Club Athlétique Mansfield
I took a photo of these two signs just outside the Club Athlétique Mansfield. Maybe you’ll remember this health club from the motivational signs we looked at a few hundred entries ago in Fuck the excuses (#611) and Be better than your best excuse (#623).
In the first sign, raide means “stiff.”
Un peu raide?
A little stiff?
The word raide is also used informally in Québecois French in the sense of “totally,” often in the word pair ben raide.
Je tripe ben raide sur l’accent québécois!
I totally love the québécois accent!
Chu dans marde ben raide.
I’m so totally screwed.
Je capote raide sur ce gars-là.
I totally love that guy.
Courbaturé from the second sign means “aching” and “sore,” like after a strenuous workout or when you’ve got a cold or the flu. In Québec, an informal word you’ll hear used in the same sense as courbaturé is raqué.
We saw an example of raqué in entry #796:
Je suis raqué et j’ai mal à la gorge.
I’m aching and I’ve got a sore throat.
Guess what?
We can use the words raqué and raide in one new extra-québécois phrase to replace the text on the courbaturé sign:
Raqué ben raide?
Totally sore all over?
If it helps you to remember, the word raqué sounds like the medieval punishment where victims were tortured on the rack.
i live in québec city and raide seems to be also used to refer to straight hair – what do you think?
Yes, and this will probably make for an excellent new entry on OffQc. 🙂
How do u pronounce ‘raide’
BTW – great blog!
Thanks, Lorraine! You can pronounce raide like the English word “red,” but with a French r.