OffQc | Québécois French Guide

Rabii Rammal’s blog posts on the website version of Urbania are written in the form of letters.

The “letters” are addressed to strangers who have crossed Rammal’s path in the city and caught his attention for different reasons.

A few blog post titles will give you an idea of what to expect from Rammal:

Cher gars qui voulait se parquer dans le spot pour handicapés,
Dear guy who wanted to park in the spot for handicapped people,

and

Cher gars qui pue,
Dear guy who stinks,

and

Chère fille qui a assassiné un gars à la banque,
Dear girl who murdered a guy at the bank,

In his blog post about the guy who wanted to park in the handicapped spot even though he wasn’t handicapped, Rammal describes this act as “something that only an asshole does,” c’est trou de cul de faire ça.

Rammal tells the guy:

C’est trou de cul faire ça. C’est le genre de truc que si t’allais voir un trou de cul et tu lui demandais : « Hey, trou de cul, te stationnerais-tu dans un spot pour handicapés? » ben il te répondrait : « Oui, ça m’semble être quelque chose que ma qualité de trou de cul me pousserait à faire ».

Only an asshole does that. It’s like if you went up to an asshole and asked: “Hey asshole, would you park in a spot for handicapped people?,” he’d answer: “Yes, as an asshole, that seems like something I’d be very inclined to do.”

un trou de cul
(sounds like troud cu)
an asshole

C’est trou de cul de faire ça.
Only an asshole does that.

se stationner
to park

un spot
(informal; sounds like spotte)
a spot

Y s’est stationné dans un spot pour handicapés.
He parked in a handicapped spot.

In his blog post about the girl who “murdered” a guy at the bank (she didn’t really murder him, she verbally blasted him), Rammal witnesses an argument between four people waiting in line at the bank.

While in line, two male friends talk to each other about driving up to Tremblant. Male friend A then takes a dig at male friend B by saying that he drives like a girl: tu chauffes comme une fille.

Two female friends waiting in line behind the guys hear the comment. One of the girls chews the guy out for his comment. An argument follows, with gender stereotypes flung about, like when one of the guys insults the angry girl by saying that she must be dans sa semaine, or that it must be “that time of the month.”

chauffer comme une fille
conduire comme une fille
to drive like a girl

être dans sa semaine
to be on the rag
to be that time of the month

You can read Rabii Rammal on Urbania. You can also follow @rabiirammal and @_URBANIA on Twitter.