{"id":120127,"date":"2024-05-14T10:12:56","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T14:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/learn-quebec-french\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T15:19:25","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T20:19:25","slug":"learn-quebec-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/french\/learn-quebec-french\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Easy Ways to Learn Canadian French"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve spent months, maybe even years, learning French. You feel confident… until you hear rapid qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois<\/em> (Qu\u00e9bec French). Radio shows are incomprehensible, and you’re pretty sure that Canadian movie wasn’t even in French. Suddenly, you’re doubting everything you’ve ever learned.<\/p>\n

But your French studies won’t forsake you\u2014learning Canadian French will be far quicker than learning a new language altogether, and it’ll be a ton of fun.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Listen to\u00a0chansons<\/em><\/strong> fo<\/em>lkloriques<\/em> qu\u00e9b\u00e9coises\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Qu\u00e9bec folk songs)<\/h2>\n

One\u00a0fantastic thing Qu\u00e9bec has going for it is its amazing folk music. It’s a great way to hear the French-Canadian accent in all its glory. I’ll never forget my first time in Qu\u00e9bec City with my university French club. We stopped in a pub on a Tuesday night, and many of the locals had brought their violins, flutes, drums, you name it. They proceeded to jam together late into the night while everyone sang along.<\/p>\n

The music is catchy, so you’ll start to understand the accent fast! Before you write me off as some old fogey digging up ancient relics for you kind people to listen to, hear me out. Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois<\/em> folk music is almost reminiscent of that of the Celts\u2014think Irish and Scottish reels and bar songs. In fact, it has mixed with the Celtic music played in Anglo-Canadian circles. There’s plenty of foot-stomping, violin runs, jaw harps and dirty lyrics to boot.<\/p>\n

Here are a couple of songs to get you started.<\/p>\n

La Bottine Souriante<\/em> \u2014 “Yoyo”<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n

<\/lite-youtube><\/p>\n

J’rentre dans un’\u00e9glise<\/em>
\nL\u00e0 o\u00f9 il n’y avait rien<\/em>
\nL\u00e0 o\u00f9 il n’y avait rien (bis)<\/em>
\nJ’ai aper\u00e7u plus loin<\/em>
\nYoyo, Yoyo<\/em>
\nUn p’tit moine dans un coin<\/em>
\nEt puis tiens! tiens! tiens!<\/em><\/p>\n

(I walk into a church
\nWhere no one was around
\nWhere no one was around
\nI spotted someone far away
\nYoyo, yoyo
\nA little monk in a corner
\nAnd then well, well, well!)<\/p>\n

Notice how Je rentre<\/strong>\/j’rentre<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>(I enter\/I go) and petit\/p’tit<\/em><\/strong> (small) sound more like J’ren<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>and tit<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(pronounced “tee”).<\/p>\n

In formal French from France, it’s much more common to fully enunciate rentre<\/em> and petit.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pay special attention to nasal vowels\u2014they sound very different from Parisian French, and the nasal vowels, I think, are really what characterize the Qu\u00e9bec accent. Words like rien<\/em> (nothing), loin<\/em> (far) and coin\u00a0<\/em>(corner)\u00a0sound very roughly like\u00a0“ree-ay,” “lway” and “kway,”\u00a0while still having the final vowel nasalized.<\/p>\n

Le Vent du Nord \u2014 “Au Bord de la Fontaine”<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n

<\/lite-youtube><\/p>\n

Au bord de la fontaine<\/em>
\nLa belle ma dondaine (bis)<\/em>
\nAu joli mois de mai<\/em>
\nLa belle ma lalala<\/em>
\nAu joli mois de mai<\/em>
\nLa belle m\u2019a dond\u00e9 (bis)<\/em><\/p>\n

(At the edge of the fountain
\nThe pretty girl, my *untranslateable cutesy word used in songs*
\nIn the lovely month of May
\nThe pretty girl my lalala
\nIn the lovely month of May
\nThe pretty girl *untranslateable cutesy word used in songs*)<\/p>\n

Here, at least in the first verse, we don’t have any nasal vowels to watch for, but pay attention to the relaxed pronunciation. The “-aine”<\/em> portion of fontaine<\/em> (fountain) and dondaine<\/em> (cute filler word) would sound roughly like “- ehn” in Parisian French (fontaine<\/em> and dondaine<\/em>).<\/p>\n

In this song, however, it’s pronounced much more like “-ayn.” Note that the final “e”<\/em>s of fontaine<\/i>\u00a0and dondaine<\/em>\u00a0are fully pronounced, which is common in folk songs and poetry throughout the francophone world.<\/p>\n

Again, at first you’ll question whether the singers are really saying what the lyrics claim they are. Watch for how the words seem to collapse and slur into one another (more so than in Parisian French), and how the nasal vowels, especially in<\/em>\u00a0and en,<\/em>\u00a0sound a bit twangier.<\/p>\n

Overall, the pronunciation of qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois<\/em> tends to be more relaxed than Parisian French. The difference in accent between Qu\u00e9bec and Paris can be stark, but look up the rest of those lyrics and read along carefully\u2014you’ll soon get the hang of\u00a0the French Canadian accent. You’ll come to love it!<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Watch great movies<\/strong><\/h2>\n

French learners often fail to realize that Qu\u00e9bec has its own strong film tradition separate from France. These movies can have (but not always) a strong Catholic bent, because Qu\u00e9bec didn’t go through the French Revolution along with France, instead breaking away from heavily Catholic culture only recently.<\/p>\n

Movies in general are a great way to fine-tune your understanding. The dialogue tends to be closer to how people speak in real life. But movies can also offer a great challenge because especially in independent sorts of films, the actors tend to speak quietly and mumble.<\/p>\n

If you can understand mumbled qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois<\/em>, you can understand anything!<\/p>\n

Here are two suggestions to get you started.<\/p>\n

“La grande s\u00e9duction”<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(“Seducing Doctor Lewis”)<\/h3>\n

\"La<\/a><\/p>\n

This movie is hilarious. It takes place in the tiny village of Ste-Marie-La-Mauderne, which has long been in decline. In order to lure a company to build a factory in the village, the residents need to double their population, bribe the company director and convince a doctor to take up residence in town.<\/p>\n

The plot centers on the villagers’ attempts to get a young, sophisticated doctor from Montreal to stay in Ste-Marie-La-Mauderne. The villagers fake that they appreciate the finer things in life, like cricket and jazz, when really they’re coarse people who can’t get enough hockey.<\/p>\n

“Monsieur Lazhar”<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n

\"Monsieur<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a darker film about an Algerian immigrant living in\u00a0Montreal. He takes up a substitute position in a school after the French teacher commits suicide in a classroom. Understandably, the students are shaken, and Monsieur Lazhar has his own tragedies to deal with, but they work together to form a tight relationship.<\/p>\n

(Note: Beware of French Canadian dubs of\u00a0English-language movies and cartoons. While the voice actors don’t speak in a Parisian French sort of way, they also don’t put on their full Qu\u00e9bec accent. Watching dubbed media can give you a false impression of how qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois<\/em> actually sounds!)<\/p>\n

FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n

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