OffQc | Québécois French Guide

We’ve seen in past entries how sur le and sur la have a tendency of contracting during everyday conversations in French.

sur le can become
su’l

sur la can become
s’a

This means you might hear, for example, sur le bord pronounced as su’l bord. Do you remember the expression c’est s’a coche? This is an informal way of saying that something is amazing, the best. The s’a in this expression is a contraction of sur la.

One contraction that we haven’t looked at much and also using sur is the contraction formed when sur and les come together:

sur les can become
s’es

I’ll put you to the challenge of learning to hear the contracted form s’es in Lisa LeBlanc’s song J’pas un cowboy.

Listen to this part of the song (video below), which begins at 1:14:

J’ai pas de belt avec un fusil
But j’ai un beau coat de cuir
Avec des franges s’es manches pour que ça seye crédible

I don’t have a belt with a gun
But I’ve got a nice leather coat
With tassels on the sleeves to make it authentic

s’es manches
= sur les manches

pour que ça seye crédible
= pour que ça soit crédible

Lisa LeBlanc may be from New Brunswick, but the contracted form s’es can also be heard in Québec when people speak French informally.

You don’t need to start using these informal contractions yourself, but you do need to be able to recognise them.