1. BEN VOYONS DON’! (oh come on!)
You’re crossing the street when an oncoming car goes through a red light and zips past in front of you. Ben voyons don’!
Ben sounds like the French word bain; it’s a contraction of bien. Don’ is in fact donc, but don’t pronounce the c here. This expression is also said as voyons don’!
2. FRANCHEMENT! (oh honestly!)
The person ahead of you in line is taking forever to decide what food to order. Franchement!
3. C’EST-TU CLAIR? (is that clear? understood?)
You’ve just lectured someone, and now you want to make sure you’ve been perfectly understood. C’est-tu clair?
The tu here turns c’est clair into a yes-no question, in an informal way. It doesn’t mean you. It’s like est-ce que in meaning.
4. ÇA VA FAIRE! (that’s enough! cut it out!)
You’ve got a headache, and the kids won’t stop arguing. Ça va faire!
5. BEN LÀ! (oh come on!)
Someone’s just said something so ridiculous you can’t believe it. Ben là!
This expression means the same thing as voyons don’!
6. TA YEULE! VOS YEULES! (shut up!)
The neighbours won’t stop screaming. Vos yeules!!!
Yeule is a colloquial pronunciation of gueule. Use ta yeule! to tell one person to shut up, and vos yeules! with more than one person.
7. QUESSÉ ÇA PEUT BEN TE FAIRE? (what do you care?)
Someone doesn’t like the way you’re going about a matter, and you want that person to back off. Quessé ça peut ben te faire?!
Quessé is an informal contraction of qu’est-ce (que) c’est (que).
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Learn how words contract in spoken Québécois French (with audio): read Contracted French
Thanks! I already use ‘franchement’ a lot. 🙂 Is calling someone ‘vache’ an insult that’s used in Quebec? I say that sometimes, too.
Sure, you can call someone a vache as an insult. Maybe in the future I’ll do a list of the more common ones.
My mother in law says Voyons don’! all the time in traffic and stuff. lol