An orange bug parked in Montréal
1. Ton p’tit nom, c’est quoi?
What’s your name?
Someone I had just met turned the conversation to our names. He asked what my name was with: ton p’tit nom, c’est quoi? Your petit nom is your first name.
2. Celui-là est malade!
That one’s amazing!
In a shopping centre, there was a display of famous structures made entirely of Mega Bloks (Eiffel Tower, Colosseum, Maracanã Stadium, etc.).
A girl passed by, pointed to one of the structures and exclaimed: celui-là est malade! The structure wasn’t ill — it was amazing.
3. Excusez-moi, le centre d’achats ferme à cinq heures?
Excuse me, does the shopping centre close at five?
A woman asked at the information desk of a shopping centre if it would close at five o’clock. Un centre d’achats is a shopping centre.
4. Tu comptes rester là jusqu’à quelle heure?
What time do you think you’ll be there until?
A guy in his 20s talking on his mobile phone asked this of the person he was speaking with.
5. C’est la vie
If you haven’t already discovered C’est la vie from the CBC, take a look (or, more accurately, a listen). C’est la vie is an audio programme in English with podcasts related to the culture and French of Québec.
#2 fascinates me, because kids say the same thing in English–‘that’s sick’ means it’s anything but. I wonder if French has/had slang like ‘wicked’ to mean ‘amazing’ as well…
Yes, méchant also has that double sense.
I saw a sign for a lost dog in my neighbourhood recently. The owner was offering une méchante grosse récompense to the person who could return his dog (a wicked big reward).