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What does it mean if someone says C’EST N’IMPORTE QUOI in French? (#1025)
Here’s another example sentence taken from 1000, which has 1000 examples of things you can hear people say in French conversations in Québec: C’est n’importe quoi! That’s nonsense! Whatever! This...
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Offcois study method #1: Create 5 blocks of time to learn new French material...
In this post, I’m going to describe an offcois study method you can implement right away to learn the 1000 examples of Québécois French from the OffQc guide called 1000. (Offcois means offqc-ish.) This...
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Do you pronounce the French word LAIT like this? (#1027)
Say aloud the French word for milk. It’s lait, right? Now, how did you pronounce it? Did it sound like lé or lè? If we transcribe lé into IPA, we get [le]. If we transcribe lè into IPA, we get [lɛ]. Do...
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Ça avance-tu mon enquête? Using TU to ask yes-no questions in French (#1028)
In a television show called Mensonges, a character who plays an investigator said to another character: Pis? Ça avance-tu mon enquête? In this question, we’ve got an example of tu being used to ask a...
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Do you know how to use LÀ like the Québécois? (#1029)
On his TV show, Ricardo said this about something he had just cooked in front of his TV audience: Ça, pour moi, là, c’est vraiment super. What’s the là doing in there? This là doesn’t mean there. We...
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Guibord s’en va-t-en guerre: why is there a T between VA and EN in this...
Check out this movie title: Guibord s’en va-t-en guerre The expression used here is s’en aller en guerre, to go to war. Il s’en va means he goes, he’s going. Why is there a t in there between va and...
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No double dipping! 3 usages in French heard on Québécois television (#1031)
On television, a speaker used a French version of the expression “no double dipping!” This expression is sometimes used half in jest at parties amongst invitees to remind themselves not to dip their...
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4 French expressions used by Québécois TV chef Ricardo (#1032)
Here’s more French as spoken by Ricardo. As he was preparing a dish before his televised audience, he said to go easy on the salt when adding it to his preparation. His exact words were: Mollo sur le...
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Do you know how EN PLUS DE ÇA might be pronounced informally? (#1033)
On TV, a speaker said: en plus de ça I don’t remember the whole of what he said, but we can imagine an example like this: J’ai voyagé partout et, en plus de ça, j’ai été payé pour me déplacer. I...
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What does STOCK mean as used in Québécois French? (#1034)
There’s an ad running on Radio-Canada where the speaker says: Y’a ben trop d’stock. Maybe you’re getting used to seeing these informal contractions and recognise this as meaning: Il y a bien trop de...
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When LÀ means “then” in French (#1035)
During a conversation, someone said: [bla bla bla bla bla]… et là, mon téléphone sonne. You’ll find it really useful to learn how to use là like this. It means then here. (This is not the same là that...
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Do you know these 31 usages? (#1036)
I grabbed a handful of usages that have appeared on OffQc since post #1000 and put them in a cloud. Can you explain to yourself how each one might be used? You can click on the image for a larger...
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Can you ask this question informally in French: “Does he have his card?” (#1037)
At a store, I heard one employee ask another the equivalent of this in French: Does he have his card? Can you guess how the employee might’ve said it? She said it in an informal way, without using...
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Poutine au smoked meat — or how French and English deal with borrowed and...
I thought this was interesting: McDonalds has a new dish — smoked meat poutine in English, or poutine au smoked meat in French. (See screenshots below.) Both terms are half English, half French, using...
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Zervice et pièces oufert jusqu’à 23 h 30 (#1039)
zervice? oufert? The advert on the back of this Montréal bus says that parts and service is open until 11:30… well, sort of: Zervice et pièces oufert jusqu’à 23 h 30 Can you guess why service and...
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A common expression largely underused by learners of French: ÇA SE PEUT (#1040)
In the Québécois French guide 1000, there’s an example question (#8) that reads: Ça s’peut-tu? Can that be? Is that possible? We’ll come back to this question in a minute; let’s back up and look first...
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On est en tabarnouche! (#1041)
I heard someone say this on the radio recently: On est en tabarnouche! What does it mean? The expression être en tabarnak is a vulgar expression meaning to be pissed off. Tabarnak is a swear word; to...
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French Halloween expressions and vocabulary for use in Québec (#1042)
In the photo taken inside a supermarket, we read: Joyeuse Halloween! Happy Halloween! Halloween is a feminine noun. The initial h isn’t pronounced. Here’s a list of Halloween expressions and vocabulary...
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7 random Québécois French usages to learn (#1043)
I took a look at some of the search terms visitors have used recently to land on OffQc via Google. In this post, I’ll try to provide the answers these visitors were looking for. The search terms (in...
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Another common expression underused by learners of French: ÇA PREND (#1044)
In entry #1040, we saw a common expression underused by learners of French: ça se peut. It means that’s possible. In today’s post, let’s look at another common expression learners of French tend not to...
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