On Urbania, Jonathan Roberge writes about an accident he had while mountain biking.
The accident probably had something to do with the fact that he chose to go mountain biking on a volcano in Peru at an altitude of 4600 metres.
He says:
Faire du vélo de montagne sur un volcan, au Pérou! À 4600 mètres d’altitude, quelle idée de marde parfaite pour moi!
Mountain biking on a volcano in Peru! At 4600 metres in altitude, what a perfectly shitty idea for me!
Altitude is a tsitsu word. It’s pronounced al-tsi-tsude in Québec.
In his accident, he suffered massive injuries, like: deux vertèbres de chiées dans la nuque (two messed up vertebrae in the neck), quatre côtes fracturées (four fractured ribs), la mâchoire débarquée (a dislocated jaw) and all sorts of other fun stuff.
I’ve pulled three verbs from his text for us to look at:
1. embarquer
2. chialer
3. pogner
1. embarquer
To get to the volcano, Roberge paid a guy $100 to take him there by jeep.
Je donne 100 $ au gars pis j’embarque dans son 4×4 […].
I give the guy $100 and then get in his 4×4.
Embarquer can be used to get in a car, and débarquer to get out: embarquer dans l’auto (to get in the car), débarquer de l’auto (to get out of the car). If you’re travelling on the bus or métro with friends, you can tell them on débarque ici (this is where we get off) when you arrive at your stop.
4×4 is said as quatre par quatre.
In addition to dollar, you’ll also hear the word piasse used a lot: 100 piasses = 100 dollars.
Remember: gars is pronounced gâ, and pis (a reduction of puis) is pronounced pi.
2. chialer
Roberge wasn’t the only foreign traveller in the jeep. There were also some fussy British girls.
Dans le jeep, il y avait des princesses britanniques habillées comme M.I.A. qui chialaient parce qu’elles n’avaient pas de réseau pour leur téléphone intelligent […].
In the jeep, there were some British princesses dressed like M.I.A. who kept complaining that their smartphones had no signal.
In Québec, chialer is pronounced chiâler. The letter combination iâ comes close to what “yaw” sounds like in English. This verb is frequently used in the same sense as se plaindre sans arrêt.
3. pogner
Roberge was going too fast on his bike. When he hit a hole in the path, he came crashing down hard on a rock.
J’allais vite, beaucoup trop vite, j’ai pogné un trou et j’ai été propulsé sur une énorme roche.
I was going fast, way too fast. I hit a hole and was sent flying into an enormous rock.
The verb pogner (rhymes with cogner) is often heard in Québec in the sense of “to catch” or “to grab.” What Roberge “caught” here was a big hole in the path that sent him flying off his bike. You can learn all about the verb pogner here.
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French quotes by: Jonathan Roberge, « Le Pérou, c’est médium le fun », Urbania, 21 février 2014.
