Here’s more overheard French from Montréal, carrying on from the 6 overheard items in French we looked at in the last post.
Y’est grafigné.
It’s scratched.
A woman said this while looking at the bumper of her car; another car had scratched it.
Grafigner means to scratch. This verb is used at the conversational level of French in Québec. The gné ending of grafigné sounds like nyé. In IPA, it’s pronounced [gʀafiɲe].
Y’est (yé) is an informal pronunciation of il est.
Y’a un meeting demain.
There’s a meeting tomorrow.
A man said this about a meeting at work.
Meeting is pronounced as in English, but with the usual French word stress.
Other words for meeting are une réunion and une rencontre. The Usito dictionary prefers these words to the English-derived meeting, but you’ll still want to know that meeting is used.
Y’a is an informal pronunciation of il y a.
Si tu savais comment je m’en câlisse…
If you (only) knew how much I don’t give a fuck…
Je m’en câlisse — we’ve seen it before — is a vulgar expression meaning I don’t give a fuck.
