FoE

They make fun of your accent? Quebecois french sounds much nicer than Parisian french to my anglo ears. I think a Quebecois speaking english has a nicer accent than a Frenchman speaking english.

Ut

That's because we picked up (part of) our accent by being surrounded by Anglophones for 200+ years. That's why it sounds better to you than Parisian French (and why, since I arrived in Europe, some astute Frenchmen tried to talk to me in English)

And I have to agree, a Frenchman speaking English can get quite hilarious

Kintaro

FoE : Compare our french, much better comparison.

We don't use words like chewing-gum (yes, hyphenated), week-end (well, not all the time, regular speech is fin de semaine), septante et nonante (70,90), and most importantly, our french is much closer to international french (devoid of local expressions, and lexical corruption) than France.



Wait, one thing more important : we do not say as slang for a hockey stick "une crosse", we use crosser as a verb, i'd say the perfect equiv. of "to screw", in almost all its usages (sexual and not). Using pronouns in verbs is way more easier and fun.

I am ****ing myself = Je me ****.

The 4 stars can be almost any verb. Like wash/laver or screw/crosser.

Ut

Yeah, it's amazing how much English words Frenchmen can use (and how bad they pronounce them ). Just a little note: they don't use septante (70) and nonante (90) in France. Only the Swiss and the Belgians use them. The Belgians even say octante (80) while some Swiss say huitante (80).




This was a quality lesson of Qu�b�cois french.

Now, next lesson: what does a Qu�b�coise yell when she orgasms?

Wyrdsmyth

I was thinking of going up to Quebec fort for the four-hundredth anniversary. I don't speak French, but, hey, I'm not planning on moving there. I just want to see what that little fort looks like. I live where Fort Duquesne used to be! My area was once French, a line of forts from here to Lake Erie. Just think, if things had turned out differently, I'd be speaking French today.

I have never thought of becoming Canadian, but I like visiting it -- it is sort of like having a European country right next door. More Americans should take advantage of this experience.

EarlFlynn

Moderate, you fiend! I KNEW you were responsible!

EarlFlynn

"MON DIEU! Oooh, oooh, mon DIEU!"

Chuck

This is totally off topic, but I'm over it. How is this construction peculiar to Quebec? Isn't this the regular ol' reflexive verbing, just like in France.

Instead of translating "myself" as "moi-m�me" use the direct object pronoun '"me"?

Soyin Milka

Yup. Reflexive verbing is the same.

I think he was referring to the word "crosse", not sentence construction. The word "crosse" usually two meanings in France: A sport and the stick used to play that sport. In Qu�bec, it has a third and more common sexual meaning. Think of it as slang.

I think it used to lead to funny situations... Exemple, a frenchman visiting Qu�bec would meet a girl who plays hockey. He could ask her: La crosse, ca vous plait bien alors? This would mean in the frenchman's mind "So you like hockey then?" but the girl from Qu�bec could understand "So you like sex then?".

The version of french spoken in Qu�bec comes with its own slew of slang and many words with innocuous meanings in France have additional naughtier meanings here. Nothing to worry about

Soyin

mikester

Hidden bonus for speaking 'Quebec' French:

The chicks dig the accent.


seriously, i live in southern ontario, but since my entire family (mother's side) is french canadian (riviere-du-loup, au nord), i speak it with an accent.

all the girls who've heard me love it.




edit: oh, and its been said that men with accents sometimes have stronger tongues. girls like that too.