Two readers have asked for help with French terms of affection to use with their Québécois boyfriend, so I’ll try to start adding examples of these.
Québécois Jean-Pierre Ferland sings a love song called Une chance qu’on s’a, which you can find on YouTube.
The title means we’re lucky to have each other, it’s a good thing we’ve got each other, etc. On s’a means the same thing as nous nous avons.
I won’t put all the lyrics here, just the first five lines:
Une chance que j’t’ai
Je t’ai, tu m’as
Une chance qu’on s’a
Quand tu m’appelles «mon p’tit loup»
Avec ta p’tite voix […]
I’m lucky to have you (good thing I’ve got you)
I’ve got you, you’ve got me (I’m yours, you’re mine)
We’re lucky to have each other (good thing we’ve got each other)
When you call me “my little wolf”
In your little voice […]
So there’s our first term of affection: mon p’tit loup. Loup is pronounced lou. Petit can be pronounced colloquially as p’tit or ti.
Of course, if you can say mon p’tit loup, then you can also just say mon loup, or you can go in the other direction entirely and say mon gros loup!
mon loup
mon p’tit loup / mon ti-loup
mon gros loup
By the way, if you listen to the song, you’ll hear Ferland say both je t’ai and the informally contracted j’t’ai. J’t’ai sounds like ch’t’ai. Do you hear how je changes to the ch sound when it contracts to j’ before t?
