Here’s more overheard French from Montréal, carrying on from the 6 overheard items in French we looked at in the last post.
Y’est grafigné.
It’s scratched.
A woman said this while looking at the bumper of her car; another car had scratched it.
Grafigner means to scratch. This verb is used at the conversational level of French in Québec. The gné ending of grafigné sounds like nyé. In IPA, it’s pronounced [gʀafiɲe].
Y’est (yé) is an informal pronunciation of il est.
Y’a un meeting demain.
There’s a meeting tomorrow.
A man said this about a meeting at work.
Meeting is pronounced as in English, but with the usual French word stress.
Other words for meeting are une réunion and une rencontre. The Usito dictionary prefers these words to the English-derived meeting, but you’ll still want to know that meeting is used.
Y’a is an informal pronunciation of il y a.
Si tu savais comment je m’en câlisse…
If you (only) knew how much I don’t give a fuck…
Je m’en câlisse — we’ve seen it before — is a vulgar expression meaning I don’t give a fuck.
Overheard Québécois French from Montréal (#918)
Posted in Entries #901-950, tagged ayoye, ben voyons donc, comment ça, français québécois, Montréal, mouiller, napkin, overheard, Québécois French on 4 April 2015| 3 Comments »
Photo not taken today, but that’s pretty much what things looked like this morning… 😦
I kept my ears open today… here’s some overheard French from around Montréal!
Ben voyons don’! Ayoye! Comment ça?
Oh come on! Ouch! How’s that?
A woman walking past me talking into her phone said this all at once. The expression ben voyons don’ or just voyons don’ shows surprise. Don’ comes from donc, but the c isn’t pronounced here. Depending on the context, (ben) voyons don’ can mean oh come on!, come off it!, what?!, for real?, etc.
We can translate ayoye as ouch. It can show surprise or pain. Transcribed in IPA, it’s pronounced [ajɔj].
Comment ça? means how’s that? how’s that possible?, etc.
Hier, y mouillait.
Yesterday, it was raining.
Montréal got a new snowfall today. A man talked about how just yesterday it was raining. He used the verb mouiller. Y mouillait means it was raining, where y is an informal pronunciation of il.
Tu veux t’asseoir où, toi?
Where do you want to sit?
A mother asked her child where he wanted to sit down. This was how she asked. She put the question word où at the end.
Je vais aller chercher des napkins.
I’m going to go get napkins, serviettes.
The same mother then said she was going to go get napkins or serviettes. Napkin is used in the feminine. It’s pronounced as in English, but with the stress on the final syllable. The s isn’t pronounced in the plural.
C’est quinze minutes de marche.
It’s a fifteen-minute walk.
A man said this to a woman he was accompanying.
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