OffQc | Québécois French Guide

Here’s a great audio overview of the main pronunciation features of Québécois French. It’s made available by Université Laval.

You can listen to vowels, consonants and 30 example sentences, pronounced by a Québécoise.

In the example sentences, you’ll notice letters between parentheses. This reflects the colloquial pronunciation where certain letters go unpronounced. Each letter in parentheses could be replaced by an apostrophe.

Here’s some help with the meaning of the 30 sentences:

le bain avant le dodo, ti-fille
bath before bedtime, young lady

Ti comes from petit, petite.

des barniques
specs (as in glasses to correct one’s vision)

je vais manger autre chose d’abord
I’m going to eat something else then

D’abord means “then” here, not “first of all.” It’s a Québécois usage.

Another example: OK, d’abord! OK, then!

toute frette
all cold

Frette is an informal pronunciation of froid.

c’est quelque chose
it’s really something (i.e., impressive)

un insignifiant
a nobody

se manger la laine sur le dos
to take advantage of one another

c’est pas ça qui met plus de pain dans la corbeille
that’s not what puts bread on the table
(lit., more bread in the basket)

ç’a pas d’bon sens
ça l’a pas d’bon sens
it’s crazy, ridiculous,
it makes no sense

Exceptionally, the final s in sens is not pronounced in this expression.

Ç’a and ça l’a both mean ça a.

Ç’a is a contraction of ça a, and ça l’a has a letter L stuck in there to make pronouncing ça a easier informally.

I recommend using ç’a instead of ça l’a, which you can just learn to recognise. Ç’a sounds like sa.

Another example: ç’a été long (means ça a été long).

un barrage
a dam

supporter quelqu’un
to stand someone
to put up with someone

pas pire pas en toute
pas pire pantoute
not bad at all

c’est de l’ouvrage
it’s a lot of work

bastringue
stuff

y m’a faite freaker au boute
he totally freaked me out

Boute is an informal pronunciation of bout. Au boute (au boutte) means “to the max.” The pronunciation boute can often be heard in a number of informal expressions, like this one.

recouper les informations
to cross-check the information

terminus, tout le monde débarque
last stop, everybody out

pis tu t’en vas direct dans le lite
an’ yer goin’ straight to bed

Lit is sometimes pronounced informally as lite (litte). You can just recognise this and keep pronouncing li yourself.

Another example: Nuit is sometimes pronounced nuitte. Again, you can just recognise this and continue pronouncing nui.

Native speakers don’t expect you to say litte and nuitte. If you do, they just might correct you! Li and nui are acceptable pronunciations in all language situations in Québec.

oupelay
woops, woopsedaisy

y s’est-tu trompé ou quoi?
did he make a mistake or what?