OffQc | Québécois French Guide

At the moment, season 4 of La Galère can be viewed on tou.tv if you can access it. Here’s some language from one of the episodes.

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Claude’s cell is ringing. It’s Antoine, her ex. She thinks that Antoine is going to give her a hard time. Just before she answers her phone, she tells her friend Stéphanie that she’s about to get told off by her ex again:

Je vais encore me faire chicaner…

You can add par after it too: me faire chicaner par mon ex. You can also say chicaner quelqu’un.

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Isabelle’s boyfriend makes a joke to her that flamingos scare him. He says that they freak him out:

Ça me fait freaker, les flamants roses.

In fact, he pronounced ça me fait as ça m’fait (instead of three syllables, just two: çamfait). The freak– part of freaker sounds like the English word “freak.”

***

Isabelle calls Stéphanie by phone. No answer. We hear Stéphanie’s voice message come on:

J’sus pas là. J’haïs les répondeurs. J’haïs les messages. Mais vous pouvez quand même m’en laisser un.

J’sus is pronounced chu. It’s informal for je suis. J’haïs is pronounced ja-i. It means “I hate.”

[Quotes from La Galère, season 4, episode 10, Radio-Canada, Montreal, 14 November 2011.]