Slang Terms
As with any two regional variants, there is an abundance of slang terms found in Quebec that are not found in France. Quebec French profanity uses references to Catholic liturgical equipment, rather than the references to prostitution that are more common in France.
The expression "you're welcome" is bienvenue in Quebec, though de rien as used in France is also used. Note that the expression bonne journée (as opposed to bon jour) is also often used for "goodbye" in Quebec (similar to "Good Day"), which it is not in France (where it is more common to say au revoir or bye).
Some slang terms unique to Quebec:
| Arsoude | to come | In Quebec "tchek lé ben arsoude!" In Europe, it's "regarde le bien s'en venir" |
| Ben | very | Used informally for "Well...," on both sides. Ben, tu te souviens de cette encyclopédie sur Internet?. It is derived from the formal form Eh bien. |
| Bibitte | Small insect | Derived from bébête for small creature. |
| Blonde | Girlfriend | NB, the girlfriend in question could be a brunette! |
| Bobette(s) | Underwear | In Europe, it's "sous-vêtements". |
| Brailler | To weep, to whine | In Europe, to scream, to speak very loudly (colloquial) |
| Char | Car | Comes from cart and horse days. In Europe, a char is an army tank or a chariot. |
| Chum | Boyfriend; male friend | chum de fille = female friend |
| Crosser | To masturbate; to double-cross | Verb is "To masturbate" in reflexive form only. Crosseur = wanker, swindler. In Europe the French say= (se) branler |
| Crier | To obtain | In Europe, to cry. See also pogner |
| Déguidine! | stop procrastinating, get on with it, hurry up | Note that the second "d" is pronounced "dz". See also déniaise!, envoye!, enweye!, awaye! |
| Écœurant | Wonderful (ironically) | Literally "nauseating", used ironically to mean something is overwhelmingly good, as an English speaker might say "so sweet I got a tooth ache". Note, someone calling you mon écœurant (you bastard!) is not a term of endearment. |
| Envoye! (enweye)(awaye) | Let's go, hurry up, come on | Often pronounced with a "w" sound, not with "v" |
| Faque | That said, so, that means | Contraction of "Fait que" or "Ça fait que". Also, in Europe, "Ce qui fait que...". |
| Fif | Homosexual | fam. Osti quié fif ce gars la. European French = PD / Pédé |
| Fin / Fine | Nice, sweet (of a person) | In Europe = mignon, mignonne |
| Flo | A kid (perhaps 10 years old or so) | Might possibly be an anglicism from "fellow"; European French = môme / gosses / les drôles |
| Fret(te) | cold | Denotes something colder than merely ça caille ! / Il fait froid |
| Le fun | fun, amusing (adjective, not noun, despite the le) | C'est très le fun; c'est amusant |
| Gale or Galle | Scab | Possibly related to the disease. |
| Garrocher | To throw without caution | It will be pronounced "garrocher" or "goarrocher" |
| Genre | like | This slang is used as a parallel to the "like" word used by some American slang; the French word for like, comme, may also be used. These words appear often in the same sentence as the word tsé (tu sais = you know) as a form of slipped words within spoken structure. The use of voilà in this manner, although common in France, is not found in Canada. |
| Gollé | trench or ditch; from English gully | |
| Graine | Cock / Penis | Eille le gros, on voit ta graine! European French = Bitte / Queue |
| Grouiller | hurry up or move | This verb is often used in "grouille-toé", meaning "hurry up". Also used to mean that you move as in "grouille pas" (ne bouge pas), meaning "don't move". Same thing in Europe: Grouille-toi, Grouille tes puces (literally, Shake your fleas) |
| Guidoune | Prostitute, badly dressed woman, Effeminate man | |
| Jaser | To chat | Slandering chat is Eu., unusual. |
| Lutter | Hit with a car | Can be used as follows: "J'ai lutté un orignal" meaning "I hit a moose". Lutter in proper French means to wrestle. |
| Magané | Deteriorated, used, wrecked | Can also mean tired, sick or exhausted. |
| Mets-en | Totally, For sure, I'll say | Used in to agree with a statement. |
| Pantoute | Not at all | Contraction of pas en tout (pas du tout) |
| Paqueté/Saoul | Drunk | |
| Pitoune | babe/chick (good looking girl); or floating log. | Depends on the context, from Occitan pichona, meaning young girl |
| Plate | Boring, unfortunate | plat with the t pronounced |
| Pleumer | To vomit or used instead of "plumer" | To vomit when having nausea; "J'ai trop bu hier, j'ai pleumé partout". |
| Plotte | Vagina or promiscuous woman | Very vulgar, similar to the English "cunt" |
| Plumer | To pluck (literally, as plume = feather). | Secondly, it can be used as a verb to describe a beating in a game; "Je vais te plumer aux cartes" in the sense of plucking one's opponent's feathers; similar to the English expression to lose one's shirt. Finally, as a verb meaning to peel, as in "J'ai plumé quelques légumes". |
| Poche | stupid, untalented | Can also mean "unfortunate" (C'est poche ça as in C'est plate ça) |
| Pogner | get, grab | Can also mean to be sexually attractive, successful, or to have a loud argument with someone ("j'me suis pogné avec mon voisin"). It may also mean obtain ("Je me suis pogné une nouvelle radio"). |
| Quétaine | kitsch, tacky, not in a good way | |
| Taper, tomber sur les nerfs | To irritate someone | Only taper sur les nerfs in France. |
| Tête(s) carrée(s) | English-Canadians | Used only in Quebec, this term can be considered pejorative or even a racial slur. Literally square head(s) in English (possibly a back-formation from blockhead, and of the British term bloke). |
| Toé (Toi) | You | |
| Tsé (Tu Sais) | You know | Used in the same way the French use vous savez and corresponds to the English version "you know" or the American version "y'know" (abbreviated structure). Often heard in the same sentence as the word genre as slang representing lack of clarity. |
| Se tasser | Move over | Eu: S'entasser: to be jammed in together. Ça se tasse: situation where spirits settle down after a scandal or quarrel |
Read more about this topic: Quebec French Lexicon
Famous quotes containing the words slang and/or terms:
“It is a mass language only in the same sense that its baseball slang is born of baseball players. That is, it is a language which is being molded by writers to do delicate things and yet be within the grasp of superficially educated people. It is not a natural growth, much as its proletarian writers would like to think so. But compared with it at its best, English has reached the Alexandrian stage of formalism and decay.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“It is not stressful circumstances, as such, that do harm to children. Rather, it is the quality of their interpersonal relationships and their transactions with the wider social and material environment that lead to behavioral, emotional, and physical health problems. If stress matters, it is in terms of how it influences the relationships that are important to the child.”
—Felton Earls (20th century)