OffQc | Québécois French Guide

Here’s a translation exercise you can do, similar to the ones in Say it in French: Translate 125 sentences to conversational Québécois French.

See if you can say the sentences below in French (the Québécois variety, of course!), without looking at the answers. If you need help, check the clues.

When you’re done, check the possible answers (they come after the image) and read the notes. You can try the exercise again after that to test yourself.

Say in French:

1. No, thanks, I’m just looking.
   (what customers say to shop assistants when they don’t want help)
2. I do my food shopping with reusable bags.
3. Hahaha, what a hilarious video!
4. I hate mosquitos.
5. It’s too bad (it stinks, it sucks), but that’s how it is.

Clues:

• regarder
• maringouin
• juste
• plate
• crampant
• épicerie
• haïr

Possible answers:

1. Non, merci, je fais juste regarder.
2. Je fais mon épicerie avec des sacs réutilisables.
3. Hahaha, c’est crampant comme vidéo!
4. J’haïs ça, les maringouins.
5. C’est plate, mais c’est comme ça.

Notes:

1. Je fais juste can be followed by a verb in the infinitive depending on what you want to say. Je fais juste te rappeler que… I’m just reminding you that… Informally, je fais can contract to j’fais, which sounds like ch’fais. Juste can sound informally like jusse.
2. The expression faire l’épicerie means to do the grocery shopping.
3. Something crampant is hilarious.
4. Un maringouin is a mosquito. J’haïs is pronounced ja-i.
5. Plate means too bad here (in the sense of unfortunate), but it can also mean boring. T’es plate! You’re boring! You’re no fun!