OffQc | Québécois French Guide

I have a little birdie who whispers ideas to me for OffQc to keep me inspired (thanks, Maude!), so today I’m going to pick five of those ideas for us to take a look at:

1. sérieux
2. chiâler
3. stooler
4. être chaud, chaudasse, feeling
5. virer fou

1. sérieux

Listen for statements in French that begin with sérieux during colloquial conversations. It’s the equivalent to how anglophones begin a statement with “seriously.”

Sérieux, t’es full parano.
Seriously, you’re totally paranoid.

Sérieux man, t’es pathétique.
Seriously man, you’re pathetic.

Sérieux, ç’a pas d’allure.
Seriously, it makes no sense.

Non mais sérieux, t’es donc jamais satisfait, toi?
OK seriously, are you like never satisfied?

Don’t pronounce the c in donc in that last example. Parano in the first example is an informal short form for paranoïaque.

2. chiâler

Dictionaries say this verb is spelled chialer, but it’s pronounced chiâler in Québec and often spelled like that for this reason. Remember that â sounds rather like “aww.” I’ll spell this verb with the accent in the examples below.

In Québec, the verb chiâler can be used in the sense of “to complain.”

Arrête de chiâler.
Stop complaining.

Arrête de chiâler après moi.
Stop chewing me out.
Stop nagging me.

Sérieux là, on chiâle sur tout et sur rien.
Seriously, people complain about anything and everything.

Non mais sérieux, l’hiver tu chiâles contre le froid pis l’été tu chiâles contre la chaleur. J’ai mon voyage!
OK seriously, in the winter you complain about the cold and in the summer you complain about the heat. I’m sick of it!

3. stooler

This verb is pronounced stoulé. Stooler quelqu’un means “to rat someone out” or “to tell on someone.” If you’re not familiar with those English expressions, it means dénoncer quelqu’un.

For example, imagine a kid who wants to get back at her brother (get revenge on him) for something he said to her; she might decide to stooler her brother by telling their parents what he said so that he gets in trouble.

Mon frère m’a stoolé à mon père.
My brother told on me to my father.
My brother ratted me out to my father.

Le voisin m’a stoolé et m’a fait pogner un ticket.
The neighbour ratted me out and made me get a ticket.

The t in ticket is pronounced in that last example. Learn the noun form of stooler too: someone who does the stooling is un stool.

4. être chaud, chaudasse, feeling

If you’re chaudasse, then you’re on your way to getting drunk. You’re not full-on drunk yet; you’re buzzed or tipsy. But once you really are drunk, then you’re chaud.

Être feeling means the same thing as être chaudasse.

être chaudasse, to be tipsy, buzzed
être feeling, to be tipsy, buzzed
être chaud, to be loaded, drunk

J’étais chaudasse, mais pas chaud.
I was buzzed, but not drunk.

J’commence à être feeling.
J’commence à être chaudasse.
I’m starting to feel the alcohol.

Après deux shooters, j’étais déjà pas mal feeling.
After two shooters, I was already pretty buzzed.

The part that means “pretty” in that last example is pas mal. Don’t pause between the words pas mal. These two words must be pronounced together because they form an expression:

j’étais / déjà / pas mal / feeling
I was / already / pretty / buzzed

5. virer fou

In an article written by Brigitte Lavoie in Le Soleil (24 December 2013), a man named Rémi Guérin is quoted as saying:

Quand j’ai su que j’avais le cancer, je me suis dit : « Faut que je fasse quelque chose sinon je vais virer fou. »

When I found out that I had cancer, I said to myself: “I gotta do something or I’m gonna go crazy.”

That “something” was build a model of a church in La Malbaie.

virer fou
virer folle
to go crazy

Apart from the expression virer fou, there’s another useful bit of French to learn in that quote: quand j’ai su que…, “when I found out that…”

Virer fou is used in Québec, but quand j’ai su que is used by all francophones.