s song J’pas un cowboy, where j’pas is pronounced ch’pas. I’ll use the spelling ch’pas here because it’s more phonetic, but remember that you might read j’pas instead in authentic texts.
L’hiver, ch’pas capab’.
I can’t stand the winter.
C’te fille-là, ch’pas capab’.
I can’t stand that girl.
J’aime tous mes voisins. Y’a juste toi que ch’pas capab’.
I like all my neighbours. You’re the only one I can’t stand.
Ouch!
If pas capab’ means “can’t stand it,” then pu capab’ means “can’t stand it anymore.” Remember, pu is an informally contracted form of plus, which means “no more.” It’s also often spelled pus (don’t pronounce the s).
C’te fille-là, pu capab’.
I can’t stand that girl anymore.
Ch’pus capab’ d’habiter au centre-ville.
I can’t stand living downtown anymore.
Honnêtement là, l’hiver, ch’pu capab’.
Honestly, I can’t stand the winter anymore.
Lots of contractions in this post! If you can manage them, you’ll go a long way in making your French sound more natural.
If these contractions are still too challenging for you, don’t stress out about it. Keep listening to lots of spoken French and you may just find that you start using them without having to think too much about it.
Image credit: Watyrfall
