Here are a few more examples of French overheard in Montréal today, and that I’ve managed to remember long enough to create a new post! :-D
Y’a-tu une caisse pop?
Is there a (Desjardins) credit union (around here)?
A man who passed by in his car asked me this.
Y’a-tu is an informal equivalent of est-ce qu’il y a? You’ll remember that y’a is a spoken pronunciation of il y a. The tu after it turns it into a yes-no question.
Caisse pop is an informal abbreviation of caisse populaire. Desjardins is a caisse populaire.
Attention à gauche!
Look out on your left!
A man on a bike yelled this just before passing by some people walking on a bike path. He said à gauche because he was coming up quickly from behind the walkers and intended to pass on their left.
It’s also possible to say just à gauche! or attention!
Jus d’ananas
Pineapple juice
The final s in ananas isn’t pronounced — anana.
The letter a appears three times in ananas — you’ll probably hear the last a pronounced like the vowel sound heard in the word bas in this video (at 0:15) or in the words pas and chat in this video (at 0:20). The other two sound like the vowel sound in la, sa, ta, etc.
T’es ben fin.
That’s really nice/kind of you.
(literally, you’re really nice/kind)
Fin is often used in the sense of nice or kind, like gentil. The feminine form is fine. T’es, an informal contraction of tu es, sounds like té. Ben, from bien, rhymes with fin. (A better spelling would be bin, which is phonetic, but I use ben here because it’s the more common spelling.) Ben means really here.
If this had been said to a woman, it would be t’es ben fine.
Even though fin and fine resemble English words, they’re not — pronounce them as French words. As for gentil, remember that the final L isn’t pronounced. In the feminine form gentille, the final ille sounds the ille in fille. Be careful not to use that ille sound in the masculine gentil, which just ends in an i sound.
C’est gentil, merci!
That’s kind of you, thanks!
