Jardin botanique
In the last post, you looked at vocab and mock conversations related to ordering in French at Tim Hortons. After I went live with it, I began adding notes down at the bottom of the post (like what deux-deux, double-double is exactly). If you haven’t seen those additions, you can check them out.
I also want to give you a search tip on OffQc. If there’s a French word you’d like to hear pronounced by a Québécois speaker, you can check for it in the Listen to Québécois French section of OffQc.
To find and hear pis, for example, search for this in Google:
site:offqc.com/listen pis
All the videos in the Listen section where pis is used will appear in the Google search results. Follow one of the links, then listen for the word in the video once you’re back on OffQc. You can locate the word with the help of the transcription below the video.
To look for and hear a different word, just change pis to that word, for example:
site:offqc.com/listen toé
Ça va bien?
A reader of OffQc asks how to answer the question ça va bien? It’s a good question because it might not be immediately obvious to you. Ça va bien? is a yes-no question, so if you’re wondering if can answer with oui or non, the answer is oui!
A very common way to answer the question is with oui, toi? It’s a reflex to answer like that, in the same way that it’s a reflex to say good and you? in English. In fact, oui, toi? is very often pronounced as though it were a single word — ouitoi — without the usual rising intonation at the end typical of yes-no questions.
Ça va bien?
Ouitoi.
Of course, you don’t need to limit yourself to that response.
You can be more enthusiastic:
Oui, très bien!
Oh que oui!
Ben oui, ça va super bien!
Merveilleusement bien, merci!
Or you can be a grouch:
Non, ça va pas pantoute.
Bof, fatigué, là…
Or you can just be polite:
Oui, ça va bien, et toi?
Oui, très bien, merci.
Oui, merci, et toi?
what if your boss asks im sure you cant say “toi”
You can say et vous? if you’re uncomfortable using et toi?, but tutoiement is a normal occurrence in the workplace.
Or: Pas pire.
(which I am to understand is much nicer than a lengthy quote of lyrics from one of my more favourite Laurent Paquin tunes which you featured some time ago… but I am terribly fond of repeating.. much to the chagrin of others. 😉
Nah, to heck with the others. 😉
Thanks for this entry. This actually baffled me for years. In school I was taught, “Ça va? / Ça va bien.” but the “Ça va bien?” form of the question threw me off. I finally decided to start saying, “Oui, bien” but was afraid that such a sentence would give me away as a non-native speaker.