You want to learn Canadian French? Today, I will teach you 4 ways of agreeing in Québec French. C’est parti!
Would you understand these expressions in a conversation?
– On pensait que c’était fini, la neige. Mais non! 30 cm au mois d’avril, c’est décourageant!
– M’as dire comme toé, l’hiver a pas dit son dernier mot!
– Heille, mets-en! Bon, je pense qu’on va remettre notre séance de jogging, hein?
– Ça marche. On se reprend.
– Tiguidou!
– Salut là!
– Bye!
Agreeing in « international French »
As I often say : québécois is not a language. In Québec, we speak French. What we mean when saying « in québécois » refers to the informal way of speaking French here. In other words, « le québécois » is our slang. So, of course, all you learned in your formal French lessons is still valid. You can use all of the following expressions and people will understand you just fine :
- « d’accord » or « je suis d’accord », which literally translates to « I am in agreement ».
- « parfait » (perfect) when a plan or a suggestion suits you.
- « OK », but we tend to pronounce it with a more open O.
- « tu l’as dit », that literally means « you said it » and is used when you couln’t agree more. For example: – Brrr…. fait frette à matin, han? – Tu l’as dit!
All these ways of agreeing are perfectly fine, but if you want to sound more natural, here are 4 words or expressions that the native Canadian French speakers use.
Agreeing in colloquial Canadian French
1) Mets-en
In informal conversation, you are much more likely to hear « mets-en! » and it can even be pronounced « mazen ». Directly translated, it gives us something like « put some in ». We have the verb « mettre » (to put) in the imperative mode with the pronoun « en », that means « some / some of it ». (I have a French video with English subtitles that explains the use of that tricky word)
If I take the same example, you could easily hear Quebecers say:
– Brrr…. fait frette à matin, han?
– Mets-en!
Indeed, WAAAAY more natural.
2) Ça marche
Meaning « it walks », or « it is walking », ça marche is the equivalent of « works for me ». This expression is not specifically québécoise, and is widely used in colloquial speech in France as well.
For example:
– Bon, fait que je passe te prendre à 10h? / So I’ll come and get you at 10?
– Ça marche! / Works for me!
3) Tiguidou
The third word is pretty iconic but sounds a bit weird. It is often one of the first words that you will encounter when looking for « expressions québécoises » on the Internet, even though it is not THAT common.
I have done a bit of research and haven’t found any satisfactory explanation of the origin of that bizarre word, other than « formation onomatopéique ». Basically, just random sounds put together to form a word!
So it’s an invariable adjective (meaning that there are no masculine nor feminine forms, it always stays the same). And it means the exact same thing as « perfect, excellent ». Tiguidou can be used only in two ways :
a) on its own
– Je t’appelle quand j’ai fini, OK? / I’ll call you when I’m done, OK?
– Tiguidou! / Perfect, alright!
b) With the verb to be : « c’est tiguidou »
– Je t’ai remis le dossier avec les signatures, as-tu eu le temps de regarder ça? / I gave you back the file with the signatures. Did you have time to look at it?
– Oui. C’est tiguidou. / Yeah, it’s all good. / Everything is perfect.
OR
– Ben moi, j’pensais que tout était tiguidou, mais finalement ça a l’air qu’ils peuvent pu venir. / I though everything was OK but apparently, they can’t come anymore
4) m’as dire comme toé
Last but not least, we have the phrase « m’as dire comme toé » that translates as « I will say like you » (I’ll say the same thing as you).
Now, if you have learned a bit of French, you know that one way to express future in French is with the verb aller.
I will say = je vais dire
But why does « je vais dire » become « m’as dire »? That’s a great question! And one whose explanation is « extreme contraction ».
In older French, it wasn’t rare to use a pronominal for of aller to express future, so instead of « je vais » it’s « je m’en vais » :
Je m’en vais dire comme toi
J’m’en vais dire comme toi
J’m’en vas dire comme toi
M’en vas dire comme toi
M’as dire comme toi!
Besides, « toé » is just the informal pronounciation of « toi » (By the way, if you wish to improve your compréhension of that kind of colloquial/working-class, more pronounced Québec accent, I have THE Québécois online course you’re looking for!)
Anyway, that’s how Je m’en vais dire comme toi becomes m’as dire comme toé. And that phrase is used when you agree with someone and want to reformulate what they just said or go a bit further in that argument.
– Ah! Pas encore de la neige! / Ah! Not snow again!
– M’as dire comme toé, on est écœurés d’l’hiver! / I’ll say like you, we’re so fed up of winter
However, more exact equivalents would be « you said it », « you can say that again! » or « I hear ya »
Verifying your comprhension
Now that we learned a few ways of agreeing in colloquial Canadian French, let’s take a second look at the beginning conversation and see if your comprehension of colloquial Canadian French improved :
– On pensait que c’était fini, la neige. Mais non! 30 cm au mois d’avril, c’est décourageant!
We though snow was over, but no! 6 inches in April, that’s hard!
– M’as dire comme toé, l’hiver a pas dit son dernier mot!
You can say that again : we did not see the last of winter yet!
– Heille, mets-en! Bon, je pense qu’on va remettre notre séance de jogging, hein?
I hear ya! So, I think we’re gonna have to postpone our running session, huh?
– Ça marche. On se reprend.
Works for me. We’ll mark again.
– Tiguidou!
Alright!
– Salut là!
– Bye!
Hopefully, you are now better equiped to agree with someone in colloquial Québec French. If you enjoyed that content, I suggest you take a look at these 5 must-know words in Québécois!