The Great Canadian Practice your French Thread

[vid]

Alouette, gentille Alouette; Alouette, je te plumerai!

Literally,

"Lark, nice Lark; Lark, I will rip every feather off of you"

It's so violent!

[davidivivid]

Originally Posted by vid

Alouette, gentille Alouette; Alouette, je te plumerai!

Literally,

"Lark, nice Lark; Lark, I will rip every feather off of you"

It's so violent!

Hahaha!! I've known this little song for so long but I've never fully paid attention to the lyrics!! Wow!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Is Outaouis (sp?) just a bastardization of the English Out-A-Ways?

Outaouais is the French word for Ottawa - the river not the city.

When the Europeans came to this region, they heard the aboriginals refer to something that sounded like ''addaweh''. The French transcribed that as Outaouais and the English transcribed it as Ottawa.

There is a street in Gatineau called ''Atawe'' which is another written version of the same word.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by davidivivid

Hahaha!! I've known this little song for so long but I've never fully paid attention to the lyrics!! Wow!

Ça fait pas mal ''Chanson du dépeceur'' ... j'avoue.

[vid]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Outaouais is the French word for Ottawa - the river not the city.

When the Europeans came to this region, they heard the aboriginals refer to something that sounded like ''addaweh''. The French transcribed that as Outaouais and the English transcribed it as Ottawa.

There is a street in Gatineau called ''Atawe'' which is another written version of the same word.

Those aboriginals were the Ojibwe, and what they were referring to were the people who lived there, whom they called "Odawe", which is Ojibwe for "traders"; a reference to the fact that the Ojibwe would often trade things with them.

[MTLskyline]

http://www.officiallanguages.gc.ca/n..._contenu_e.htm

[FrAnKs]

Very interresting ! Nice find

Très intéressant ! Belle trouvaille

[Nicko999]

Très intéressant comme information... je suis d'ailleurs un peu surpris par certaines statistiques.

[le calmar]

36% des Francophones au Québec parlent anglais? Chez les jeunes ça doit être proche de 90%. Je connais personne dans mon entourage qui ne parle pas anglais (j'inclus ceux qui le parlent d'une façon basique)

[FrAnKs]

C'est difficile à évaluer. Je me demande elle est où la ligne? À partir de quand tu est considéré comme étant bilingue. Ils ne vont quand même pas faire passer un test d'évaluation à tout le monde ... En ce qui me concerne, c'est certainement pas mes cours d'anglais du secondaire qui m'ont rendus bilingue! ... mais plutôt mes efforts personnels !

[Nicko999]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

C'est difficile à évaluer. Je me demande elle est où la ligne? À partir de quand tu est considéré comme étant bilingue. Ils ne vont quand même pas faire passer un test d'évaluation à tout le monde ... En ce qui me concerne, c'est certainement pas mes cours d'anglais du secondaire qui m'ont rendus bilingue! ... mais plutôt mes efforts personnels !

haha, bien d'accord avec toi! Je me rappelle que mes cours d'anglais au secondaire etaient une grosse perte de temps. Lors de l'examen de comprehension (avec la cassette) il y avait des questions du genre "the car is red, what color is the car?" Le pire, c'est que j'etais dans la classe la plus "avancee".

PS: Desoler pour l'absence d'accents, j'ai un clavier francais mais sur l'autre ordi.

[SignalHillHiker]

Ce fin de semaine (tu peut dire weekend en Quebec, oui?) j'ai besoin de travailler. Pas beaucoup, mais... c'est comme 5 heurs. Alors, j'aime beaucoup les projets que je besoin fini... c'est pas trop mal.

Maintenant je vais aller chez mon... je ne sais pas comment ecrit boyfriend en francais? Au revoir pour comme 30 minutes, ha!

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Ce fin de semaine (tu peut dire weekend en Quebec, oui?) j'ai besoin de travailler. Pas beaucoup, mais... c'est comme 5 heurs. Alors, j'aime beaucoup les projets que je besoin fini... c'est pas trop mal.

Maintenant je vais aller chez mon... je ne sais pas comment ecrit boyfriend en francais? Au revoir pour comme 30 minutes, ha!

If you don't have any problem with that, I will correct your sentences. It's not that I'm being smartass with you ... it will just give you an idea of what is correct or not


Ce week-end / Cette fin de semaine, j'ai besoin de travailler. Pas beaucoup mais pour environs 5 heures. Sauf que j'aime bien les projets que j'ai besoin de finir, c'est pas si mal ça !

Maintenant, je vais aller chez mon Chum ( or ''Ami de gars'' ) ( Chum isn't used in France ). Alors je vous dit aurevoir pour environs 30 minutes !

------------

Well done again Signalhillhiker.

[rousseau]

Situation:

I make my way north though Parc Lafontaine on my bike and turn west onto the bike lane on Rue Rachel. I speed by several riders, then slow down as if to turn right. But I don't, and speed up again.

Then I change my mind, and slow down again. Kinda dumb, but I'm indecisive about where I want to turn north to get up to Mont Royal. Unfortunately, my erratic riding has forced a woman behind me on a bike to slow down. I grimace and shrug my shoulders in apology as she pulls up alongside, but she simply chuckles good-naturedly and says something that sounds like:

"Alizee."

Huh? I got the feeling she meant something like "go ahead," but I'd like to know specifically what it was she said. Can anyone decipher what I've written from the context?

[davidivivid]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Situation:

I make my way north though Parc Lafontaine on my bike and turn west onto the bike lane on Rue Rachel. I speed by several riders, then slow down as if to turn right. But I don't, and speed up again.

Then I change my mind, and slow down again. Kinda dumb, but I'm indecisive about where I want to turn north to get up to Mont Royal. Unfortunately, my erratic riding has forced a woman behind me on a bike to slow down. I grimace and shrug my shoulders in apology as she pulls up alongside, but she simply chuckles good-naturedly and says something that sounds like:

"Alizee."

Huh? I got the feeling she meant something like "go ahead," but I'd like to know specifically what it was she said. Can anyone decipher what I've written from the context?

She must have said "Allez-y", which means something along the lines of "you go" but with a formal undertone.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by davidivivid

She must have said "Allez-y", which means something along the lines of "you go" but with a formal undertone.

D'oh! Yes, that must have been it. I must have gotten the two vowels mixed up. Merci!

Wait a minute: what would a less formal version of "Allez-y" be?

[Vaillant]

Originally Posted by le calmar

36% des Francophones au Québec parlent anglais? Chez les jeunes ça doit être proche de 90%. Je connais personne dans mon entourage qui ne parle pas anglais (j'inclus ceux qui le parlent d'une façon basique)

j'ai beaucoup de gens dans mon entourage qui parle pas anglais..

[FrAnKs]

Ça dois déprendre des régions. Depuis que j'ai quitté Montréal, je me rend compte le taux de bilinguisme ou de conaissance de l'anglais est vraiment pas aussi élevé ici. Il s'est surement amélioré mais c'est pas comme à Montréal. De toute façons, comment tu veux pratiquer ton anglais sur le terrain à Québec ? ... la communauté anglophone la plus proche doit être à des heures de route d'ici lol ... alors que quand j'habitais St-Eustache, je pouvais me rendre en Ontario en moins de 30 minutes !!

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by rousseau

............

Wait a minute: what would a less formal version of "Allez-y" be?

My first reaction would by "Vas-y" (ie. tu rather than vous) but I think the meaning of "vas-y) can change according to the context.

In the case of your bicycle lady, the fact that you were a stranger makes the "formal undertone" of "Allez-y" quite appropriate, I would have thought.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

My first reaction would by "Vas-y" (ie. tu rather than vous) but I think the meaning of "vas-y) can change according to the context.

In the case of your bicycle lady, the fact that you were a stranger makes the "formal undertone" of "Allez-y" quite appropriate, I would have thought.

Exactly! You are really good.

Just for fun, there is also the very colloquial (Canada only) "enwaye donc", which is a corruption of "envoie donc" which literally means "please send it along".

But in common speech it means "go for it!" or "come on, pleeease" depending on the context and tone.