In the short film in entry #391, a man turns himself in to the police (il se rend) at a dépanneur in Montreal. Take a few moments to concentrate on some of the vocabulary that came up in the film:
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It’s hard to see, but there’s a little sign from Loto-Québec near the cash that says: Ici on carte! This is an informal way of saying that if you appear underaged, you’ll be “carded” (asked for ID). The verb is carter. You can see an example of Ici on carte! in the screen shot on the right, which comes from this article on La Presse.
Even though it’s on the Loto-Québec sign, carter is still an informal usage. Mostly young people say it. Je me suis fait carter (not said in the film) means “I got carded.”
At the beginning of the film, when the underaged boy tries to buy a pack of cigarettes at the cash (un paquet de cigarettes), the clerk asks for his ID: Est-ce que je peux voir tes cartes?
A lottery ticket that you scratch to reveal a possible prize is called un gratteux in Quebec. The man who’s turning himself in to the police asked for un gratteux à trois piasses, which means that he wants one that’s worth three dollars.
When the clerk announces the price 7,05 $, he says: Ça fait sept et cinq. In the price, the number before et is the amount in dollars, and the number after et is the amount in cents. If the price had been 11,35 $, he would have said: Ça fait onze et trente-cinq. But cashiers often don’t bother to say the ça fait part: Sept et cinq, s’il vous plaît.
Don’t ask why, but this reminds me of a sign I used to see at an American gas station right on the border between Vermont and Quebec, at Rock Island. On the pump there is a sign that says “ON MARCHE” where you push to get the proper grade. For years I thought it was just lousy French….until it finally dawned on me that the sign was half in English (ON) and half in French (MARCHE)!