OffQc | Québécois French Guide

Remember how the letter d is pronounced dz before the French i sound?

Say the English word “kids.” It sounds like “kidz,” right? That’s the dz sound that the letter d makes before the French i sound. This means that je dis sounds like je dzi.

You’ll hear this dzi sound in all the names of the days of the week.

lundzi
mardzi
mercredzi
jeudzi
vendredzi
samedzi
dzimanche

You’ll also hear dz before the French u sound. More about that below.

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OK… It’s dzimanche, the Off-quoi? glossary page has been quiet for a while, and I write about this dz thing a lot (and ts too — read on), so I think it’s time for some new offcois words.

But first — a quick review:

The letter d sounds like dz before the French i and u sounds.
(dz like in the English word kidz)

mardi sounds like mardzi
dune sounds like dzune

= dzi, dzu

The letter t sounds like ts before the French i and u sounds.
(ts like in the English word cats)

poutine sounds like poutsine
tube sounds like tsube

= tsi, tsu

Because we need a shorter way to refer to this stuff here, and because the serious term for it (affrication) doesn’t mean anything to anybody, I suggest these made-up words:

le dzidzu
le tsitsu

Le dzidzu is how d is pronounced dz before the French i and u sounds. Le tsitsu is how t is pronounced ts before the French i and u sounds. With these classy words, you’ll also remember which vowel sounds all of this madness occurs before.

Remember, le dzidzu and le tsitsu occur before the French i and u sounds, regardless of how they’re spelled. The French word type is pronounced tsipe because the letter y makes an i sound. But the French word timbre is pronounced timbre (no ts) because there’s no i sound in this word: the letters im make a nasal vowel sound.

We’ll look more at le dzidzu and le tsitsu tomorrow. (It occurs in a few more places other than just before the French i and u sounds.) If this doesn’t make sense to you yet, don’t worry. Go take a break. I’ve corrupted your mind enough for one day.