Well good morning to you too!
In Québec, you’ll hear merde (shit) pronounced as marde.
Today’s a shitty day. Not because it’s a bad day but because marde is our word for today. Here are 13 example sentences of how marde likes to be kept busy in Québec.
It keeps your enemies entertained.
1. Mange don d’la marde.
Eat shit.
2. Qu’y mangent don d’la marde.
They can eat shit.
It keeps crappy objets company…
3. Crisse d’ordi à marde!
Fucking shitty computer!
… as well as crappy people.
4. Osti d’chien sale à marde!
You fucking shitty asshole!
It pays visits to people in a pickle.
5. Chu dans marde.
I’m so screwed.
6. T’es dans marde, man.
You’re screwed, man.
Shitty idea? Shitty day? Hell, shitty life? Why not.
7. Non mais quelle idée d’marde.
What a shitty idea that is.
8. Bonne journée d’marde à toi!
Have a shitty day!
9. Maudite vie d’marde.
Goddamn shitty life.
People can be treated like it.
10. Y me traite comme d’la marde.
He treats me like shit.
11. Y me parle comme d’la marde.
He talks to me like shit.
It loves the stink…
12. Ouache, ça pue la marde!
Yuck, it smells like shit!
… and the wintertime.
13. Chu pu capab d’la marde blanche.
I can’t stand the snow (white shit) anymore.
***
What is don in the first two examples? It’s how donc is pronounced. I used the spelling don so that you wouldn’t be tempted to pronounce it as donk. But are you wondering why donc is even used in these examples to begin with? Don’t try to analyse it too much; you’ll often come across donc in declarations like these. It sounds better with it!
Do you remember to dzidzuate and tsitsuate? Maudzite journée d’marde. Crisse d’ordzi à marde. Ostsi d’chien sale à marde. If you forget to do your dz and ts, don’t worry — you’ll still be understood. If you can manage it though, it’ll sound a lot more authentic. If you use the offcois nouns le dzidzu and le tsitsu with your French prof, he’ll either worry that you know something he doesn’t or think you’ve gone batshit crazy.
Don’t forget that il and ils are most often pronounced as y (or i) when people speak colloquially. Y me traite comme d’la marde means the same thing as il me traite comme d’la marde. Remember too that je suis very often contracts to chu, and tu es becomes t’es.
In 13, chu pu capab means the same thing as je ne suis plus capable. There’s a lot of contraction going on here! Je suis became chu, plus became pu (also spelled informally as pus), and capable lost its le sound on the end.
Bonne journée d’marde à vous tous!
Have a shitty day everybody!
_ _ _
Related reading: Ma vie, c’est de la marde! (#803)
The word “Marde” is even used in ads : http://oreilletendue.com/2012/01/04/m-m/
then is “merde” use for good luck in Qc?
Yes, you might hear it used!
I truly can’t wait to learn Québécois!! I was fortunate enough to have learned French at an early stage of my life, it was my “second language” for a few years. THEN I moved to the States and learned English, which totally obliterated, due to the lack of practice, my French. So, it will be fun to continue the learning process.
Note that the spelling “marde” was born when Québec French lost its pronounciation rule of “er” as “ar”. Typically, the most vulgar word meanings did not follow the change of pronounciation, which caused appearance of spellings “marde”, “viarge”, “tabarnac”, while the same former words continued to exist with non-vulgar meanings and new pronunciation “er”. If you listen to people who still have an old accent, you will notice that say “ar” instead of “er” in a lot more cases not related to vulgarity (la porte varte est ouvarte, pas bien farmée).
Excellent advice Mathieu. Thank you.
I’ve noticed within a few posts relating to “Chu pu capab,” that there’s actually no negative in the sentence. Has “Pu/Plus” evolved in colloquial Quebecois to just mean the negative regardless of situation?
The negative part of chu pu capab is pu. If this sentence were in the positive, it would be chu capab. The the pu is what makes it a negative.
You may have learned that ne… plus means “no more.” This is of course true (for example: je ne suis plus capable), but speakers often drop the ne, leaving just plus (or pu when said informally).
It’s similar to ne… pas. Je ne sais pas is in the negative, but so is je sais pas. Even though the ne can drop informally, the pas is what keeps the sentence a negative one.