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“I fell on my bum.” Can you guess how someone said this in French? (#1105)
An elderly woman talked about how she’d slipped on an icy patch of the street, landing on her bum. Can you guess how she said I fell on my bum in French? To say it, she used the verb tomber and the...
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5 Québécois expressions translated much too literally into English (#1106)
1. “He’s got bugs in the head.” Someone with “bugs in the head” is someone who’s messed up in the mind. The expression here is avoir des bibittes dans la tête, which means to be messed up in the head,...
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“He hasn’t changed one bit.” Can you guess how this was said in French? (#1099)
Here’s more French heard on the radio. A speaker, in reference to Lenny Kravitz, said an equivalent of this in French on air: He hasn’t changed one bit. Can you guess how? She used the word poil....
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How do you use the expression CRISSER DEHORS in French? (#1104)
Buildings reflected in a wall of glass in Montréal Lindsey asks about the Québécois expression crisser dehors, which came up in the last post. You’ll remember that this expression (considered to be...
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Understand contractions used in spoken Québécois French (#1107)
The new OffQc book about contractions is ready for purchase. It’s called Contracted French, and you can buy and download it here immediately in the OffQc store in PDF format, along with the mp3 audio...
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7 examples of informal French contractions used by Les Cowboys Fringants (#1108)
For those of you working through the new Contracted French book or who are thinking of buying it, check out the song called Octobre by Les Cowboys Fringants. (I can’t find an official version of the...
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How do people usually ask in French for lettuce on a hamburger? (#1109)
Imagine you’re at a hamburger restaurant where you get to choose what you want on your hamburger, such as Harveys. Do you know how francophones often ask for lettuce in French? You might be surprised...
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The Québécois verb TRIPPER used on a billboard (#1110)
Have a look at this billboard in French advertising used cars (autos usagées or voitures d’occasion) in Montréal: On « trippe » sur les vieilles We’ve seen how tripper sur (quelque chose) means to...
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“I tripped.” How someone said this in a French conversation (#1111)
Overheard in French: someone who said an equivalent of “I tripped” (i.e., he lost footing). To say this, he didn’t use the verb trébucher. He didn’t use tomber, either. And he didn’t use tripper from...
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Do you know the meaning of PLATE in this example of overheard French? (#1112)
On the radio, a man spoke about how to avoid suffering from allergies this season. One of his recommendations was to close the windows. He said: Fermez vos fenêtres. C’est plate à dire… Nobody wants to...
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5 common French words you’re maybe mispronouncing (#1113)
Five common French words… are you pronouncing them right? instinct The ct on the end of instinct is silent. The inct ending sounds just like the in at the beginning of the word. Say in-stin. poing Your...
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What might you call a dent on your car in French? (#1114)
Imagine an apple covered in bruises… or a table full of dents… or dents on the frame of your bike. What might you call these bruises and dents in French? You can call them des poques. une table pleine...
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What does it mean if people are described as POQUÉS in French? (#1115)
In #1114, we looked at the basic meaning of une poque (dent) and poqué (dented). A reader of OffQc called Larry asks about poqué used in a different sense, a sense not covered in #1114. This time,...
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What is a flyer called in French? (#1116)
In an ad for a supermarket, we hear a woman say to a man: Tiens, regarde la circulaire. Here, look at the flyer. Une circulaire is a flyer or circular, which is a printed summary of items on sale in a...
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Do the Québécois rrrroll their RRRRs? (#1117)
Michael asks who in Québec rolls their Rs. Up until the first half of the 1900s, the rolled R was the norm in Québec, especially in Montréal. (Montréal was the region most associated with the rolled...
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“Don’t go far.” Can you guess how someone said this in French? (#1118)
You’ve arrived at a waiting room and taken a number. The receptionist says you can leave and come back later (instead of waiting there the entire time), but she also tells you to not go far so you...
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“He wasn’t feeling good.” Can you guess how someone said this in French? (#1119)
A man talked about his son who wasn’t feeling well because of a fever. He said an equivalent of this in French: “He wasn’t feeling good. He had a fever.” To say this, he used a verb heard in colloquial...
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“Is that all?” 3 ways you might be asked this in French at a restaurant (#1120)
When ordering food at the counter of a fast food restaurant, café, etc., you’ll often be asked an equivalent in French of “is that all?” after saying the items you want. We’ve seen one way already:...
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Do you know these 2 ways to use the Québécois French verb NIAISER? (#1121)
We’ve seen niaiser quite a few times now in the sense of to kid, to joke: J’te niaise! I’m just kidding! J’te niaise pas! I’m not kidding! I’m serious! The contracted j’te (from je te) sounds like...
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3 things you didn’t know about Franco-Ontarians (#1122)
Le drapeau franco-ontarien The francophones of Ontario are known collectively as Franco-Ontarians. Here are 3 things you (maybe) didn’t know about them. Numbers are based on the 2011 census. I’ve only...
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