A few posts back, we looked at different examples using marde. Let’s turn that post about marde into part 1 of a new series about swearing in Québécois French and continue now with part 2: maudit.
One of the examples in part 1 was:
AH BEN MAUDITE MARDE!
Do you remember what this means from part 1? The expression maudite marde literally means damned shit, but you can use it the way you might say things in English like damn it, bloody hell or even just shit. Maudite marde, j’ai perdu ma Rolex! Damn it, I lost my Rolex! You might add ah ben before it (ben is a contraction of bien; it sounds like the French word bain), as in ah ben maudite marde! Well, damn it! Well, shit!
Before we start looking at more examples of maudit, let’s check how it’s pronounced.
You’ll remember that the letter d in fact sounds like dz (like the dz sound in the English words beds, heads, etc.) when it comes before the French i sound, as it does in maudit. This means maudit sounds like mô-dzi (ô sounds like oh), or, using English approximations, like moh-dzee. The feminine form maudite sounds like mô-dzite. But, rather than sounding like the English word eat, the ite ending of maudite sounds much like the English word it, with a short i sound. In other words, using English approximations, maudite sounds like moh-dzit, not moh-dzeet.
MAUDIT QUE C’EST CHER!
You can use maudit que to add a lot of emphasis. Maudit que c’est cher! Damn that’s expensive! Maudit que t’es chanceuse! Damn you’re lucky! Maudit que t’es beau! Damn you look good!
C’EST QUOI TON MAUDIT PROBLÈME?
Maudit is an adjective, so you can put it before a noun and damn it. C’est quoi ton maudit problème? What’s your damn problem? Just remember to use the masculine or feminine form as necessary. C’est quoi c’te maudite affaire-là? What is that damn thing? (C’te is an informal, spoken form of cette; it sounds like te with an s sound on the front of it: s’te.) Maudite journée d’marde, j’ai pogné un ticket. Damn shitty day, I got a ticket. (Pogné sounds like ponnyé. The final t in ticket is pronounced, and the stress falls on the final syllable.)
Y’ÉTAIT EN MAUDIT
If someone’s really angry, that person can be said to be en maudit. Y’était en maudit. He was pissed off. Tout le monde est en maudit contre lui. Everybody’s pissed off with him. Ça va mettre tout le monde en maudit. That’s going to piss everybody off. (In spoken language, mettre can lose its final re, meaning it’ll sound like mette.)
If you want to say je suis en maudit, know that je suis en can contract in spoken language — first je suis contracts to j’s’, which sounds like the French ch (like the ch in choix), and then a t sound slips in. Ch-t-en maudit, then, is a spoken pronunciation of je suis en maudit.
Y’EN AVAIT EN MAUDIT
En maudit has another meaning — a hell of a lot. Je l’aime en maudit. I love it/him/her a hell of a lot. Y’en avait en maudit. There was a hell of a lot (of it). There were a hell of a lot (of them). (Y’en avait en maudit is a contraction of il y en avait en maudit. If you’re not sure how en works in il y en avait, you can start learning about that here. Or the short answer: en means of it, of them, and it gets placed before the verb avait.)
—
Keep reading about swearing in Québécois French:
- Part 1: marde
- Part 2: maudit (that’s this post)
Leave a Reply