Quebec English encompasses the
English dialects
Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. For the classification of varieties of English only in terms of pronunciation, see regional accents of English.
Overview
Dialects can be defi ...
(both native and non-native) of the predominantly
French-speaking
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
province of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
. There are few distinctive phonological features and very few restricted
lexical
Lexical may refer to:
Linguistics
* Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language
* Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification
* Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
* Lexical ...
features common among
English-speaking Quebecers
English-speaking Quebecers, also known as Anglo-Quebecers, English Quebecers, or Anglophone Quebecers (all alternately spelt Quebeckers; in French ''Anglo-Québécois'', ''Québécois Anglophone'') or simply Anglos in a Quebec context, are a ...
. The native English speakers in Quebec generally align to
Standard Canadian English
Standard Canadian English is the largely homogeneous variety of Canadian English that is spoken particularly across Ontario and Western Canada, as well as throughout Canada among urban middle-class speakers from English-speaking families, exc ...
, one of the largest and most relatively homogeneous dialects in North America. This standard English accent is common in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, where the vast majority of Quebec's
native English speakers live.
English-speaking Montrealers have, however, established ethnic groups that retain certain lexical features: Irish, Jewish, Italian, and Greek communities that all speak discernible varieties of English. Isolated fishing villages on the
Basse-Côte-Nord
Basse-Côte-Nord Territory (French: ''Territoire de la Basse-Côte-Nord'', meaning "lower north shore") was a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) in eastern Quebec, Canada. The territory, whose geographical code was 982, wa ...
of Quebec speak
Newfoundland English
Newfoundland English is a term referring to any of several accents and dialects of Atlantic Canadian English found in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of these differ substantially from the English commonly spoken elsewhere in C ...
, and many
Gaspesian English-speakers use
Maritime English. Francophone speakers of Quebec (including Montreal) also have their own
second-language
A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...
English that incorporates French accent features, vocabulary, etc. Finally, the
Kahnawake
The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (french: Territoire Mohawk de Kahnawake, in the Mohawk language, ''Kahnawáˀkye'' in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, C ...
Mohawks
The Mohawk people ( moh, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people of North America ...
of south shore Montreal and the
Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...
and
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
of Northern Quebec speak English with their own distinctive accents, usage, and expressions from their indigenous languages.
Quebec Anglophone English
The following are native-English (anglophone) phenomena unique to Quebec, particularly studied in Montreal English and spoken by the Quebec Anglophone minority in the Montreal area. Before the 1970s, minority-language English had the status of a co-official language in Quebec.
Phonology
Anglophone Montreal speaks
Standard Canadian English
Standard Canadian English is the largely homogeneous variety of Canadian English that is spoken particularly across Ontario and Western Canada, as well as throughout Canada among urban middle-class speakers from English-speaking families, exc ...
, which has the
Canadian Vowel Shift and
Canadian raising
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
, with some additional features:
*Resistance to the
merry–marry merger: unlike the rest of typical North American English, Montreal English tends to maintain the distinction in words like ''Mary/merry'' versus ''marry'', ''perish'' versus ''parish'', and ''Erin'' versus ''Aaron''. The vowels remain, as in traditional East-Coast American English and often British English, and , respectively.
*The vowel is relatively backed.
*The "short ''a''" or vowel is not raised before as elsewhere in Canada, but it is raised somewhat before for ethnic British and Irish Montrealers. Among other ethnicities, such as Jewish Montrealers, there may be no raising of the vowel in any context.
*The following vowel sounds are linguistically-
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
: the sets of vowels represented by the words (
back
The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column run ...
and
monophthong
A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
al), (monophthongal), and (back).
Vocabulary
Quebec English is heavily influenced by English and French. The phrases / words below show the variation of meaning in the Quebec English dialect.
Delay: an amount of time given before a deadline. "I was given a delay of 2 weeks before my project was due".
An Animator: is not an artist but is someone who meets and entertains children.
A sweet carbonated beverage is commonly referred to as a "pop" in many parts of Canada, but in Montreal, it is a "soda" or "soft drink." A straight translation of the French "liqueur douce".
A Formation - this word in English would normally mean a routine stance used in a professional formation. (i.e. The men stood in formation). In Quebec a Formation is a reference to an education.
A Pass - this phrase originates from Italian speakers, the word "Pass" is often used in phrases such as "I am going to pass by a friend on the way to the movies". The phrase is comparatively used when you are already completing one action but can squeeze in another action on the way to your destination.
In standard English, the phrase "Your bus will pass in 2 minutes" would mean that you are about to miss your bus or that you have already missed your bus. Alternatively in Montreal the phrase "Pass" can also mean to arrive or stop as a way to show that the action will happen in a relatively short time frame. Example: "Your bus will pass in 2 minutes".
Locations within the city are also commonly described using syntax borrowed from French. If a building is at the corner of St. Catherine and Peel streets in downtown Montreal, it may be described as being “on Saint Catherine, corner Peel.” This is parallel to the French expression, “Ste. Catherine, coin Peel,” or “angle Peel.”
French-language toponyms
English-speakers commonly use French-language toponyms and official names for local institutions and organizations with no official English names. The names are pronounced as in French, especially in broadcast media. Examples include the
Régie du logement, the
Collège de Maisonneuve,
Québec Solidaire
Québec solidaire (QS; ) is a democratic socialist and sovereigntist political party in Quebec, Canada. The party and media outlets in Canada usually use the name "Québec solidaire" in both French and English, but the party's name is sometimes ...
, the
Parti québécois
The Parti Québécois (; ; PQ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishin ...
,
Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
Hochelaga-Maisonneuve () is a neighbourhood in Montreal, Canada, situated in the east end of the island, generally to the south of the city's Olympic Stadium and east of downtown.
Historically a poor neighbourhood, it has experienced significant ...
, and
Trois-Rivières
Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...
.
*English toponyms in place of French (nonstandard when written): Older generations of English-speaking Montrealers are more likely to informally use traditional English toponyms that vary from official, French-language toponyms. In a notable generational distinction, it is uncommon among younger English-speaking Quebecers.
Examples include ''Pine Avenue'', ''Park Avenue'', ''Mountain Street'', ''Dorchester Blvd.'', ''St. James Street'' – often used without St., Blvd., Ave., Rd., etc. (names for the designations "avenue des Pins", "av. du Parc", "rue de la Montagne", "boulevard René-Lévesque", "rue S
t-Jacques"; the English-language official designations have reputedly been revoked, but evidence for that is difficult to find); ''Guy'' and ''Saint Catherine'' Streets; ''
Town of Mount Royal
Mount Royal (french: Mont-Royal, officially Town of Mount Royal, french: Ville de Mont-Royal, abbreviated TMR, french: VMR) is an affluent on-island suburban town located on the northwest side of the eponymous Mount Royal, northwest of Downtown M ...
'', as it was chartered, and the charter has not been revoked; and ''Pointe Claire'' (pronounced or with English T and R and typography, instead of official "
Pointe-Claire
Pointe-Claire (, ) is a Quebec local municipality within the Urban agglomeration of Montreal on the Island of Montreal in Canada. It is entirely developed, and land use includes residential, light manufacturing, and retail. As of the 2021 ce ...
" with the French accent).
French loanwords
The use of a limited number of Quebec French terms for everyday place nouns (and occasional items) that have English equivalents; all of them are pronounced with English pronunciations or have undergone English clippings or abbreviations and so are regarded as ordinary English terms by Quebecers. At times, some of them tend to be preceded by ''the'' in contexts in which they would normally have ''a/an''.
:''autoroute'' instead of expressway
:''branché'' instead of trendy (colloquia
:''chansonnier'' instead of songwriter
:''chez nous'' instead of "
tour place"
:the ''dep''
– instead of corner, variety, or convenience store; from ''
dépanneur
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
''
:''coordinates'' instead of contact information
:''fonctionnaire'' or instead of civil servant
:''formation'' instead of training
:the ''gallery'' – instead of balcony
:the ''guichet'' – instead of bank machine, even when all
ATMs are labelled "ATM";
:''malaise'' - instead of malady or ailment
:''marché'' –
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
:the ''métro'' (or ''metro'') instead of the subway, referring to
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...
in urban areas; from the French ''chemin de fer métropolitain''; ''metro'' is used outside Canada, though, as in the
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro (or simply Metro), formally the Metrorail,[Google Books search/preview ...](_blank)
:''nappe'' – a
tablecloth
A tablecloth is a cloth used to cover a table. Some are mainly ornamental coverings, which may also help protect the table from scratches and stains. Other tablecloths are designed to be spread on a dining table before laying out tableware and ...
:''
poutine
Poutine () is a dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. It emerged in Quebec, in the late 1950s in the Centre-du-Québec region, though its exact origins are uncertain and there are several competing claims regarding it ...
'' – French fries with gravy and cheddar cheese curds
:''primary one, two, three'', in contrast to
Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French ( ...
''grade one, two, three'' etc.
:''resto'' – restaurant
:the ''
SAQ '' – the official name of the government-run monopoly liquor stores (pronounced "ess-ay-cue" or "sack"), the
Société des alcools du Québec
The Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ; ) is a provincial Crown corporation and monopoly in Quebec responsible for the trade of alcoholic beverages within the province.
Organization
The official legislation governing the SAQ's operations a ...
. That usage is similar to that in other provinces, like in neighbouring
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, where LCBO liquor stores are referred to as the "lick-bo" (for
Liquor Control Board of Ontario
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is a Crown corporation that retails and distributes alcoholic beverages throughout the Canadian province of Ontario. It is accountable to the Legislative Assembly through the minister of finance. It wa ...
).
:''secondary one, two, three'', in contrast to Canadian English ''grade seven, eight, nine'' etc.
:''stage'' – apprenticeship or internship, pronounced as
:''subvention'' – government grant or subsidy. The word exists in both French and English, but it is rarely heard in
Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French ( ...
outside Quebec.
:''terrasse'' – the French pronunciation and spelling of the translation for 'terrace' is common among anglophones in casual speech and is considered acceptable in semiformal expression such as journalism.
:''undertaking'' – ''
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
'' or ''
enterprise
Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to:
Business and economics
Brands and enterprises
* Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company
* Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company
* Enterprise ...
''
Pronunciation of French names
The pronunciation of French-language first and last names that uses mostly-French sounds may be mispronounced by speakers of other languages. For example, the pronounced "r" sound and the silent "d" of "Bouchar''d''" may be both pronounced: . French-speakers and Quebec English-speakers are more likely to vary such pronunciations, depending on the manner in which they adopt an English
phonological
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
framework. That includes names like ''
Mario Lemieux
Mario Lemieux (; ; born October 5, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played parts of 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Pittsburgh Penguins between 1984 and 2006, and he assumed ownership of the f ...
'', ''
Marie-Claire Blais
Marie-Claire Blais (5 October 1939 – 30 November 2021) was a Canadian writer, novelist, poet, and playwright from the province of Québec. In a career spanning seventy years, she wrote novels, plays, collections of poetry and fiction, newspa ...
'', ''
Jean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest (; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012 and the fifth deputy prime minister of Canada in 1993. Charest was elected to the House of ...
'', ''
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
'', ''
Robert Charlebois
Robert Charlebois, OC, OQ (born June 25, 1944) is a Québecois author, composer, musician, performer and actor.
Charlebois was born in Montreal, Quebec. Among his best known songs are ''Lindberg'' (the duo with Louise Forestier in particular) ...
'', and ''
Céline Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...
''.
Quebec Francophone English
Francophone second-language speakers of English use an interlanguage with varying degrees, ranging from French-accented pronunciation to Quebec Anglophone English pronunciation. High-frequency second-language phenomena by francophones, allophones, and other non-native-speakers occur in the most basic structures of English, both in and outside of Quebec. Commonly called "Frenglish" or "
franglais
Franglais (; also Frenglish ) is a French blend that referred first to the overuse of English words by French speakers and later to diglossia or the macaronic mixture of French () and English ().
Etymology
The word ''Franglais'' was first at ...
", such phenomena are a product of
interlanguage
An interlanguage is an idiolect that has been developed by a learner of a second language (L2) which preserves some features of their first language (L1), and can also overgeneralize some L2 writing and speaking rules. These two characteristics ...
,
calques
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...
, or mistranslation and thus may not constitute so-called "Quebec English" to the extent that they can be conceived of separately, particularly since such phenomena are similar for Francophone-speakers of English throughout the world, which leaves little to be specific to Quebec.
Phonology
Francophones speaking English often pronounce / instead of /, and some also pronounce for the phoneme , and some mispronounce some words, some pronounce a full vowel instead of a schwa, such as for ''message''. Since French-speakers greatly outnumber English-speakers in most regions of Quebec, it is more common to hear French in public. Some Anglophones in overwhelmingly-Francophone areas use some of the features (especially the replacement of and by
and
, but their English is remarkably similar to that of other varieties of English in Canada (
Poplack, Walker, & Malcolmson 2006 ).
Other speakers
There is also a pronunciation (''NP'') of the
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
as /n/ + /ɡ/ (among some
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
Montrealers) or /n/ + /k/ (among some
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
Montrealers, especially those who grew up speaking
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
),
such as by high degrees of ethnic connectivity within, for instance, municipalities, boroughs, or neighbourhoods on
Montreal Island
The Island of Montreal (french: Île de Montréal) is a large island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, that is the site of a number of municipalities including most of the city of Montreal and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main ...
, such as
Saint-Léonard and
Outremont
Outremont is an affluent residential borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It consists entirely of the former city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec. The neighbourhood is inhabited largely by fran ...
/
Côte-des-Neiges
Côte-des-Neiges (, ) is a neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at the geographic centre of the Island of Montreal on the western slope of Mount Royal and is part of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
Côt ...
/
Côte Saint-Luc
Côte Saint-Luc (; also spelled Côte-Saint-Luc, and known historically in English as Cote St. Luke) is a city on the island of Montreal in Quebec, Canada.
Geography
Along with Hampstead and Montreal West, Côte Saint-Luc forms an enclave within ...
. Such phenomena occur as well in other
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
areas such as
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Vocabulary and grammar
:''janitor'' – building superintendent.
:''country house'' – cottage (vacation home).
*The use of French
collocation
In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a series of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, a collocation is a type of compositional phraseme, meaning that it can be understood from the words th ...
s (''NS''):
:''Close'' the TV – Turn/shut off the TV.
[
:''Close'' the door. – Lock the door.
:''Open'' the light. – Turn on the lights.][
:''Close'' the light. – Turn off the lights.][
:''Take'' a decision. – Make a decision. (NB "Take" is the older British version. Compare French ''Prends/Prenez une décision'')
:''Put'' your coat. – Put your coat on (from French ''Mets ton manteau/Mettez votre manteau'').
:''Pass'' someone money. – Lend someone money.
:''Pass'' the vacuum. – Run the vacuum (or do the vacuuming)
*The use of French grammar (''NS''): Many of these constructions are grammatically correct but only out of context. It is both the calquing and linguistic transfer from French and the betrayed meanings that make these sentences foreign to English.
:He ''speak/talk'' to me yesterday. – He spoke/talked to me yesterday. (]verb tense
In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns.
The main tenses found in many languages include the past, present, ...
)
:''Me, I'' work in Laval. – I work in Laval. (vocal stress on "I". From French ''Moi, je travaille à Laval''.)
:''It/He have'' many books. – There are many books. (from French ''il y a'' meaning "there is/are")
:I like ''the'' beef and ''the'' red wine. – I like beef and red wine. (overuse of definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
to mean "in general". From French ''J'aime le bœuf et le vin rouge''.)
:''You speak French?'' – Do you speak French? (absence of auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb (abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a p ...
; otherwise it means surprise, disbelief or disappointment when out of context)
:''We were/are four.'' – There were/are four of us. (from French "nous sommes" and "nous étions")
:''We're Tuesday'' – It's Tuesday. (from French "nous sommes")
:I ''don't'' find my keys. – I can’t find my keys. (lack of English modal auxiliary verb)
:At this moment I ''wash'' the dishes. – I’m washing the dishes right now. (verbal aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
)
:I can't join you at this moment because ''I eat''. – I can't join you right now because I'm eating. (verbal aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
)
:My computer, ''he don’t'' work. – My computer won’t work. (human pronoun, subject repetition, uninflected auxiliary verb)
:I would like a ''brownies''. – Could I have a brownie? (plural –s thought to be part of the singular word in relexification In linguistics, relexification is a mechanism of language change by which one language changes much or all of its lexicon, including basic vocabulary, with the lexicon of another language, without drastically changing the relexified language's gramm ...
process; other examples: "a Q-tips", "a pins", "a buns", "a Smarties", "a Doritos", etc.)
:I would like ''shrimps'' with ''broccolis''. – Could I have some shrimp and broccoli? (use of regular plural instead of English unmarked plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
or non-count noun
In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elemen ...
; this is not a case of hypercorrection
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is non-standard use of language that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a mi ...
but of language transfer
Language transfer is the application of linguistic features from one language to another by a bilingual or multilingual speaker. Language transfer may occur across both languages in the acquisition of a simultaneous bilingual, from a mature sp ...
).
:''Do'' you ''want'' to wash the dishes? – Will/would you wash the dishes? (lack of English modal verb
A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
; modal ''vouloir'' from French instead – ''Voulez-vous faire la vaisselle?'')
:We have to ''go in by'' downstairs – We have to go in downstairs (via the non-standard French 'entrer par')
:You're going to ''broke'' it! – You're going to break it! (mixing of homonymic French tenses; "cassé", past, versus "casser", infinitive)
*False cognate
False cognates are pairs of words that seem to be cognates because of similar sounds and meaning, but have different etymologies; they can be within the same language or from different languages, even within the same family. For example, the Engli ...
s or ''faux-amis'' (''NS''): This practice is quite common, so much so that those who use them abundantly insist that the false cognate is the English term even outside of Quebec. Note that these French words are all pronounced using English sounds and harbour French meanings. While the possibilities are truly endless, this list provides only the most insidious false cognates found in Quebec.
:''a stage'' – an internship (pronounced as in French, from the French word for internship, "un stage".)
:''Cégep'' (''cégep''; ''collégial'', ''cégepien'') – the acronym of the public college network preceding university in Quebec.
:''Chinese pâté'' or – shepherd's pie
Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in its French version hachis Parmentier is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are beef or lam ...
(''pâté chinois
Pâté chinois () ('Chinese pie') is a French Canadian dish similar to the English shepherd's pie or French ''hachis Parmentier''. It is a traditional recipe in both Québécois cuisine and Acadian cuisine.
Ingredients
The dish is made with ...
''; Quebeckers' pâté chinois is similar to shepherd's-pie dishes associated with other cultures)
:''a cold plate'' – some cold-cuts (reversed gallicism
A Gallicism can be:
* a mode of speech peculiar to the French;
* a French idiom;
* in general, a French mode or custom.
* a loanword, word or phrase borrowed from French.
See also
* Francization
* Franglais
* Gallic (disambiguation)
* Gallican ...
– ''assiette de viandes froides'')
:''coordinates'' – for address, phone number, e-mail, etc.
:''(a) salad'' – (a head of) lettuce
:''a subvention'' – a (government) grant
:''a parking'' – a parking lot/space
:''a location'' – a rental
:''a good placement'' – a good location
:''That's it.'' – That is correct. (from ''C'est ça.'')
:''all-dressed pizza'' – a deluxe pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms and green peppers (from ''pizza toute garnie.'')
:''soup, two times'' – two soups, or two orders of soup (from "deux fois.")
Few anglophone Quebeckers use French grammar or false cognates, but many use French collocations and most understand such high-frequency words and expressions. Some of these cognates are used by many francophones, and others by many allophones and anglophone accultured in allophone environments, of varying English proficiencies, from the bare-minimum level to native-speaker level.
See also
* English-speaking Quebecer
English-speaking Quebecers, also known as Anglo-Quebecers, English Quebecers, or Anglophone Quebecers (all alternately spelt Quebeckers; in French ''Anglo-Québécois'', ''Québécois Anglophone'') or simply Anglos in a Quebec context, are a l ...
* Quebec French
Quebec French (french: français québécois ), also known as Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language spoken in Canada. It is the dominant language of the province of Quebec, used in everyday communication, in educa ...
* Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French ( ...
* Franglais
Franglais (; also Frenglish ) is a French blend that referred first to the overuse of English words by French speakers and later to diglossia or the macaronic mixture of French () and English ().
Etymology
The word ''Franglais'' was first at ...
References
*
{{Languages of Quebec
Canadian English
*
Dialects of English
English language in Canada
Languages of Canada