In the last post, we saw an example of the Québécois verb gosser.
Let’s take a closer look at how the verb gosser can be used in the sense of “to bug someone” or “to give someone a rough time.”
Here are some good examples pulled from a quick Google search:
Au secondaire tu n’arrêtais pas de me gosser avec ça! In secondary school, you always bugged me about that!
Mon propriétaire est un vieux pervers dégueu qui arrête pas de me gosser. The owner is a disgusting, old pervert who keeps bugging me.
Ma blonde arrêtait pas de me gosser pour en acheter une. My girlfriend kept bugging me to buy one.
In the last entry, Rabii Rammal used se faire gosser instead. If gosser quelqu’un means “to give someone a rough time,” then se faire gosser means “to be given a rough time” by someone. Rammal wrote:
Tous, homme ou femme, ont le droit de ne pas se faire gosser dans la rue. Everybody, male or female, has the right to not be bothered in the street.
Here are a few more examples pulled from a Google search:
Je me faisais gosser par les infirmières à l’hôpital pour que mes garçons boivent aux 3 heures. I was bugged by the nurses at the hospital to get my boys to drink every 3 hours.
Je me suis fait gosser par un policier. I was given a rough time by a policeman.
J’haïs tellement ça me faire gosser par un vendeur! I hate it so much when salesmen bug me!
Tips: Aux trois (quatre, cinq…) heures means “every three (four, five…) hours.” J’haïs is pronounced ja-i.
In short:
gosser quelqu’un
to give someone a rough time
se faire gosser par quelqu’un
to be given a rough time by someone
The verb gosser has even more uses than just the ones here. Let’s leave that for a future post…
