In entry #952, we saw a wall ad from the Yellow Pages in métro McGill (image on right). The ad is promoting a phone app that helps people to find businesses in the area.
In the ad, the French word pointe is used in reference to both rush hour and slices of pizza. You can go back and read the post about here, if you missed it.
In fact, métro McGill is currently plastered from one end of the platform to the other with yellow ads from the Yellow Pages.
Here’s another one that contains some Québécois usages.
A little sign on the wall reads:
Vous vous sentez gratteux?
We saw the word gratteux recently, in entry #943. There, we looked at how the adjective gratteux can be used in the sense of cheap or stingy, whereas the masculine noun gratteux refers to a scratch-and-win lottery ticket.
On either side of this little sign is a larger sign.
(The little sign that reads vous vous sentez gratteux? is in the middle of the two signs above, but you can’t see it in this image because it’s dark.)
The sign to the left of the little one reads:
2 friperies pour vous habiller à petit prix
And the one to the right reads:
88 dépanneurs pour acheter un billet de loterie
So the question vous vous sentez gratteux? takes on two different meanings here.
Vous vous sentez gratteux?
2 friperies pour vous habiller à petit prix
Feeling stingy?
2 second-hand clothes shops to buy cheap clothes
Vous vous sentez gratteux?
88 dépanneurs pour acheter un billet de loterie
Feeling ‘scratch-and-win’?
88 dépanneurs to buy a lottery ticket
That’s a lot of vocab in these past two posts, so here’s a review of it:
l’heure de pointe, rush hour
c’est l’heure de pointe, it’s rush hour
une pointe de pizza, a slice of pizza
une pointe aux champignons, a mushroom slice (of pizza)
gratteux, cheap, stingy
un gratteux, a scratch-and-win lottery ticket
gratter, to scratch
un dépanneur, a small shop selling snacks, milk, newspapers, cigarettes…
une friperie, a second-hand clothing shop
Yes, no, toaster!
There’s yet another sign from the Yellow Pages in métro McGill that reads:
«Yes, no, toaster!»
Votre anglais est limité? Il y a 61 écoles de langue à Montréal.
“Yes, no, toaster!”
Don’t speak much English? There are 61 language schools in Montréal.
What’s up with the yes, no, toaster bit in this ad?
Yes, no, toaster is an expression – it’s not something the Yellow Pages made up. It’s a facetious way of pointing to a person’s minimal knowledge of English (i.e., the only English that person knows is yes, no and toaster).
