Here’s an example of informal language that came up in a conversation:
Ôte-toi de d’là.
Get out of the way.
Ôte-toi de d’là is an informal pronunciation of ôte-toi de là. Before we look at what’s going on with the de d’là part, let’s look first at the verb.
The ô in the verb ôter is pronounced exactly as written, like ô. It sounds the vowel sound in beau or faux. So ôter sounds like ôté.
ôter quelque chose
to remove something
s’ôter
to remove oneself
to move (oneself) off, away, etc.
ôte-toi
remove yourself
move off
shove off, etc.
de là
from there
ôte-toi de là
get out of the way
We’ve seen before that de ça can be pronounced informally as de t’ça. It sounds like de with a t sound on the end, followed by ça.
parle pas de t’ça
don’t talk about that
Parle pas de t’ça is an informal, spoken equivalent of ne parle pas de ça.
Something similar can happen with de là, but instead of a t sound coming in between the two words like in de t’ça, it’s a d sound: de d’là. It sounds like de with a d sound on the end, followed by là.
ôte-toi de d’là
get out of the way
tasse-toi de d’là
get out of the way
Se tasser (pronounced se tâsser) also means to shove over, move off, etc. If you listen to Québécois music, maybe that last example will remind you of the song Tassez-vous de d’là by Les Colocs, which you can find on YouTube.
Of course, you may hear ôte-toi de d’là and tasse-toi de d’là pronounced as ôte-toé de d’là and tasse-toé de d’là, where toé is an informal equivalent of toi.
