OffQc | Québécois French Guide

I saw this sign tied around a tree in Montréal. It reminds people that the street is not a toilet for dogs:

Ramassez!
Pick it up!

Maybe you’ll remember the verb ramasser from the list of 50 French words using the â sound in Québec but written without the accent.

It sounds like ramâsser.

I dug around OffQc for some more examples of ramasser.

There’s a good one in entry #431, where the expression ramasser quelqu’un was used in the sense of picking someone up by car. It comes from a telephone dialogue in 30 vies (season 2, episode 82) between Karine and Vincent:

V — Allô?
K — Je te ramasse?
V — T’es où, là?
K — Pas loin.
V — Oui, viens-t’en.

V — Hello?
K — You want me to pick you up?
V — Where are ya?
K — Not far.
V — Yes, come.

In #437, we came across an example of se ramasser used in the sense of being tidy and picking up after oneself. Natalie from Les Parent (season 4, episode 18) reminds her son that she’s always telling him and his brothers to pick up after themselves around the house:

Ce que je vous dis souvent aussi c’est de ranger pis de vous ramasser.
What I often also tell you is to tidy up and to pick up after yourselves.

Quelqu’un qui ne se ramasse jamais is someone who never picks up after himself. He’s messy.

In the video below (transcribed in full here in the Listen section), a magician explains how to do a magic trick with a cord. He uses the verb ramasser twice.

He says:

Et là, lorsque nos bras sont croisés, il faut ramasser la corde avec chacune des mains.
And now, when our arms are crossed, we have to pick up the cord with both hands.

And then:

Avec la main droite, on ramasse la corde de l’autre côté.
With the right hand, we pick up the cord on the other side.