Canadian French refers to the language as spoken in Canada and is the mother tongue of nearly seven million Canadians (roughly 22% of the national population). The dialects of French spoken in Canada are Quebec, Acadian, Métis, Newfoundland and Brayon dialects. You will also find Canadian French spoken in parts of New England in the United States. Both English and French are the official languages of Canada, and in New Brunswick and Quebec French is the only official language. Quebec French is not only spoken in Quebec, but closely related varieties are spoken by francophone communities in Ontario, Western Canada, Labrador and in the New England region of the United States.

Français québécois

One thing I’ve heard a lot over the years is “French is French, you can understand it no matter where you go”. Well, that’s true to a point. The Quebec French accent is close to the French spoken in Poitou or Normandy, so most Francophone Canadians are able to communicate with European Francophones with some modifications to their accent and shifting to a slightly more formal, “international” type of speech by avoiding idioms or slang. Metropolitan French speakers have no problems understanding Quebec newscasts or other moderately formal Québécois speech. The difficulties may come in informal speech, such as the dialogue in a sitcom where idioms, slang, local vocabulary are used.

Formal language

A notable difference in grammar is the feminine form of many professions, which traditionally do not have a feminine form. There are other, sporadic spelling differences. For example, the spelling tofou for what is in France tofu. In grammar, the adjective inuit (Inuit) is invariable in France but, according to official recommendations in Quebec, it has regular feminine and plural forms.

Informal language

You will also find many grammatical differences between informal spoken Quebec French and the formal language. There is the omission of the negative particle ne, in Metropolitan French (Je parle pas anglais, Je comprends pas), while other features, such as use of the interrogative particle –tu, are used in Quebec or Canadian French.

Here’s some examples showing a few differences between French as spoken in Europe and Quebec:

Vocabulary

Quebec	Europe	English
abrier	couvrir	to cover
astheure	maintenant	now
chum (m)	copain (m)	(male) friend/boyfriend
magasiner	faire des courses	to go shopping/do errands
placoter	papoter	to chat/chatter

Common phrases

Quebec	Europe	English
avoir le corps dérangé	avoir la diarrhée	to have diarrhea
avoir le goût dérangé	gouter une saveur étrange	to taste something strange, unexpected
en arracher	en baver	to have a rough time
faire beau soleil	faire un temps radieux	to have radiant/sunny weather
prendre une marche	faire une promenade	to take a walk
avoir le bec fin	faire le difficile	to be picky
se faire passer un sapin	se faire duper	to be tricked
parler à travers son chapeau	parler à tort et à travers	to talk through one’s hat

One major characteristic distinguishing Quebec French from Metropolitan French is the greater number of borrowings from English in the informal spoken language, whereas in formal contexts, the use of Anglicisms are more strictly avoided than in Metropolitan French.

barfer – to barf, vomit
bosser – to boss others around
cédule – schedule
être badloqué – From the English ‘to be/have bad luck.’
kiquer – To give something or someone a kick
ouatcher – to watch or keep an eye on
puncher – to punch
tripper – From English 60s hippie slang, je trippe ‘I am tripping out, dude!’
la poque – hockey puck

Here’s a video where Benny the Irish polyglot is speaking with Geneviève from Montréal about the differences between French spoken in France and Quebec. Benny is originally from Ireland

 

Français acadien

Another dialect in Canada is called Acadian French. It is spoken in the province of New Brunswick and small groups of francophones in Prince Edward Island, in several tiny pockets of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, in the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a small swath of the northernmost portion of the U.S state of Maine.

Acadian French retained features that died out during the French standardization efforts of the nineteenth century. A few examples are:

The Acadian French ‘r’ is not sounded in the throat as it is in Metropolitan French. but rolled like in Spanish perro.

The plural ending of verbs –ont, e.g. ils mangeont as compared to Metropolitan French ils mangent, in which the ending is not
pronounced.

Many aspects of Acadian French are still common in rural areas in the West of France. Speakers of Metropolitan French and even of other Canadian dialects sometimes have minor difficulties understanding Acadian French.

Examples of Acadian words

The following words and expressions are used in Acadian French, though some can also be found in Quebec French (indicated with an asterisk).

amarrer – to tie
asteur* – now
bailler* – to give
boucane* – smoke, steam
brâiller – to cry, weep
chassis – window
chu – I am
ej – I
erj – and I
frette* – cold
hardes – clothes, clothing
pomme de pré – (lit. meadow apple) American cranberry
se badgeuler – to argue
j’étions – i was
ils étiont – they were

Here’s a video of someone speaking Acadian French (not sure why they chose to record in the dark):

 

In a future post we’ll look at French as it is spoken in Luxembourg