Quebec French lexicon
Encyclopedia
There are various lexical differences between Quebec French
and Metropolitan French / Standard French
in France. These are distributed throughout the registers, from slang
to formal usage.
Notwithstanding Acadian French
in the Maritime Provinces, Quebec French is the dominant form of French throughout Canada, with only very limited interregional variations. The terms Quebec French and Canadian French
are therefore often used interchangeably.
believes that neither morphology
nor syntax
should be different between Québécois and Metropolitan French, and even that phonetic differences should be kept to a minimum. However, starting in the 1960s, it agreed to the use of words then called "well-formed Canadianisms (canadianismes de bon aloi)," that either are regional in nature (such as names of plant
s and animal
s), have been used since before the Conquest, or are justified in their origin and are considered to be equivalent or "better" than the standard equivalent.
A very small list of words was published in 1969, mainly containing words that were archaic in France
but still common in Quebec
. This list especially contained imperial units and words from aboriginal languages. Subsequent lists have been published regularly since then.
There are a number of lexical differences between Quebec French and the French of France; these are distributed throughout the registers, from slang to formal usage.
Many differences that exist between Quebec French and European French arise from the preservation of certain forms that are today archaic in Europe. Obviously new words were also created for Quebec specialties that do not exist in Europe.
As with any two regional variants, there is an abundance of slang terms found in Quebec that are not found in France. Quebec French profanity
uses references to Catholic liturgical terminology, rather than the references to prostitution that are more common in France. Many English words and calque
s have also been integrated in Quebec French, although less than in France. Borrowing from English is politically sensitive in Quebec and tends to be socially discouraged.
French. There is a much greater tendency to generalize feminine markers among nouns referring to professions. This is done in order to avoid having to refer to a woman with a masculine noun
, and thereby seeming to suggest that a particular profession is primarily masculine. Forms that would be seen as highly unusual or stridently feminist in France are commonplace in Quebec, such as la docteure, la professeure, la première ministre, la gouverneure générale, and so forth. Many of these have been formally recommended by the Office québécois de la langue française and adopted by society at large.
Also, rather than following the rule that the masculine includes the feminine, it is relatively common to create doublets, especially in polemical speech: Québécoises et Québécois, tous et toutes, citoyens et citoyennes.
As an isolated anecdote, a Quebec labour union once decided to promulgate an epicene
neologism on the model of fidèle, calling itself the Fédération des professionnèles, rather than use either professionnels (masculine only) or professionnels et professionnelles (masculine and feminine). This sparked a fair amount of debate and is rather on the outer edge of techniques for nonsexist writing in Quebec French.
es are more productive in Quebec than in France, in particular the adjectival suffix -eux, which has a somewhat pejorative meaning: téter → téteux (thick, dumb, nitpicking, nerd), niaiser → niaiseux (foolish, irritating); obstiner → ostineux (stubborn); pot → poteux (a user or dealer of marijuana). This originates in the Norman language
.
The adjectival suffix -euse is added to verbal stems to form "the machine that verbs." For example laver → laveuse "washing machine"; balayer → balayeuse "vacuum cleaner" (but "streetsweeper" in France). In France "vacuum cleaner" is "aspirateur".
Cour in Quebec is a backyard (jardin in French), whereas in France cour has dropped this meaning and primarily means a courtyard (as well as other meanings like court
). However, in some areas of France, such as in the mining regions of northern France, cour still means backyard.
The word breuvage is used for "[a] drink" in addition to boisson; this is an old French usage (bevrage) from which the English "beverage" originates. Breuvage may be used in European French, but generally indicates some nuance, possibly pejorative.
The word piastre
or piasse, a slang term for a dollar (equivalent to "buck" or the English "quid"), was in fact the term originally used in French for the American or Spanish dollar (they had the same value for a long period).
The word couple is used in standard French as a masculine noun (a couple, married or unmarried), but in Quebec it is also used as a feminine noun in phrases like une couple de semaines (a couple of weeks). This is often thought to be an anglicism, but is in fact a preservation of an archaic French usage.
It is quite common in Quebec French to describe something positive using litotes, such as pas laid (not ugly) for beautiful or pas pire (not worst) for good when standard French would suggest using the positive equivalent instead. However, Metropolitan French has its own commonly used litotes: pas bête or pas con (smart); pas mal (fine); pas dégueu(lasse) (tasty); and pas top, pas super or pas génial (bad).
, such as "Hier j'ai vu la copine à Bruno" ("Yesterday I saw Bruno's girlfriend").
In a number of cases, Quebec speakers prefer to use the preposition à instead of using a non-prepositional phrase with ce ("this"); for example à matin or à soir instead of ce matin and ce soir ("this morning" and "this evening"). Note also à cette heure, pronounced and sometimes spelt asteure or astheure (literally "at this time") for maintenant ("now") and désormais ("henceforth"), which is also found in Queneau
. These usages of à are considered colloquial.
, unlike republican France, many political terms devised in English have had to be imported or new terms created. This is not always easy, and can lead to awkward constructions, the most famous example being Dominion
, for which there is no French translation. As well in Canadian English the first minister
of the federation is called the Prime Minister
and the first minister of a province is called a Premier
.
However French makes no distinction and both are called Premier ministre in all cases. For example, "Premier ministre du Canada", "Premier ministre du Québec / de l'Alberta", etc.
, CEGEP
, tuque
(a Canadianism in both official languages), and dépanneur
(a corner store/small grocery; dépanneur in France is a mechanic who comes in to repair a car or a household appliance).
Blueberries
, abundant in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
, are called bleuets; in France, they are lumped together with myrtilles (bilberries
) and bleuet means cornflower. (Bleuet is also slang for someone from Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.) Though it should be noted that while very similar, these are not the same plants (i.e. myrtilles are Vaccinium myrtillus and bleuets are Vaccinium angustifolium).
more often and in more contexts than speakers in France do. In certain contexts it may be perfectly appropriate to address a stranger or even the customer of a store using tu, whereas the latter would be considered impolite in France. The split often runs across generations in Quebec: Persons between 40 and 60 years of age often feel that sales persons, or service personnel giving them a tu instead of a vous are uncouth or uncultivated. Persons 60 years of age and older will sometimes feel insulted if a stranger uses the tu to them. Government employees (such as policemen or bureaucrats with some contact with the public) as well as employees of large stores or large chains in Quebec are usually instructed to use vous with everybody, unless some kind of camaraderie is in play or knowing the person well. Sometimes the split is also across social or educational lines. For instance, young academics are usually hesitant in using tu with slightly older colleagues who have just a few more years of seniority.
A similar distinction in English, where, since the second person singular "thou" went out of use 200 years ago, might be whether to address or respond to someone on a "first-name basis". For example, one might say to a man that one has just met, "Thank you, Mr. Gibson" — equivalent to using "vous". If Mr Gibson wants to maintain formality, that is, similar to using "vous", he might say, "You're welcome", and if he wants to be more relaxed and familiar, he would add, "Please call me Jim". This gives Anglophones an idea of the use of "tu" in French.
Metropolitan French public speakers such as politicians occasionally come across as stuffy or snobbish to certain Quebec francophones. There is also a certain impression amongst the Quebec population (men especially) that Metropolitan French is quite effeminate - though this is not often directly discussed. This may explain why even better educated Québécois rarely try to emulate the Metropolitan French accent, though many probably could with relative ease. This is also true for people from southern France
. Those from southern France who move temporarily to Paris and pick up the local Parisian accent may be derided by their friends who have remained in the south. This is all similar to the perception North American English-speakers may have of British English as "uppity" or "fancy".
Entire reference books have been written about idioms specific to Quebec. A handful of examples among many hundreds:
Dialog in sitcom
s on Quebec television often use such idioms extensively, which can make certain dialogs rather incomprehensible to French speakers of Europe.
uses references to Catholic liturgical equipment, rather than the references to prostitution that are more common in France.
The expression "you're welcome" is bienvenue in Quebec, though de rien as used in France is also used. Note that the expression bonne journée (as opposed to bon jour) is also often used for "goodbye" in Quebec (similar to "Good Day"), which it is not in France (where it is more common to say au revoir or bye).
Some slang terms unique to Quebec:
: anglicisme).
s in colloquial and Quebec French slang is commonplace, but varies from a place to another, depending on the English presence in the area. These words cannot be used in official documents or in French writing for scholastic use, etc. Some examples of long-standing Anglicisms include:
It is also very commonplace for an English word to be used as a nonce word
, for example when the speaker temporarily cannot remember the French word. This is particularly common with technical words; indeed, years ago before technical documentation began to be printed in French in Quebec, an English word might be the most common way for a French-speaking mechanic or other technical worker to refer to the mechanisms he or she had to deal with.
It is often difficult or impossible to distinguish between such a nonce Anglicism and an English word quoted as such for effect.
There are some anglicisms that have no obvious connection to any currently existing modern Canadian English idiom. For example, être sur le party ("to be on the 'party,'" to be partying or to be in the mood for a party).
s, such as prendre une marche (from "take a walk," in France, se promener, also used in Quebec) and banc de neige (from English "snowbank;" in France, congère, a form unknown in Quebec.) However, in standard and formal registers, there is a much stronger tendency to avoid English borrowings in Quebec than in France.
As a result, especially with regard to in modern items, Quebec French often contains forms designed to be more "French" than an English borrowing that may be used anyway in European French, like fin de semaine which is week-end in France, or courriel (from courrier électronique) for France's mail or mel.
Some are calques into French of English phrases that Continental French borrowed directly, such as un chien chaud for European French hot dog. In Quebec, the spelling gai to mean homosexual is standard. Note that in France, gai has kept the original meaning of "happy", "cheerful" while "gay" is used to mean "homosexual" but specifically in reference to mass gay-American subculture and by those usually over 35 who identify as gay. Gay men in France 35 and under usual label themselves as "homo", not "gay".
Although many (not all) of these forms were promulgated by the Office québécois de la langue française
(OLF) of Quebec, they have been accepted into everyday use. Indeed, the French government has since adopted the word courriel (in 2003). The term has been gaining acceptance as it is now used in respected newspapers such as Libération
.
or slang
in their domains, instead of that used in other French-speaking countries. English terms are, for example, very widely used in typically male jobs like engineering
(notably mechanical engineering
), carpentry
, and computer programming
. This situation was caused historically by a lack of properly translated technical manuals and documentation. Recent translation efforts in targeted domains such as the automotive industry and environmental engineering are yielding some encouraging results. The most English-ridden Quebec slang is without question used among members of the gamer
community, who are also for the most part Millennials and frequent computer users. In these circles, computer gaming slang is used as well as an enormous number of normal terms commonly found in computer applications and games (save, map, level, etc.).
Quebec and France tend to have entirely different anglicisms because in Quebec they are the gradual result of two and a half centuries of living with English speaking neighbors, whereas in Europe they are much more recent and the result of the increasing international dominance of American English.
See also Franglais
.
Many, but not all, of the European equivalents for the words listed above are also used or at least understood in Quebec.
Quebec French
Quebec French , or Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its formal and informal registers. Quebec French is used in everyday communication, as well as in education, the media, and government....
and Metropolitan French / Standard French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
in France. These are distributed throughout the registers, from slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
to formal usage.
Notwithstanding Acadian French
Acadian French
Acadian French , is a regionalized dialect of Canadian French. It is spoken by the francophone population of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by small minorities in areas in the Gaspé region of eastern Quebec, by small groups of francophones in Prince Edward Island, in several tiny pockets...
in the Maritime Provinces, Quebec French is the dominant form of French throughout Canada, with only very limited interregional variations. The terms Quebec French and Canadian French
Canadian French
Canadian French is an umbrella term referring to the varieties of French spoken in Canada. French is the mother tongue of nearly seven million Canadians, a figure constituting roughly 22% of the national population. At the federal level it has co-official status alongside English...
are therefore often used interchangeably.
Standardization
The Office québécois de la langue françaiseOffice québécois de la langue française
The Office québécois de la langue française is a public organization established on March 24, 1961 by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage...
believes that neither morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
nor syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
should be different between Québécois and Metropolitan French, and even that phonetic differences should be kept to a minimum. However, starting in the 1960s, it agreed to the use of words then called "well-formed Canadianisms (canadianismes de bon aloi)," that either are regional in nature (such as names of plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s and animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
s), have been used since before the Conquest, or are justified in their origin and are considered to be equivalent or "better" than the standard equivalent.
A very small list of words was published in 1969, mainly containing words that were archaic in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
but still common in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. This list especially contained imperial units and words from aboriginal languages. Subsequent lists have been published regularly since then.
There are a number of lexical differences between Quebec French and the French of France; these are distributed throughout the registers, from slang to formal usage.
Many differences that exist between Quebec French and European French arise from the preservation of certain forms that are today archaic in Europe. Obviously new words were also created for Quebec specialties that do not exist in Europe.
As with any two regional variants, there is an abundance of slang terms found in Quebec that are not found in France. Quebec French profanity
Quebec French profanity
The literal translation of the French verb sacrer is "to consecrate". However, in Quebec it is the proper word for the form of profanity used in Quebec French. The noun form is sacre....
uses references to Catholic liturgical terminology, rather than the references to prostitution that are more common in France. Many English words and calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
s have also been integrated in Quebec French, although less than in France. Borrowing from English is politically sensitive in Quebec and tends to be socially discouraged.
Non-sexist usage
Formal Quebec French also has a very different approach to non-sexist language than MetropolitanMetropolitan France
Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
French. There is a much greater tendency to generalize feminine markers among nouns referring to professions. This is done in order to avoid having to refer to a woman with a masculine noun
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, and thereby seeming to suggest that a particular profession is primarily masculine. Forms that would be seen as highly unusual or stridently feminist in France are commonplace in Quebec, such as la docteure, la professeure, la première ministre, la gouverneure générale, and so forth. Many of these have been formally recommended by the Office québécois de la langue française and adopted by society at large.
Also, rather than following the rule that the masculine includes the feminine, it is relatively common to create doublets, especially in polemical speech: Québécoises et Québécois, tous et toutes, citoyens et citoyennes.
As an isolated anecdote, a Quebec labour union once decided to promulgate an epicene
Epicene
Epicene is an adjective for loss of gender distinction, often specific loss of masculinity. It includes:* effeminacy — a man with characteristics that are traditionally feminine...
neologism on the model of fidèle, calling itself the Fédération des professionnèles, rather than use either professionnels (masculine only) or professionnels et professionnelles (masculine and feminine). This sparked a fair amount of debate and is rather on the outer edge of techniques for nonsexist writing in Quebec French.
Morphology (word formation)
Some suffixSuffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es are more productive in Quebec than in France, in particular the adjectival suffix -eux, which has a somewhat pejorative meaning: téter → téteux (thick, dumb, nitpicking, nerd), niaiser → niaiseux (foolish, irritating); obstiner → ostineux (stubborn); pot → poteux (a user or dealer of marijuana). This originates in the Norman language
Norman language
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...
.
The adjectival suffix -euse is added to verbal stems to form "the machine that verbs." For example laver → laveuse "washing machine"; balayer → balayeuse "vacuum cleaner" (but "streetsweeper" in France). In France "vacuum cleaner" is "aspirateur".
| Quebec French | English | Metropolitan French | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| abatis | ||||
| achigan | black bass | perche noire | ||
| acre | acre | arpent | In Louisiana, an arpent is still a legal unit of measurement, and is not the same as an acre. Here, arpent is used both as a measure of length as well as area. Land was traditionally surveyed to either 40 or 80 arpents back from a river or bayou (1.5 or 3 miles). For measuring area, a square (English) mile contains 640 acres, but 512 arpents. | |
| pinotte / arachide | peanut | cacahuète | ||
| atoca | cranberry | canneberge | In Quebec, canneberge usually designate the fruit itself as well as the cranberry juice, whereas atoca usually refers to the cranberry jelly traditionally eaten with the Thanksgiving's and Christmas's turkey. | |
| avionnerie | aircraft manufacturing plant | |||
| banc de neige | snow bank | congère | ||
| barrer | to lock | verrouiller | French colonist would use a crossbar to secure the entrance to their dwelling. Hence, barring rather than locking the door. | |
| débarrer | to unlock | déverrouiller | ||
| bebitte / bibitte | bug | moustique / insecte / bestiole / bêbette | In France, the term "bitte" refers to a man's phallus. "Bitte" is not used in Quebec, though French terms such as this are recognized more and more. The younger Québécois generation can often use their own native terms and French terms alternately. The French on the other hand are more rarely exposed to Quebec French and so are less "accepting" of such deviations. | |
| bicyclette | bicycle | vélo | ||
| bleuets [sauvages] | lowbush/wild blueberries | myrtilles / airelle à feuilles étroites | see Quebec specialities section | |
| bleuetière | blueberry field or farm | champ de myrtilles | ||
| bordages | Ice stuck to the bank of a river | |||
| bouscueil | Jostling of ice under the effect of winds, tides, or streams | |||
| brûlot | noseeums | A type of cranefly / tiny fly that causes a burning sensation when it bites, thus the name. | ||
| brunante | nightfall/dusk | crépuscule | ||
| cabane à sucre | sugar shack | |||
| cacaoui | long-tailed duck | harelde boréale | A type of wild duck | |
| carcajou | wolverine Wolverine The wolverine, pronounced , Gulo gulo , also referred to as glutton, carcajou, skunk bear, or quickhatch, is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae . It is a stocky and muscular carnivore, more closely resembling a small bear than other mustelids... (Am.), glutton (Br.) |
glouton | ||
| ceinture fléchée | Assumption Assumption of Mary According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life... sash |
|||
| pinte | pint Pint The pint is a unit of volume or capacity that was once used across much of Europe with values varying from state to state from less than half a litre to over one litre. Within continental Europe, the pint was replaced with the metric system during the nineteenth century... |
chopine | Pinte is used but refers to a quart Quart The quart is a unit of volume equal to a quarter of a gallon, two pints, or four cups. Since gallons of various sizes have historically been in use, quarts of various sizes have also existed; see gallon for further discussion. Three of these kinds of quarts remain in current use, all approximately... |
|
| coureur de(s) bois | backwoodsman, fur trader | |||
| débarbouillette | facecloth | gant de toilette (glove) | ||
| demiard/Demi | half-pint | demi | ||
| dépanneur | convenience store/corner store | épicerie / supérette | ||
| doré | walleye/blue pike perch/sauger/doré | |||
| épluchette | To husk corn; also designates a social gathering where people husk and eat corn | |||
| érablière | maple grove | |||
| la fin de semaine | weekend | le week-end | ||
| frasil | fragile ice | |||
| huard (huart) | loon | plongeon | ||
| Le magasinage/ Magasiner | Shopping/To go shopping | Les courses/Faire des courses / Faire les magasins | The word for "shop" or "store" in all varieties of French is le magasin. In Quebec, the verb magasiner is used for "shopping", and was naturally created by simply converting the noun. In France, the expression is either faire des courses, faire des achats, faire des emplettes, or faire du shopping. No single verb exists as does in Quebec. | |
| Maringouin / Moustique | Mosquito | Moustique | ||
| millage / kilométrage | mileage | kilométrage | ||
| moose Moose The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration... (Am.), elk (Br.) |
élan | |||
| ouananiche | freshwater salmon Salmon Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true... |
saumon atlantique d'eau douce | ||
| ouaouaron | bullfrog Bullfrog The American bullfrog , often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is an aquatic frog, a member of the family Ranidae, or “true frogs”, native to much of North America. This is a frog of larger, permanent water bodies, swamps, ponds, and lakes, where it is usually found... |
grenouille-taureau | ||
| outarde | Canada goose Canada Goose The Canada Goose is a wild goose belonging to the genus Branta, which is native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brownish-gray body.... |
bernache du Canada | ||
| poudrerie / rafale de (neige) | blowing snow | rafale de (neige) poudreuse | ||
| pruche | Eastern hemlock | tsuga du Canada | ||
| raquetteur | snowshoe Snowshoe A snowshoe is footwear for walking over the snow. Snowshoes work by distributing the weight of the person over a larger area so that the person's foot does not sink completely into the snow, a quality called "flotation".... r |
celui qui fait des raquettes | ||
| souffleuse | snowblower | chasse-neige | In Quebec, un chasse-neige is a snowplow | |
| suisse | eastern chipmunk | tamia rayé | Also sometimes, it is called "petit suisse" (tiny chipmunk) because when compared, it is smaller than a squirrel. | |
| tire d'érable | maple taffy | |||
| traversier | ferryboat | ferry / bac | ||
| tuque | tuque Tuque A – variously known as a knit hat or stocking cap among other names – is a knitted cap, originally of wool though now often of synthetic fibers, that is designed to provide warmth in winter... |
bonnet | ||
| tuxedo | tuxedo | smoking | In Quebec, the word tuxedo is used to describe a dinner or evening jacket distinguished primarily by satin or grosgrain facings on the jacket’s lapels and buttons and a similar stripe along the outseam of the trousers. The word "smoking" is generally used to refer to a tuxedo in France. | |
| verge / cour | yard | As in cour arrière, literally backyard | ||
| salon | living-room | salon / (salle de) séjour |
Preservation of forms
Many differences that exist between Quebec French and Metropolitan French arise from the preservation of certain forms that are today archaic in Europe. For example, espérer for "to wait" (attendre in France).Cour in Quebec is a backyard (jardin in French), whereas in France cour has dropped this meaning and primarily means a courtyard (as well as other meanings like court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
). However, in some areas of France, such as in the mining regions of northern France, cour still means backyard.
The word breuvage is used for "[a] drink" in addition to boisson; this is an old French usage (bevrage) from which the English "beverage" originates. Breuvage may be used in European French, but generally indicates some nuance, possibly pejorative.
The word piastre
Piastre
The piastre or piaster refers to a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for 'thin metal plate'. The name was applied to Spanish and Latin American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Levant in the 16th century.These pesos, minted continually for...
or piasse, a slang term for a dollar (equivalent to "buck" or the English "quid"), was in fact the term originally used in French for the American or Spanish dollar (they had the same value for a long period).
The word couple is used in standard French as a masculine noun (a couple, married or unmarried), but in Quebec it is also used as a feminine noun in phrases like une couple de semaines (a couple of weeks). This is often thought to be an anglicism, but is in fact a preservation of an archaic French usage.
It is quite common in Quebec French to describe something positive using litotes, such as pas laid (not ugly) for beautiful or pas pire (not worst) for good when standard French would suggest using the positive equivalent instead. However, Metropolitan French has its own commonly used litotes: pas bête or pas con (smart); pas mal (fine); pas dégueu(lasse) (tasty); and pas top, pas super or pas génial (bad).
Prepositions
The preposition à is often used in possessive contexts, where the French of France uses de; le char à Pierre ("Pierre's car") instead of la voiture de Pierre. This is also found in the informal French of FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, such as "Hier j'ai vu la copine à Bruno" ("Yesterday I saw Bruno's girlfriend").
In a number of cases, Quebec speakers prefer to use the preposition à instead of using a non-prepositional phrase with ce ("this"); for example à matin or à soir instead of ce matin and ce soir ("this morning" and "this evening"). Note also à cette heure, pronounced and sometimes spelt asteure or astheure (literally "at this time") for maintenant ("now") and désormais ("henceforth"), which is also found in Queneau
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
. These usages of à are considered colloquial.
Nautical terms
A number of terms that in other French-speaking regions are exclusively nautical are used in wider contexts in Quebec. This is often attributed to the original arrival of French immigrants by ship and to the dominance of the Saint Lawrence river has a transport mean between the major cities of the region in the past centuries. An example is the word débarquer, which in Quebec means to get off any conveyance (a car, a train); in Europe, this word means only to disembark from a ship or aircraft (on descend from other vehicles), plus some colloquial uses.Political terms
Since Canada uses the Westminster systemWestminster System
The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
, unlike republican France, many political terms devised in English have had to be imported or new terms created. This is not always easy, and can lead to awkward constructions, the most famous example being Dominion
Dominion
A dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, beginning in the latter part of the 19th century. They have included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland,...
, for which there is no French translation. As well in Canadian English the first minister
First Minister
A First Minister is the leader of a government cabinet.-Canada:In Canada, "First Ministers" is a collective term that refers to all Canadian first ministers of the Crown, otherwise known as heads of government, including the Prime Minister of Canada and the provincial and territorial premiers...
of the federation is called the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
and the first minister of a province is called a Premier
Premier (Canada)
In Canada, a premier is the head of government of a province or territory. There are currently ten provincial premiers and three territorial premiers in Canada....
.
However French makes no distinction and both are called Premier ministre in all cases. For example, "Premier ministre du Canada", "Premier ministre du Québec / de l'Alberta", etc.
Quebec specialties
There are also words for Quebec specialties that do not exist in Europe, for example poutinePoutine
Poutine is a Canadian dish of French fries and fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy or sauce. Sometimes additional ingredients are added.Poutine is a fast food dish that originated in Quebec and can now be found across Canada...
, CEGEP
Cégep
CEGEP is an acronym for , which is literally translated as "College of General and Vocational Education" but commonly called "General and Vocational College" in circles not influenced by Quebec English. It refers to the public post-secondary education collegiate institutions exclusive to the...
, tuque
Tuque
A – variously known as a knit hat or stocking cap among other names – is a knitted cap, originally of wool though now often of synthetic fibers, that is designed to provide warmth in winter...
(a Canadianism in both official languages), and dépanneur
Dépanneur
A dépanneur is a convenience store, usually part of a chain, or an independently-run corner shop, general store or deli, in the province of Quebec in Canada...
(a corner store/small grocery; dépanneur in France is a mechanic who comes in to repair a car or a household appliance).
Blueberries
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
, abundant in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean is a region in Quebec, Canada. It contains the Saguenay Fjord, the estuary of the Saguenay River, stretching through much of the region...
, are called bleuets; in France, they are lumped together with myrtilles (bilberries
Bilberry
Bilberry is any of several species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium , bearing edible berries. The species most often referred to is Vaccinium myrtillus L., but there are several other closely related species....
) and bleuet means cornflower. (Bleuet is also slang for someone from Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.) Though it should be noted that while very similar, these are not the same plants (i.e. myrtilles are Vaccinium myrtillus and bleuets are Vaccinium angustifolium).
Informality
French speakers of Quebec use the informal second-person pronoun tuT-V distinction
In sociolinguistics, a T–V distinction is a contrast, within one language, between second-person pronouns that are specialized for varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee....
more often and in more contexts than speakers in France do. In certain contexts it may be perfectly appropriate to address a stranger or even the customer of a store using tu, whereas the latter would be considered impolite in France. The split often runs across generations in Quebec: Persons between 40 and 60 years of age often feel that sales persons, or service personnel giving them a tu instead of a vous are uncouth or uncultivated. Persons 60 years of age and older will sometimes feel insulted if a stranger uses the tu to them. Government employees (such as policemen or bureaucrats with some contact with the public) as well as employees of large stores or large chains in Quebec are usually instructed to use vous with everybody, unless some kind of camaraderie is in play or knowing the person well. Sometimes the split is also across social or educational lines. For instance, young academics are usually hesitant in using tu with slightly older colleagues who have just a few more years of seniority.
A similar distinction in English, where, since the second person singular "thou" went out of use 200 years ago, might be whether to address or respond to someone on a "first-name basis". For example, one might say to a man that one has just met, "Thank you, Mr. Gibson" — equivalent to using "vous". If Mr Gibson wants to maintain formality, that is, similar to using "vous", he might say, "You're welcome", and if he wants to be more relaxed and familiar, he would add, "Please call me Jim". This gives Anglophones an idea of the use of "tu" in French.
Metropolitan French public speakers such as politicians occasionally come across as stuffy or snobbish to certain Quebec francophones. There is also a certain impression amongst the Quebec population (men especially) that Metropolitan French is quite effeminate - though this is not often directly discussed. This may explain why even better educated Québécois rarely try to emulate the Metropolitan French accent, though many probably could with relative ease. This is also true for people from southern France
Southern France
Southern France , colloquially known as le Midi is defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean, and Italy...
. Those from southern France who move temporarily to Paris and pick up the local Parisian accent may be derided by their friends who have remained in the south. This is all similar to the perception North American English-speakers may have of British English as "uppity" or "fancy".
Idioms
There is a huge variety of idioms in Quebec that do not exist in France, such as fait que ("so"); en masse ("a lot"); s'en venir (for arriver and venir ici); ben là! or voyons donc! ("oh, come on!"), de même (for comme ça).Entire reference books have been written about idioms specific to Quebec. A handful of examples among many hundreds:
- J'ai mon voyage = J'en ai marre = I'm fed up / Unbelievable!
- C'est de valeur = C'est dommage = What a pity
Dialog in sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
s on Quebec television often use such idioms extensively, which can make certain dialogs rather incomprehensible to French speakers of Europe.
Slang terms
As with any two regional variants, there is an abundance of slang terms found in Quebec that are not found in France. Quebec French profanityQuebec French profanity
The literal translation of the French verb sacrer is "to consecrate". However, in Quebec it is the proper word for the form of profanity used in Quebec French. The noun form is sacre....
uses references to Catholic liturgical equipment, rather than the references to prostitution that are more common in France.
The expression "you're welcome" is bienvenue in Quebec, though de rien as used in France is also used. Note that the expression bonne journée (as opposed to bon jour) is also often used for "goodbye" in Quebec (similar to "Good Day"), which it is not in France (where it is more common to say au revoir or bye).
Some slang terms unique to Quebec:
| Arsoude | to come | In Quebec "tchek lé ben arsoude!" In Europe, it's will be "regarde le bien s'envenir" |
| Ben | very | Used informally for "Well...," on both sides. Ben, tu te souviens de cette encyclopédie sur Internet?. It is derived from the formal form Eh bien. |
| Bibitte | Small insect | Derived from bébête for small creature. |
| Blonde | Girlfriend | NB, the girlfriend in question could be a brunette! |
| Bobette(s) | Underwear | In Europe, it's "sous-vêtements". |
| Brailler | To weep, to whine | In Europe, to scream, to speak very loudly (colloquial) |
| Char | Car | Comes from cart and horse days. In Europe, a char is an army tank or a chariot. |
| Chum | Boyfriend; male friend | chum de fille = female friend |
| Crosser | To masturbate; to double-cross | Verb is "To masturbate" in reflexive form only. Crosseur = wanker, swindler. In Europe the French say= (se) branler |
| Crier | To obtain | In Europe, to cry. See also pogner |
| Déguidine! | stop procrastinating, get on with it, hurry up | Note that the second "d" is pronounced "dz". See also déniaise!, envoye!, enweye!, awaye! |
| Écœurant | Wonderful (ironically) | Literally "nauseating", used ironically to mean something is overwhelmingly good, as an English speaker might say "so sweet I got a tooth ache". Note, someone calling you mon écœurant (you bastard!) is not a term of endearment. |
| Envoye! (enweye)(awaye) | Let's go, hurry up, come on | Often pronounced with a "w" sound, not with "v" |
| Faque | That said, so, that means | Contraction of "Fait que" or "Ça fait que". Also, in Europe, "Ce qui fait que...". |
| Fif | Homosexual | fam. Osti quié fif ce gars la. European French = PD / Pédé |
| Fin / Fine | Nice, sweet (of a person) | In Europe = mignion, mignionne |
| Flo | A kid (perhaps 10 years old or so) | Might possibly be an anglicism from "fellow"; European French = môme / gosses / les drôles |
| Fret(te) | cold | Denotes something colder than merely ça caille ! / Il fait froid |
| Le fun | fun, amusing (adjective, not noun, despite the le) | C'est très le fun; c'est ammusant |
| Gale or Galle | Scab | Possibly related to the disease. |
| Garrocher | To throw without caution | It will be pronounced "garrocher" or "goarrocher" |
| Genre | like | This slang is used as a parallel to the "like" word used by some American slang; the French word for like, comme, may also be used. These words appear often in the same sentence as the word tsé (tu sais = you know) as a form of slipped words within spoken structure. The use of voilà in this manner, although common in France, is not found in Canada. |
| Gollé | trench or ditch; from English gully | |
| Graine | Cock / Penis | Eille le gros, on voit ta graine! European French = Bitte / Queue |
| Grouiller | hurry up or move | This verb is often used in "grouille-toé", meaning "hurry up". Also used to mean that you move as in "grouille pas" (ne bouge pas), meaning "don't move". Same thing in Europe: Grouille-toi, Grouille tes puces (literally, Shake your fleas) |
| Guidoune | Prostitute, badly dressed woman | |
| Jaser | To chat | Slandering chat is Eu., unusual. |
| Lutter | Hit with a car | Can be used as follows: "J'ai lutté un orignal" meaning "I hit a moose". Lutter in proper French means to wrestle. |
| Magané | Deteriorated, used, wrecked | Can also mean tired, sick or exhausted. |
| Mets-en | Totally, For sure, I'll say | Used in to agree with a statement. |
| Pantoute | Not at all | Contraction of pas en tout (pas du tout) |
| Paqueté | Drunk | |
| Pitoune | babe/chick (good looking girl); or floating log. | Depends on the context, from Occitan pichona [pi'tʃuno], meaning young girl |
| Plate | Boring, unfortunate | plat with the t pronounced |
| Pleumer | To vomit or used instead of "plumer" | To vomit when having nausea; "J'ai trop bu hier, j'ai pleumé partout". |
| Plotte | Vagina or promiscuous woman | Very vulgar, similar to the English "cunt" |
| Plumer | To pluck (literally, as plume = feather). | Secondly, it can be used as a verb to describe a beating in a game; "Je vais te plumer aux cartes" in the sense of plucking one's opponent's feathers; similar to the English expression to lose one's shirt. Finally, as a verb meaning to peel, as in "J'ai plumé quelques légumes". |
| Poche | stupid, untalented | Can also mean "unfortunate" (C'est poche ça as in C'est plate ça) |
| Pogner | get, grab | Can also mean to be sexually attractive, successful, or to have a loud argument with someone ("j'me suis pogné avec mon voisin"). It may also mean obtain ("Je me suis pogné une nouvelle radio"). |
| Quétaine | kitsch, tacky, not in a good way | |
| Taper, tomber sur les nerfs | To irritate someone | Only taper sur les nerfs in France. |
| Tête(s) carrée(s) | English-Canadians | Used only in Quebec, this term can be considered pejorative or even a racial slur. Literally square head(s) in English (possibly a back-formation from blockhead, and of the British term bloke). |
| Toé (Toi) | You | |
| Tsé (Tu Sais) | You know | Used in the same way the French use vous savez and corresponds to the English version "you know" or the American version "y'know" (abbreviated structure). Often heard in the same sentence as the word genre as slang representing lack of clarity. |
| Se tasser | Move over | Eu: S'entasser: to be jammed in together. Ça se tasse: situation where spirits settle down after a scandal or quarrel |
Words from aboriginal languages
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Achigan | Black bass |
| Atoca | Cranberry |
| Boucane | Smoke |
| Carcajou | Wolverine |
| Manitou | Important individual |
| Micouène | Large wooden spoon |
| Mocassin | Moccasin |
| Ouananiche | Land-locked variety of salmon |
Use of anglicisms
Loanwords from English, as well as calques or loan of syntaxic structures, are known as an (FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
: anglicisme).
Colloquial and slang registers
The use of anglicismAnglicism
An Anglicism, as most often defined, is a word borrowed from English into another language. "Anglicism" also describes English syntax, grammar, meaning, and structure used in another language with varying degrees of corruption.-Anglicisms in Chinese:...
s in colloquial and Quebec French slang is commonplace, but varies from a place to another, depending on the English presence in the area. These words cannot be used in official documents or in French writing for scholastic use, etc. Some examples of long-standing Anglicisms include:
| Anglicism | Meaning | English word (cognate Cognate In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g... ) |
|---|---|---|
| anyway | Anyway | |
| all-dressed | With all the toppings [pizza, etc.] | |
| bécosse | Outhouse, washroom | backhouse |
| bines | Pork and beans Pork and beans Pork and beans is a culinary dish that uses pork and beans as its main ingredients. Numerous variations exist from Fabada Asturiana to Olla podrida to American canned pork and beans.-American canned pork and beans:... |
beans |
| blood | (adj.) nice, generous [of a person] | |
| chum | Male friend; boyfriend | |
| checker | To check | check |
| chiffe/chiffre | A shift [work period at factory, etc.] | shift |
| cruiser | Make a pass at | cruise |
| cute | Cute (good-looking) | |
| domper | To dump (a boyfriend or girlfriend) | dump |
| faker | To simulate, pretend (e.g., orgasm Orgasm Orgasm is the peak of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, characterized by an intense sensation of pleasure... ) |
fake |
| fan | A fan (of a band, a sports team), a ceiling fan | |
| filer | To feel [guilty, etc.]; when unmodified, to feel good; negated, to feel bad (j'file pas astheure) | feel |
| flusher | To flush (toilet); get rid of; dump [boyfriend/girlfriend] | flush |
| flyé | Extravagant, far out, over the top | fly |
| frencher | To French kiss French kiss A French kiss is a kiss in which one participant's tongue touches the partner's lips or tongue and usually enters his or her mouth. A French kiss is a slow passionate kiss which is usually considered intimate, romantic, erotic or sexual... |
French |
| full | Very much (je l'aime full), full (Le réservoire est full) | |
| game | Game, sports match or, used as an adjective, meaning having the courage to do something; "Je suis game". | |
| good | Good! [expressing approval; not as an adjective] | |
| hot | Hot (excellent, attractive) | |
| hot-chicken | Hot chicken sandwich | hot chicken |
| lousse | Loose, untied, released | loose |
| moppe | Mop | mop |
| pâte à dents | Toothpaste | calque Calque In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:... of "toothpaste" |
| peanut | Peanut | |
| pitcher | throw/pitch | to pitch |
| poignee le ditch | to fall in the ditch with your car | |
| party | Party, social gathering | |
| scramme | Scram! Get lost! | |
| scrapper | Scrap, ruin, break, destroy, nullify | scrap |
| slacker | slacken, loosen; slack off, take it easy; fire [employee] | slack |
| smatte | Smart; wise-guy (either good or bad, as in smart ass); likeable [person]; cool; | smart |
| smoke meat | Montreal smoked meat (like pastrami) | smoked meat |
| toast | Can be used as the verb for toasting ("Toast mes tranches de pain" or "Tu as bien trop fait toasté mon pain"). Québécois can also use the word "toaster" instead of "grille-pain". | toast |
| tof | Difficult, rough | tough |
| toffer | Withstand, endure | tough it out |
| toune | Song | tune |
| whatever | (Indicating dismissal) | whatever |
It is also very commonplace for an English word to be used as a nonce word
Nonce word
A nonce word is a word used only "for the nonce"—to meet a need that is not expected to recur. Quark, for example, was formerly a nonce word in English, appearing only in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Murray Gell-Mann then adopted it to name a new class of subatomic particle...
, for example when the speaker temporarily cannot remember the French word. This is particularly common with technical words; indeed, years ago before technical documentation began to be printed in French in Quebec, an English word might be the most common way for a French-speaking mechanic or other technical worker to refer to the mechanisms he or she had to deal with.
It is often difficult or impossible to distinguish between such a nonce Anglicism and an English word quoted as such for effect.
There are some anglicisms that have no obvious connection to any currently existing modern Canadian English idiom. For example, être sur le party ("to be on the 'party,'" to be partying or to be in the mood for a party).
Standard register
A number of Quebecisms used in the standard register are also derived from English forms, especially as calqueCalque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
s, such as prendre une marche (from "take a walk," in France, se promener, also used in Quebec) and banc de neige (from English "snowbank;" in France, congère, a form unknown in Quebec.) However, in standard and formal registers, there is a much stronger tendency to avoid English borrowings in Quebec than in France.
As a result, especially with regard to in modern items, Quebec French often contains forms designed to be more "French" than an English borrowing that may be used anyway in European French, like fin de semaine which is week-end in France, or courriel (from courrier électronique) for France's mail or mel.
Some are calques into French of English phrases that Continental French borrowed directly, such as un chien chaud for European French hot dog. In Quebec, the spelling gai to mean homosexual is standard. Note that in France, gai has kept the original meaning of "happy", "cheerful" while "gay" is used to mean "homosexual" but specifically in reference to mass gay-American subculture and by those usually over 35 who identify as gay. Gay men in France 35 and under usual label themselves as "homo", not "gay".
Although many (not all) of these forms were promulgated by the Office québécois de la langue française
Office québécois de la langue française
The Office québécois de la langue française is a public organization established on March 24, 1961 by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage...
(OLF) of Quebec, they have been accepted into everyday use. Indeed, the French government has since adopted the word courriel (in 2003). The term has been gaining acceptance as it is now used in respected newspapers such as Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
.
Jargons and slangs
Several social groups, tied together by either a profession or an interest, use a part or all of the corresponding English jargonJargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
or slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
in their domains, instead of that used in other French-speaking countries. English terms are, for example, very widely used in typically male jobs like engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
(notably mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
), carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, and computer programming
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
. This situation was caused historically by a lack of properly translated technical manuals and documentation. Recent translation efforts in targeted domains such as the automotive industry and environmental engineering are yielding some encouraging results. The most English-ridden Quebec slang is without question used among members of the gamer
Gamer
Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since they became very popular, the term has included players of video games...
community, who are also for the most part Millennials and frequent computer users. In these circles, computer gaming slang is used as well as an enormous number of normal terms commonly found in computer applications and games (save, map, level, etc.).
Perception
The perceived overuse of anglicisms in the colloquial register is one cause of the stigmatization of Quebec's French. Both the Québécois and the French accuse each other (and themselves) of using too many anglicisms. A running joke of the difference between European French and Quebec French is that in Europe, on se gare dans un parking (one parks in a carpark) and in Quebec, on se parque dans un stationnement (one parks in a parking lot).Quebec and France tend to have entirely different anglicisms because in Quebec they are the gradual result of two and a half centuries of living with English speaking neighbors, whereas in Europe they are much more recent and the result of the increasing international dominance of American English.
See also Franglais
Franglais
Franglais , a portmanteau combining the French words "français" and "anglais" , is a slang term for an interlanguage, although the word has different overtones in French and English....
.
Other differences
Like most world reaching languages there are regional differences. Even within Quebec there are regional uses of words or expression. Here are some other differences between standard Quebec French and European French:| Quebec term | Translation | Meaning of term in Europe | European term | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Char | Car | Tank (military assault vehicle) | Voiture | |
| Abreuvoir | Water fountain | Watering place for animals | Fontaine | Used only for animals in Europe (or for comical effect) |
| Achalandage | Traffic (of a store, street, public transit) | Stock, merchandise, clientele (archaic) | Circulation, Embouteillage, bouchon | |
| Arrêt | A stop or command to stop | Stop | Used on all stop signs. Also used as arrêt d'autobus, "prochain arrêt", etc. | |
| Aubaine | Sale | Opportunity | Promotion | An item is une aubaine but en promotion |
| Baccalauréat | Bachelor's degree Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world... |
High school leaving exam or diploma Baccalauréat The baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was introduced by Napoleon I in 1808. It is the main diploma required to pursue university studies... |
Licence | |
| Barrer | To lock | To block or to strike through | Fermer à clé, verrouiller | Quebec usage archaic in Europe |
| Bête | Disagreeable (person) | Stupid | Désagréable, impoli | European usage also used in Quebec |
| Blé d'Inde | Corn Maize Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable... (North American usage) |
Maïs | Maïs also standard in Quebec when referring to the kernels, aka Mais éclatée (or soufflée) → popped corn. Blé d'Inde is always used to refer to the whole stalk, aka corn on the cob. | |
| Brosse | Drinking binge | Brush | Cuite | |
| Cartable | Binder | School bag, Satchel | Classeur | See also classeur |
| Cédule | Schedule | Tax bracket (archaic) | Emploi du temps / Agenda | |
| Chandail | T-shirt, sweater, sweatshirt | Knit sweater | Pull / Tee-shirt, | |
| Choquer | To anger | To shock | Fâcher | |
| Classeur | Filing cabinet | Binder | Armoire à dossier | See also cartable |
| Correct | Good, sufficient, kind, O.K. | corrected | bon, juste. | |
| Coupe glacée | Ice cream sundae | coupe de glace de la glace a(u) chocolat/la fraise, etc. | An ice cream stand is known as a bar laitier or Crèmerie (in France, a glacier) | |
| Croche | Crooked; strange, dishonest | Eighth note | curieux / bizarre / étrange | |
| Crème glacée | Ice cream | de la glace | An ice cream stand is known as a bar laitier or Crèmerie (in France, a glacier) | |
| Débarbouillette | Dishrag, washcloth, (glove) | gant de toilette | ||
| Débarquer | Get out of (a car, etc.) | Disembark (from a boat) | Descendre | |
| Débrouiller | To figure things out by onself, to get out of a jam | To clear up (from brouillard i.e. fog) as in one's thoughts | ||
| Déjeuner | Breakfast | Lunch | Petit déjeuner | See also dîner, souper. Qc. usage same as in Belgium and Occitania Occitania Occitania , also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language... (Occitan dejunar [dedʒu'na]). |
| Déniaiser | To get ones act together, sexually to loosen up | |||
| Dîner | Lunch | Dinner | Déjeuner | Qc. usage same as in Belgium and Occitania (Occitan dinnar [din'na]). Dîner as "dinner/evening meal" is standard in formal settings and upscale milieux, such as business, military, diplomatic circles, society dinner party, or an upscale restaurant. In Quebec, the evening meal is "le souper". |
| Efface | Eraser | Gomme | Gomme is used for chewing-gum | |
| Épais | Dumb, slow-witted | Thick | Con | Con is also in usage in Quebec with the same meaning. |
| Espadrilles Espadrilles Espadrilles are normally casual flat, but sometimes high heeled shoes originating from the Pyrenees. They usually have a canvas or cotton fabric upper and a flexible sole made of rope or rubber material moulded to look like rope. The jute rope sole is the defining characteristic of an espadrille;... |
Running shoes | Rope-soled sandal | Baskets / Tennis / Chaussures de sport | |
| Être plein | To be full (from eating) | pleine: to be pregnant; to be drunk | être bourré / Avoir trop mangé | |
| Familiale | Station wagon | Estate car | un Break (voiture) | |
| Fesser | To hit | To spank | Frapper | |
| Fête | Birthday | Saint's day | Anniversaire | |
| Football | Gridiron football Gridiron football Gridiron football , sometimes known as North American football, is an umbrella term for related codes of football primarily played in the United States and Canada. The predominant forms of gridiron football are American football and Canadian football... |
Association football | football canadien / football américain | This usage of football to mean the local code or its closely related U.S. cousin is so uniform throughout Canada that the governing body for association football in Quebec is officially the Fédération de soccer du Québec. |
| Innocent | Stupid [person] | Innocent, naive | Imbécile | |
| Insignifiant | Stupid [person] | Insignificant, unremarkable | Imbécile | |
| Linge | Clothes | Linen | Vêtements | |
| Liqueur | Carbonated beverage | Liquor, liqueur | Soda | |
| Magasiner | To go shopping | Faire des courses, faire les magasins, du lèche-vitrine (fam.) | ||
| Maringouin | Mosquito | Moustique | ||
| Mouiller | To rain | To wet | Pleuvoir | |
| Niaiser | Annoy, tease, kid, act up | (doesn't exist as a verb; niais="stupid") | Se moquer or (hum) dire des niaiseries | Déniaiser (Eu) is to make a man lose his virginity. J'avais juste vingt ans et je me déniaisais/ Au bordel ambulant d'une armée en campagne (Brel) |
| Niaiseux (niaiseuse) | An idiot, a fool, an annoying and childish person | niais="stupid", "simpleton" | Can be said to describe a thing too, like : "C'est donc ben niaiseux ce film là!"(this movie is really dumb!). | |
| Niaiserie, Niaisage | Something that is dumb, childish, frivolous and a waste of time | Connerie | Usually used to describe things that a "Niaiseux" does. | |
| Patate | Potato | Potato (informal term) | Pomme de terre | Tu es dans les patates!, told to someone who acts out of, or makes a statement while being unaware of what is going on. Europe = Être à côté de la plaque |
| Peser sur | Press (a button) | Weigh | Appuyer, enfoncer | |
| La plaque (d'immatriculation) | License plate | License plate | Les plaques (mineralogiques) | The French license plate codes are based on a system developed by the mining authorities; Quebec requires only a rear plate on cars and pickup trucks. ("Les plaques d'immatriculation" is used on both sides, especially when speaking of vehicles registered in Switzerland, Ontario, Belgium, the Maritimes...) |
| Poudrerie | Blizzard, blowing snow | Gunpowder factory | Blizzard, tempête de neige, rafales de (neige) poudreuse | |
| Rentrer | Enter | Re-enter | Entrer | In Quebec, "re-enter" is rerentrer. Note that colloquial French also uses "rentrer" and "rerentrer" with the same meanings as in Quebec. |
| Sans-cœur | Mean | Heartless | Méchant | |
| Soccer | Association football | Originally British slang for association football (see Oxford "-er"), but now generally considered an Americanism in most of Europe (however, in Ireland, "soccer" is the most common term for this sport) | Foot / Football | See note on Football above. |
| Souper | Dinner | Late-night dinner | Dîner | Quebec usage same as in Belgium and Occitania (Occitan sopar [su'pa]). See also déjeuner, dîner. In formal and upscale settings, the international practice is followed i.e. dîner is the evening meal while "souper" is a late-night, informal meal. |
| Suçon | Lollipop | Hickey | Sucette | and vice-versa: a sucette is a hickey or fellatio Fellatio Fellatio is an act of oral stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner. It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, tongue, or throat. The person who performs fellatio can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person is the receiving partner... in Quebec |
| Téléroman | Soap opera | A soap opera or a continuing series | Feuilleton | |
| Thé glacé | Iced Tea | Ice Tea | ||
| Touché (gridiron football) | Touchdown | Not used in this sense in Europe. (In all forms of French, the word is used as the past participle of toucher ["touch"], as well as a fencing term.) | Touchdown | See Touchdown Atlantic for an example of the use of touché in reference to Canadian football. |
| Valise | Trunk of a car | Suitcase (also in QC) | Coffre | |
| Vidanges | Garbage | Act of emptying | Ordures | Vidange in France is an oil change for the car (auto), and also an empty bottle in Belgium |
Many, but not all, of the European equivalents for the words listed above are also used or at least understood in Quebec.
See also
- Quebec French profanityQuebec French profanityThe literal translation of the French verb sacrer is "to consecrate". However, in Quebec it is the proper word for the form of profanity used in Quebec French. The noun form is sacre....