I like to have a little fun with this blog, so sometimes I get inspired to make up a new term. This usually happens when I can’t find an existing term to describe an idea in my head, or after I’ve had too much coffee to drink.
arabébécois, a word resulting from the blend of the Arabic and Québécois languages, like dépannour.
belgiquébécois, belgiquébécoise, related to both Belgian French and Quebec French. The expression à tantôt! is belgiquébécoise because it can be heard in Belgium and Quebec. Other belgiquébécoiseries include the names of the three meals: le déjeuner (breakfast), le dîner (lunch), le souper (supper). In fact, according to M. Robert (le nouveau et le petit), these names can also be heard in places like Switzerland, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, the north of France…, so they should be called congorwandonordofrancobelgiquéb… oh never mind.
cowboy (cowgirl), a learner of French who tries to “go it alone” too much instead of cultivating francointerdependence. Example: “Oh mon Dieu, you are such a cowboy with all those grammar books and dictionaries.”
le dzidzu, a word used to describe how the letter d is pronounced dz before the French i and u sounds. Example: dire is pronounced dzire, and dune is pronounced dzune. First used ici and là. The verbal form is dzidzuer in French, or “to dzidzuate” in English. Example: Je dzidzue, donc je suis. See also tsitsu.
francointerdependence, healthy cultivation of relationships with francophones so that learning occurs alongside them, and not in an isolated state with books like grammar guides and dictionaries. It also has an adjective form. Example: “I just communicated with a francophone and learned something new. How very francointerdependent of me.” See also cowboy.
LBSoD, see Linguistic Blue Screen of Death.
Linguistic Blue Screen of Death (LBSoD), an imagined blue-screen-fatal-error message that may appear in your head telling you that it’s game over when a bilingual francophone switches to English on you after you’ve said something in French. The LBSoD is a figment of your imagination. It’s nothing more than an excellent offcois moment in disguise.
offcois, offcoise, (from the name OffQc) NOUN: a learner of Quebec French who approaches his or her learning with a healthy sense of adventure, curiosity, playfulness and openness to making mistakes. ADJECTIVE: having anything to do with this blog, its readers, or its author, and any absurdité that comes from it and them and him; anything to do with a positive attitude in learning and using French. The first known spelling was offqcois but a wise lectrice offcoise named Diane didn’t like la lettre q… et moi non plus.
OffQc, the name of this blog, which comes from the older name Offbeat French from Quebec. I used that full name for a while but then I thought it sounded really stupid, so I shortened it to OffQc to make it sound sexy and mysterious.
off-quoi?, what a francophone may say to you in that thing called the “real” world if you choose to pepper your conversation with the words on this page or even just start talking about OffQc. You’ve been warned.
le tsitsu, a word used to describe how the letter t is pronounced ts before the French i and u sounds. Example: tirer is pronounced tsirer, and tube is pronounced tsube. First used ici and là. The verbal form is tsitsuer in French, or “to tsitsuate” in English. Example: J’aime tsitsuer en regardant les étoiles. See also dzidzu.
Ceci est le blogue le plus awesome au monde! Si j’avais le moindre idee qu’il existait, je l’aurais rechercher toute ma vie. Mais, par hasard, je l’ai trouve.
Le manque de livres et logiciels pour apprendre le francais canadien et effroyable–ca ressemble a une conspiration. Mais ce blogue compense tout ca.
Je vais lire et relire et faire et refaire toute les choses que je trouve ici. Et je sais bien que je vais m’amuser a la folie.
Merci! Merci beaucoup!
(Le francais que tu lis ici est le francais du lycee albertain, des annees soixante. Je m’en excuse. Mais ca va changer.)
Merci à toi, Jim!
Hello: Just come across your site and think it is great.
Background: I am British, married to a French Canadian lady, live in England most of the year but stay at the family house in the Laurentides for a couple of months a year. I speak fractured French when there.
I have difficulty in holding a conversation with her family and wish to improve (greatly) my command of French; so your Blog is a godsend, as I lose the thread of the conversation when the talk speeds up.
However, should I also take a more formal course and if so, wait until I am in Quebec this summer to buy a French Canadian one, or get a Metropolitan French one here in England and stark using it now?
PS: In case you ask, my wife says she will talk to me in French when I do some hard work learning more vocabulary, and can hold a better conversation.
Keep speaking in French with your wife. This is the best way. It’s normal as a learner to lose track of a conversation when things speed up. You’ll get better at this with time. In the meantime, keep holding conversations in French with your wife. I’m not aware of any Quebec French courses, so don’t hold off learning French hoping to find one. Learn whatever French that you can in any way that you can.
Felix, hello (and Diane if you are reading this)
Back again after a few months unavoidable absence and now taking this seriously. Your Blog is really great.
We will be back in the Laurentians this winter; where I have to do all the negotiating with the local tradesmen – not much English spoken – and can get by.
However, as mentioned, my difficulty is when with her family and the conversation speeds up. I just lose the thread so your Blog with the emphasis on local words, phraseology and accent is a godsend! The object is by the time I am there, i shall be able to keep up.
Best wishes
Peter
Wait, you have a native speaker in your house and you aren’t seizing the opportunity for complete immersion? Explain to your dear sweetie that the hard work learning vocabulary that you intend to do is listening to her adorable accent in French. Yes, if you haven’t already, take some basic French courses at home, at least through A level minimum (French French and Canadian French are both French and the basics are all the same), but then talk to your wife! She will have to speak frustratingly slowly and clearly like you are a toddler at first, but you will quickly speed up and improve with practice. You are soo lucky to have this advantage! Have fun! 🙂
J’aime ce site! Je vais à Montreal et je voudrais apprende à parler comme un Québécois! very fun, helpful and interesting way to study. Merci!
hi felix, how would you say “until we meet again” thanks
sara – I would say “à la prochaine”
Hi i am from England and have recently arrived in Quebec on a 2 year work permit for a company transfer. Does anyone know of any french tutors in Montreal that they would recommend. I would prefer weekly one on one lessons
Hello Felix!
I am very interested in learning canadian french. I’ve been trying to find a good online course but most only offer parisian french. I wanted to learn canadian french online because of the flexibility and having a busy schedule but I’m finding it really hard to find the best course for me. Can you recommend any canadian french online courses that are reliable? Thank you.
I don’t believe that there are any. You can start listening to radio and watching shows online though. Study French however you can and listen to programming from Quebec constantly.
s.v.p! continuez publier les tranductions “québecois” sur ta page “Listen”. C’est merveilleux!
moi je suis un allemand (60) avec un background comme journaliste ‘pop’, qui écrit des textes PR et traduit NL/ D. ma connaissance de francais (basé au collège années 60) est ridicule, et j’ai peu occasion de le pratiquer car la ville plus proche francophone est liège à 80kms au sud. mais parce-que j’habite a la frontière hollando-allemande pour moi c’est normal de parler l’allemand et un dialect hollandais si nessesaire synchrone. je dois dire que montréal pour moi comme être né a cologne est un habitat idéal. la spontanéité, le humour assez brutal, les expressions et la bilingualité me ravissent. mais j’ai eu des difficultés avec le tsitsu. tes exemples sont parfait pour s’entrainer et au même temps avoir du fun. en septembre je dois ètre fit pour 10 jours a villeray. merci d’avance pour cette site!
Ton site est vraiment génial, beau travail. Mon chum est Irlandais et je sais qu’il n’est vraiment pas évident pour lui d’apprendre le français. J’espère pourra lui donner un coup de main! Merci 🙂
Je suis tombée sur ce site grâce à Twitter. Chapeau, and keep up the good work!
J’aime ton blog! Tu m’aide tellement.
De plus, j’écoute la radio québécois, je regarder les matchs des Habs à RDS (sur Internet) et de lire les journaux francophones (La Tribune, Voix de l’Estrie). Aussi, j’ai des amis sur Twitter et Facebook qui aident et corrigez-moi. 🙂 Jusqu’au jour de je peux me déménager au Québec, toutes ces choses d’une grande aide.
(Également – si vous le pouvez, modifiez les paramètres du logiciel sur votre ordinateur vers le français (C’est une autre façon d’apprendre de nouveaux mots … (mais n’est pas une bonne idée du travail) 🙂
Great blog!
Just discovered it today…
Keep up the good work.
Dear Felix,
I just found your blog today–have wanted to learn quebecois French for years but haven’t found any resources, probably because I live in the US (Connecticut) and it’s also hard to find francophone radio stations here. Anyway, c’est awesome! I was also wondering if Alexander Coutu’s book is available online–or if it’s still around–do you know? Anyway, thanks and keep up the blog!
Rita
Please see this entry on OffQc about Coutu’s book, with details on how to buy it:
https://offqc.com/2012/11/12/improve-your-understanding-of-quebec-french-le-quebecois-en-10-lecons-512/
Actually, I just answered my own question–ordered it from Lulu.
Ce site est excellent, felicitations! J’apprécie vraiment la presentation, le choix de contenu et l’organisation. Ça serait bon si on pouvait sauver tout le contenu en référence hors ligne (j’ai toujours peur qu’un site ou blogue va disparaître!). Peut-être tu penseras à republier tout ça dans un livre un jour? Mais si ça t’intéresse pas, peut-être ajouter un moyen d’exporter les articles en PDF si possible.
En fait, l’option de souscrire aux nouveaux articles par email est parfait. Si seulement il y avait la possibilité de recevoir tous les articles précédents. Mais ça en ferait beaucoup d’emails!
Ça en ferait beaucoup, effectivement. Republier le contenu du blogue dans un livre… ça pourrait être une idée intéressante.
I have a question — and I’m sorry if this isn’t the right place for it. A FB friend of mine did a video in support of a local business. I noticed something when I tried to listen to it (you’ll notice I didn’t say I understood all of it! :)) Marc says “partage” as “parctage”. In the past I’ve noticed that some “r’s get what I call the “crunchy” treatment, but not all “r”s do. (Leading “r”s sound like someone clearing their throat — at least when I listened to Rock Detente, and now Rouge, the announcer who says/said the words sounds like that.) maybe you could do a column on “r” pronunciation — If you haven’t already.
Marc’s video is at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWSGszp2fPI
Also, he says a word at 0:37 — it sounds like “jaune” (the phrase is ‘jaune de commerce’ — I think). I know I must be hearing that wrong. Could you tell me what he’s saying?
Hi, what he says is “…notre genre de commerce…”. So he’s talking about the service and how it relates to “his/their type of business”.
Thanks jabalong for answering! Janet, I’ll give some thought on how help with the Rs.
J’aimerais bien trouver un blogue similaire pour l’espagnol. Recommandations? Merci!
Would like to find a similar blog for Spanish. Any recommendations? Thanks!
Je peux t’aider! Chu Mexicain!
For Río de la Plata Spanish (Argentina), I like this blog: http://rioplatofonia.wordpress.com/
It has been only 5 months in Montréal and love! this city but i think i will be mentioned in the medical literature as the first person who has a physiological damage in the brain because of learning French…
Ok, i was exaggerating but if you don’t complain while learning French, what is the point? Also, minor damages like seeing dreams in French is not a joke but it was a shock to me for sure.
Whenever i feel lost about French and become a blue screen, your blog is my only true friend. Thank you for your time and effort. I wished you had the same kind of guide while you were learning Turkish but still if you need any reference, I will be glad to help.
Such a useful and helpful site. This is how all languages should be taught. And thanks for introducing me to Les Parent. The piece of eye candy on that show is to die for. Anglo straight women and gay men don’t know what they are missing if they don’t watch Quebec tv!
Don’t tell me you’ve got the hots for Louis Parent! Just kidding, I think everybody who watches Les Parent knows who you’re talking about. 😛
I’m Mexican but I’ll go to Québec soon to live indefinitely there. I speak French very well (as both Spanish and French come from the same origin) but the standard Radio-Canada way, and nothing about the slang québecois (like the sexual-not-so-vulgar-with your boy/girl/sexualfriend for exemple). It would be nice if you write a post where we can learn to say: “I want to have sex with you”, “I want to suck/eat your dick/pussy”, “I want to play with your balls”, “You have a nice ass”, “I’m so horny”, and so on. I don’t want to speak any English in Montréal (If you go to Rome, do as Romans…)
You know, I have my “needs”…
Stumbled upon your site while trying to figure out the varying degrees of how insulting ‘niaiseux’ can be. M’as me coucher moins niaiseux à soir 🙂 Still not quite sure how to tell my 3 year-old that he’s being ‘silly’, or that the gibberish song he just made up is ‘silly’. Love your site – just what this small town Ontario, long-time lover of Quebec French needed.
Hi, I’ve just moved to Québec City. Currently I’m trying to teach myself French, but most of it is France French. I figured if I make up the base with one, living here will help me out with Quebecois French. Your entries have been helping fill the void in my lessons. Do you have a Facebook page I can follow to help me stay up-to-date with your publishments?
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Nevermind, I found it the moment I started scrolling past my post. Thank you for your valuable information!
Êtes-vous un “pur” québécois? J’ai vu des mots et expressions dans vos lexiques que même moi n’ai jamais entendu (québécoise à 110%). Vous devriez sortir un peu de Montréal, vous verriez qu’en Abitibi, il y en a des vertes pis des pas mûres des expressions!
Hey, where’d you disappear to? I hope everything’s alright! I noticed the Facebook page is down…does that mean the blog is next? I hope you come back soon, we’re getting worried!