Here’s a fictitious text message conversation between two brothers (Zak and Oli) taken from the Québécois television comedy Les Parent.
You can click on the phone to enlarge it.
Oli, es-tu réveillé?
Oli, are you awake?
Ouais… Pas capable de dormir.
Yeah… Can’t sleep.
Lol! Moi non plus. J’entends ronfler jusque dans ma chambre.
Lol! Neither can I. I can hear the snoring all the way in my room.
Je sais. Imagine quand tu dors dans le même lit.
I know. Imagine what it’s like when you sleep in the same bed.
Yark! Grand-p’pa devrait clairement se faire opérer les fosses nasales! Lol!
Yuck! Granddad obviously needs to get his nostrils operated! Lol!
Heu… C’est ma blonde qui ronfle.
Uh… It’s my girlfriend who’s snoring.
Notes
Réveillé means “awoken” (awoken from sleep). Debout means “up” (physically out of bed).
Learn the difference between moi aussi and moi non plus. Moi aussi means “me too.” Moi non plus means “me neither.”
– J’aime ça. I like that.
– Moi aussi. So do I.
– J’aime pas ça. I don’t like that.
– Moi non plus. Neither do I.
Capable often sounds like capab’ when it’s pronounced informally. Chu pas capab’ de dormir. I can’t sleep.
Une blonde is used in Québec for “girlfriend.”
This show is called Les Parent and not Les Parents. Parent is the family’s surname. The title translated into English is “The Parent Family.”
In French, you never put an s on a surname in the plural, no matter what the ethnic background: les Tremblay, les Rossi, les Jackson.
Because this comedy deals with the trials of being a parent, the title is in fact also a play on words (les Parent sounds like les parents).
