Imagine someone were complaining about a situation. You, unable to do anything about it and frustrated by the person’s complaints, might say to him in English in an indignant tone, “what do you want me to say?”
During a conversation, a guy said an equivalent of this in French to the person with whom he was speaking.
Can you guess how?
Make an attempt, and will look at the answer below. (Clue: More literally, he said the equivalent of “what do you want me to say to you?”)
Rue Sainte-Catherine, à Montréal [février 2016]
Qu’est-ce que tu veux que je te dise?
It’s correct, but it’s not quite how he said it. Before we look at how he did say it, let’s look at the expression vouloir que (+ subjunctive) because it’s important to learn.
I want you to leave.
Je veux que tu partes.
I want him to redo it.
Je veux qu’il le refasse.
I want you to be there.
Je veux que tu soies là.
He wants me to learn French.
Il veut que j’apprenne le français.
In sum, to say in French I want you to (verb in infinitive form), you literally say the equivalent of I want that you (verb in subjunctive form).
Let’s go back to our sentence from above.
Qu’est-ce que tu veux que je te dise?
Dise is in the subjunctive.
Remember, though, that this isn’t quite how the guy said it, so let’s look now at how he really did.
In spoken language, je te can contract to j’te. It sounds like ch’te, where the ch sounds like the ch of the French words chaise, choix, tache, etc. To pronounce j’te, then, put the ch sound immediately in front of the word te.
Qu’est-ce que tu veux que j’te dise?
In spoken language, there are times when you might notice that que is omitted. In this case in particular, the guy omitted both instances of que.
Qu’est-ce tu veux j’te dise?
Qu’est-ce on its own without que sounds like quèss, or like kess using an anglicised spelling.
Maybe you’ll remember that the letter d sounds like dz (like the dz sound of the English word lads [i.e., ladz]) when it comes before the French i and u sounds. Dise, then, is in fact pronounced dziz. And maybe you’ll also remember that t sounds like ts (like the ts sound of the English word cats) when it comes before the French i and u sounds. Tu, then, is in fact pronounced tsu.
Using a more phonetic spelling, here’s how what the guy said actually sounds:
Quèss tsu veu ch’te dziz?
And that’s how the guy said it.
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To read a condensed version of the French language explored in the first 1000 posts of OffQc, you might like to get a copy of 1000: Québécois French.
