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« What does DONNE-MOI-Z-EN mean in French? (#1078)
“It takes me forever.” How might you say that in French? (#1080) »

A pronunciation of ELLE you didn’t learn in school (#1079)

17 January 2016 by OffQc

Take a look at these examples of French:

– à part le matin
– à m’tanne avec ça
– à shake d’l’épaule

All three phrases come from the song Donne-moi-z’en by Bernard Adamus. (Do you remember we looked at the meaning of donne-moi-z-en here?)

In the phrases above, you might think à is the preposition à, but in fact it’s not. This à is an informal pronunciation of the subject pronoun elle that you’ll often hear in spoken language. (It sounds just like the preposition à, though.)

The phrases above are spoken equivalents of:

– elle part le matin
– elle me tanne avec ça
– elle shake de l’épaule

Knowing then that à is an informal pronunciation of elle, do you now understand the meaning of the three phrases?

à part le matin
she leaves in the morning

à m’tanne avec ça
she gets on my case about it, she goes on and on about it to me, etc.

à shake d’l’épaule
she shakes her shoulder (she shakes from the shoulder)

The informal verb shaker is pronounced like the English shake + é. The conjugated form shake sounds like the English shake.

In à m’tanne avec ça, the vowel of me has dropped. Shift the m’ to the end of à, then say tanne.

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Posted in Entries #1051-1100 | Tagged Bernard Adamus, donne-moi-z-en, français québécois, Québécois French, shaker, tanner | 5 Comments

5 Responses

  1. on 17 January 2016 at 18:24 Bassel

    Merci beaucoup. Quand “The Quebecois French Prononciation Guide” va sortir?


    • on 17 January 2016 at 20:52 OffQc

      I’m still working on the contractions book. I’ll have something else ready even before that one, though. More news soon. 🙂


  2. on 17 January 2016 at 19:32 catherinetactuk

    OMG I clicked on your link to go hear the song and uffffff…… I don’t understand a thing they say, even with the lyrics righ on my face…


    • on 17 January 2016 at 20:53 OffQc

      It’s challenging for sure! A reader asked if we could look at the lyrics, so I’ll take bits and pieces every once in a while for us to look at.


      • on 17 January 2016 at 20:55 catherinetactuk

        Yes, please do. You can’t imagine how much you help us QCfrench-learners



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