The Great Canadian Practice your French Thread

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Merci beaucoup!

J'aime le mot "celui", c'est <<fun to say>>? Hereusement a dire? lol

Et "J'aime LE plus", je vais... pas oublier... celui. LOL Blague... je vais pas oublier ca.

You can't traduce words by words as you know, but the word ''Celui''(Sel-wi)
could probably mean ''That'' or ''this''. This one / Celui-là.

Because we use genders in french, we also have Celle ( The feminine of ''Celui'' ).

Feminine : J'aime cette table, c'est celle-là que je préfère ( I love this table, I prefer that one )

Masculine : J'aime ce film, c'est celui-là que je préfère ( I love this movie, I prefer that one )

And don't forget to us ''Le'' or ''La'' after a verb it's very important.

... J'aime le / la ( Something )-> J'aime LE film , Je vois LA ville, Je sens LA mer .... etc...

The most difficult finally, is to know by heart, what is Feminine or Masculine and where are going the é, è, ç, ê.

[SignalHillHiker]

Et... seulement pour toi... lol Je lire ca:

"'Ici c'est le clip avec Danny que j'aime plus et que je pense que c'est plus drole. Voici un clip avec Danny, c'est celui que j'aime le plus et je pense que c'est le plus drôle."

• Video Link

[vid]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

What's the funniest thing anyone learning French has said to you?

My favourite from someone learning English is, "I breakfasted myself."

I had someone from a Quebec company tell me they will "pus the order as ASAP". I think they intended push?

How do you pronounce beigne? Like "bain" or "bainya" or something else? The "gn" making a nyuh sound is always tricky for English people. A lot of people have an urge to pronounce it "oig nun".

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by vid

I had someone from a Quebec company tell me they will "pus the order as ASAP". I think they intended push?

How do you pronounce beigne? Like "bain" or "bainya" or something else? The "gn" making a nyuh sound is always tricky for English people. A lot of people have an urge to pronounce it "oig nun".

To me, it's like the almost-silent nnnggg after you've hit one of those giant comic cymbal things.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by vid

I had someone from a Quebec company tell me they will "pus the order as ASAP". I think they intended push?

How do you pronounce beigne? Like "bain" or "bainya" or something else? The "gn" making a nyuh sound is always tricky for English people. A lot of people have an urge to pronounce it "oig nun".

For the ''gn'' sound, the only example that come in my head is the sound you could get when you say ''and you'' , but very fast ''N'you'' ... so the N+Y seems to make this sound in english when I pronounce it.

Speaking about some difficulties for english peoples in french, one of my Ontarian friend is simply not able to pronounce ''Longueuil'' ... same for Vaudreuil or Auteuil. I tried tons of time to teach him how to say that and he failed to say : Long-you-heel... Longweyeal lol . At least he tried !

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

You can't traduce words by words as you know, but the word ''Celui''(Sel-wi)
could probably mean ''That'' or ''this''. This one / Celui-là.

Because we use genders in french, we also have Celle ( The feminine of ''Celui'' ).

Feminine : J'aime cette table, c'est celle-là que je préfère ( I love this table, I prefer that one )

Masculine : J'aime ce film, c'est celui-là que je préfère ( I love this movie, I prefer that one )

And don't forget to us ''Le'' or ''La'' after a verb it's very important.

... J'aime le / la ( Something )-> J'aime LE film , Je vois LA ville, Je sens LA mer .... etc...

The most difficult finally, is to know by heart, what is Feminine or Masculine and where are going the é, è, ç, ê.

Embarrassed and laughing... but:

• Video Link

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Et... seulement pour toi... lol Je lire ca:

"'Ici c'est le clip avec Danny que j'aime plus et que je pense que c'est plus drole. Voici un clip avec Danny, c'est celui que j'aime le plus et je pense que c'est le plus drôle."

• Video Link

Well done ahah ... By the way are you rolling your ''R'' in english aswell ?

[SignalHillHiker]

I don't think so? But I didn't think I was doing it in French either.

[vid]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

For the ''gn'' sound, the only example that come in my head is the sound you could get when you say ''and you'' , but very fast ''N'you'' ... so the N+Y seems to make this sound in english when I pronounce it.

Speaking about some difficulties for english peoples in french, one of my Ontarian friend is simply not able to pronounce ''Longueuil'' ... same for Vaudreuil or Auteuil. I tried tons of time to teach him how to say that and he failed to say : Long-you-heel... Longweyeal lol . At least he tried !

I know the sound, I can pronounce all of those words. (I can even pronounce the q in Iqaluit correctly; it's like k but further back on the tongue.) It is hard to transcribe the sound since there is no

Longueuil (harder to spell than to say) is sort of like saying "lone gay" in a French accent.

You think it is absurd that it takes them four letters to represent that sound, but English has the ough thing. It makes 18 different sounds. And as I mentioned before I pronounce French R better than English R but I can't do that Spanish trilled R except when I pronounce "Fredrico". If I ever had a Spanish boyfriend named Fredrico I would pronounce his name perfectly.

[rousseau]

I don't understand when or not to use the "ne" in "ne pas." Can anyone explain this?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I don't understand when or not to use the "ne" in "ne pas." Can anyone explain this?

Leaving out the NE in NE PAS is basically a short cut people use. The correct and formal way is always with NE and PAS. The short cut is very common when speaking, but rarely if ever used in formal writing.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

J'imagine que beaucoup de communautés francophones dans le reste du Canada ne sont pas des communautés historiques.... qui y sont seulement établies pour trouver un emploi et qu'au fil du temps ces communautés ont simplement grossi !

Par exemple les francophones de Winnipeg en est surement une historique tandis que celles des villes industrielles du sud de l'ontario comme toronto, ou windsor, non.

Français - (English below)
C'est essentiellement ça. Winnipeg c'est une communauté historique (St-Boniface), mais dans les autres grandes villes des Prairies c'est une implantation plus récente. C'est aussi assez récent partout en Colombie-Britannique. Par contre, il existe des petits villages historiquement francophones ici et là en Alberta, en Saskatchewan et au Manitoba.

Il en existe aussi dans le sud-ouest de l'Ontario autour de Windsor. La région de Détroit-Windsor était à l'origine une zone de peuplement francophone. Alors dans le coin de Windsor il y a des villages qui s'appellent Belle-Rivière, St-Joachim, Rivière-aux-Canards, etc. Le seul autre coin de peuplement francophone est dans le coin de la baie Géorgienne, autour de Penetanguishene, Lafontaine, Perkinsfield. Le chanteur Damien Robitaille vient de ce coin-là. Ailleurs dans les villes du sud de l'Ontario c'est plus récent comme installation.

That's about it. Winnipeg's francophone community around St-Boniface is a historic one, but in all of the other big cities on the Prairies the francophone communities are more recent in origin. It's pretty much the same anywhere in BC. That said, there are historic francophone villages here and there all over the Prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

There are also a few in southwestern Ontario, and the Detroit-Windsor area was originally settled by the French. So in the Windsor area you find small towns with names like Belle-Rivière, St-Joachim, Rivière-aux-Canards, etc. The only other historic francophone settlement area in southern Ontario is in the Georgian Bay area around Penetanguishene, Lafontaine, Perkinsfield. Singer Damien Robitaille, who is something of a media darling in hip Montreal circles these days, is from this area. Elsewhere in the cities of southern Ontario francophone settlement is more recent.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by le calmar

French communities are also implanted as far as Yukon. Even more impressive, you can find francophones in small towns like Dawson City and not just Whitehorse. I'd be suprised if such communities existed in NWT though, but who knows.

There is even one in Iqaluit! They have their own community radio station whose call letters are CFRT and which is pronounced "C'est frette!", which is slang for "it's frigging cold!"!

http://www.cfrt.ca/

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by vid

I had someone from a Quebec company tell me they will "pus the order as ASAP". I think they intended push?

I think he meant "passing your order". In French we say "passer une commande", which means "placing an order".

[flar]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

J'imagine que beaucoup de communautés francophones dans le reste du Canada ne sont pas des communautés historiques.... qui y sont seulement établies pour trouver un emploi et qu'au fil du temps ces communautés ont simplement grossi !

Par exemple les francophones de Winnipeg en est surement une historique tandis que celles des villes industrielles du sud de l'ontario comme toronto, ou windsor, non.

Originally Posted by RyeJay

I wonder how far south in Ontario French communities exist?

Hey WINDSOR!! Tu parle français?

La communauté à Welland est historique. Detroit était une colonie française. Beaucoup de noms des rues sont françaises. Les communautés historiquement françaises entre Windsor et Chatham (comme Belle River, St. Joseph, Paincourt, Grande Pointe, Erieau) sont pour la plupart anglais aujourd'hui. Mais il y a encore des écoles françaises.

(it took me like 10 minutes to write that )

[vid]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I think he meant "passing your order". In French we say "passer une commande", which means "placing an order".

I asked her to expedite the shipment, and her response was "I will try to pus the order as ASAP". I already placed the order. She was the one who receives it and does something with it so she didn't really have anyone to pass it to.

[roccerfeller]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

J'imagine que beaucoup de communautés francophones dans le reste du Canada ne sont pas des communautés historiques.... qui y sont seulement établies pour trouver un emploi et qu'au fil du temps ces communautés ont simplement grossi !

Par exemple les francophones de Winnipeg en est surement une historique tandis que celles des villes industrielles du sud de l'ontario comme toronto, ou windsor, non.

Oui, mais dans les provinces de l'ouest, il y a quelques communautes historique...le Manitoba a le plus de ces communautes, et la culture est tres vieux...plus de 150 000 personnes qui parle francais, et la plus-part sont dans Winnipeg (Saint-Boniface, Saint-Vital, Saint-Norbert)

et pres de Winnipeg (Sainte-Anne, Lorette, Saint-Claude, Notre-dame de lourdes, Saint Pierre-Jolys, Saint Adolphe, Saint Francois-Xavier, Saint Leon, La Salle, Saint Georges, Laurier, Saint Jean Baptiste, La Broquerie, South Junction (oui, lol), Saint Lazare, Saint Laurent, Saint Malo....je ne peux meme pas me rappeller...il y a plus de 30, je ne sais pas le nombre...mais il est beaucoup pour l'Ouest Canada...haha)

et le governement du Manitoba est bilingue comme l'Ontario (mais pas exactment comme le Nouveau Brunswick)

Originally Posted by Acajack

Français - (English below)
C'est essentiellement ça. Winnipeg c'est une communauté historique (St-Boniface), mais dans les autres grandes villes des Prairies c'est une implantation plus récente. C'est aussi assez récent partout en Colombie-Britannique. Par contre, il existe des petits villages historiquement francophones ici et là en Alberta, en Saskatchewan et au Manitoba.

Il en existe aussi dans le sud-ouest de l'Ontario autour de Windsor. La région de Détroit-Windsor était à l'origine une zone de peuplement francophone. Alors dans le coin de Windsor il y a des villages qui s'appellent Belle-Rivière, St-Joachim, Rivière-aux-Canards, etc. Le seul autre coin de peuplement francophone est dans le coin de la baie Géorgienne, autour de Penetanguishene, Lafontaine, Perkinsfield. Le chanteur Damien Robitaille vient de ce coin-là. Ailleurs dans les villes du sud de l'Ontario c'est plus récent comme installation.

That's about it. Winnipeg's francophone community around St-Boniface is a historic one, but in all of the other big cities on the Prairies the francophone communities are more recent in origin. It's pretty much the same anywhere in BC. That said, there are historic francophone villages here and there all over the Prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

There are also a few in southwestern Ontario, and the Detroit-Windsor area was originally settled by the French. So in the Windsor area you find small towns with names like Belle-Rivière, St-Joachim, Rivière-aux-Canards, etc. The only other historic francophone settlement area in southern Ontario is in the Georgian Bay area around Penetanguishene, Lafontaine, Perkinsfield. Singer Damien Robitaille, who is something of a media darling in hip Montreal circles these days, is from this area. Elsewhere in the cities of southern Ontario francophone settlement is more recent.

exactement (et les villes du Manitoba en general sont aussi historique)

[rousseau]

My wife and I are enjoying a leisurely weekend in Montreal. And once again, I'm gratified that my very rudimentary French is still fairly functional. Thing is, I'm reminded as always about the funny thing about my listening ability, and I wonder if any other non-native speakers find this: I can understand the foreign accents, like the Lebanese taxi driver last night, but I can barely understand a word of what the born and raised Quebeckers are saying!

[SignalHillHiker]

Ce soir, je vais aller chez une amie de moi que je ne pas vu pour comme 6 annees. Je suis vraiment excite! Et j'achete, pour ma premiere fois, un port (le boisson, comme vine) de Terre Neuve. Newman's. Je connais le nom, mais j'ai jamais boire ca une autre fois.

Et je besoin d'aller acheter un cadeaux.

[vid]

No prize! Pas cadeaux!

Earlier while grocery shopping someone was systematically running their tickets through at the "Lotto Centre Loto" and it kept saying that. I never realized before that OLG doesn't use French in its corporate branding, unlike almost every other government department. "La Société des loteries et des jeux de l'Ontario (OLG)" Yeah that abbreviation makes sense.

As someone who doesn't gamble, lottery terminals are very obnoxious things. It seems like every time I go to the corner store these days I get stuck behind some redneck blowing his pogie on OLG Poker. Pas cadeaux.