• Home
  • OffQc
  • About
  • Start
  • Off-quoi?
  • Listen to Québécois French

OffQc | Québécois French Guide

For lovers of French + diehard fans of all things québécois!

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Asking someone’s age in French in a way that sounds natural (#719)
11 useful expressions in French related to behaving on public transport (#721) »

Crack, pot, prostitutes: Toronto knows how to party! (#720)

10 February 2014 by OffQc

Mado Lamotte

Click on Mado’s lovely hair to sashay away to her articles on Fugues

Not only does Montréal’s most famous drag queen have eyelashes to die for, she also has a column.

Mado Lamotte’s articles appear online and in hard copy in the city’s gay and lesbian magazine Fugues.

Last year, Mado took a trip to Ontario, la province qu’on aime bien bitcher, she says, or “the province everyone loves to bitch.”

Before she visited Toronto, she had only other people’s notions of the city in her head:

Combien de fois j’ai entendu des Québécois partis faire fortune dans la Ville Reine me dire : «C’est donc ben plate icitte, je m’ennuie de Montréal!»

I’ve heard people from Québec who’ve moved to Toronto to make lots of money say to me so many times: “It’s just so boring here, I miss Montréal!”

After hearing endless comments like that, she says it’s not hard to believe that “you always get bored and die in Ontario,” on s’ennuie toujours pour mourir en Ontario.

Besides, isn’t that what it says on Ontario’s licence plate too?

Anyway…

Mado discovered on her trip that she actually loved Ontario. She even had these nice things to say about Toronto in particular:

J’aurais jamais cru écrire ça un jour mais vraiment mes chéris, on l’a pus icitte l’affaire à Montréal. Dire qu’on a déjà été la ville la plus cool, la plus flyée, la plus too much du Canada, pis v’là-tu pas qu’on découvre que le vrai party c’est à Toronto qu’il se passe maintenant. Crack, alcool, pot, prostituées, les Torontois eux autres y savent faire le party! Rob Ford vient de détrôner Justin Bieber comme bad boy canadien de l’année. On a l’air fin nous autres avec notre Denis Coderre.

I never thought I’d write this one day but really, my dears, Montréal hasn’t got it anymore. To think we were once the coolest, the wildest, the most over-the-top city in Canada, and whaddya know, it turns out the real party is in Toronto now. Crack, alcohol, pot, prostitutes, those Torontonians sure know how to party! The mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, has just defeated Justin Bieber as Canadian Bad Boy of the Year. We in Montréal seem “nice” with our mayor, Denis Coderre.

Yes, the city’s “Toronto the Good” reputation is definitely taking a good beating lately.

In French, Toronto’s got a nickname — la Ville Reine, or the “Queen City.” Hmm, maybe that’s why Mado ended up liking Toronto so much. She thought they named the whole city after her.

In the phrase on l’a pus icitte, l’affaire, the word pus sounds like pu. It’s an informal pronunciation of plus, when plus means “no more.” Icitte means ici. The word affaire is often used in the sense of “thing” in French: here, that “thing” is what Mado says Montréal hasn’t got anymore. Similarly, you could tell someone they’re great with: tu l’as, l’affaire!

Flyé is pronounced like the English word “fly” with é added to the end of it. Something that’s flyé is wild or “out there.”

When Mado writes eux autres y savent faire le party, the eux autres part means “them” (the people of Toronto), and y is an informal pronunciation of ils: eux autres, ils savent faire le party. Even though eux autres and y both refer to the same thing, this kind of repetition is common in French.

The expression v’la-tu pas que… is used to show surprise about something (here, that it turns out the real party’s in Toronto). This expression was also preceded by pis, which means “and” here (it’s a reduction of puis).

C’est donc ben plate icitte is pronounced cé don bin plate icitte. The expression donc ben means “very,” and plate means “boring.” Sometimes plate is also spelled platte. The masculine and feminine forms of this adjective are the same.

Je m’ennuie de Montréal means “I miss Montréal.” The expression here is s’ennuyer de quelque chose (or s’ennuyer de quelqu’un). If someone said je m’ennuie de toi, this means “I miss you.”

When pot means “marijuana” in French, the final t is pronounced.

And bitcher in French, that’s “to bitch.” There’s also la bitch, which means the same thing as its English equivalent.

_ _ _

French quotes by Mado Lamotte in:

«In et out version 2.0», Fugues, 27 janvier 2014.

«Y’a pas juste des Ontariens en Ontario», Fugues, 23 septembre 2013.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Posted in Entries #701-750 | Tagged bitch, crack, Denis Coderre, drag queen, français québécois, Fugues, gay, homosexual, homosexuel, Justin Bieber, lesbian, lesbienne, maire, mayor, Montréal, party, pot, prostitute, province, Québécois French, Rob Ford, Toronto, Toronto the Good, travesti, Ville Reine | 2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. on 22 February 2014 at 13:45 Luke Zhou

    Ressources que j’ai trouvées pour les autres lecteurs:

    Vocabulaire queer de base: http://www.txy.fr/glossaire/

    La différence entre les termes “drag queen” et “travesti.e.”: http://challenge-queen.skyrock.com/2863059412

    Donc, si j’ai bien compris, un.e drag queen se déguise plutôt pour faire une spectacle, pour avoir du fun en exagérant, tandis que “travesti.e” est un terme plus générale pour ceux (des trans-identitaires et des cis-identitaires) qui portent des vêtements associés à un “autre” sexe?

    Et y a-t-il une différence (ou d’autres nuances) d’usage entre ces deux termes au Québec? Est-ce que l’un est plus familier que l’autre?


    • on 22 February 2014 at 13:59 OffQc

      Oui, c’est ça, Luke. Un travesti, c’est un homme habillé en femme. Une drag queen, c’est un travesti qui donne des spectacles. Les drag queens, à la différence des travestis, sont presque toujours habillées de façon exubérante (comme Mado sur l’image ci-dessus).



Comments are closed.

  • Books

    The OffQc bookshop is always open. See all titles here.

    Contracted French Put an end to not understanding spoken French by learning the most important contractions used in speech

    C’est what? Overview of common features of spoken Québécois French; pave the way for further independent study

    1000 Learn or review a large amount of everyday words and expressions used in Québécois French in condensed form

  • Follow OffQc by email. It's free. Enter your email address in the box below.

    Join 1,535 other followers

  • Read a random entry
    OffQc bookshop
    OffQc on Twitter
    OffQc on Pinterest
    • Listen to Québécois French: Almost 100 videos + transcripts
  • Number

    • Entries #1151-1200
    • Entries #1101-1150
    • Entries #1051-1100
    • Entries #1001-1050
    • Entries #951-1000
    • Entries #901-950
    • Entries #851-900
    • Entries #801-850
    • Entries #751-800
    • Entries #701-750
    • Entries #651-700
    • Entries #601-650
    • Entries #551-600
    • Entries #501-550
    • Entries #451-500
    • Entries #401-450
    • Entries #351-400
    • Entries #301-350
    • Entries #251-300
    • Entries #201-250
    • Entries #151-200
    • Entries #101-150
    • Entries #51-100
    • Entries #1-50
  • Month

    • June 2017
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • June 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Cancel