Comments on: How Different Is The Canadian French Language From The European French Language?

By: SARAH E

SARAH E — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:28:59 +0000

You could understand each other but canadian french uses some words from english or other languages rather than the parisian french equivalent. A simple example would be mushrooms. The canadian french speakers I know just say the word mushroom with a french accent but the parisian french will say champaganion.

By: europa

europa — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:53:49 +0000

different dialects

By: Hi

Hi — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:13:38 +0000

The spoken accent( like english, scottish, irish, american etc) and some colloquial expressions can be different.

By: Allan

Allan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:21:28 +0000

Well the accents are really different like when ever I talk to a Canadian in French I can barley understand but there is also a slight vocab difference.

By: Don Verto

Don Verto — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:47:11 +0000

Minor vocabulary changes, minor phonology changes. Basically the same kind of difference between Canadian English and European English.

By: Diane

Diane — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:39:59 +0000

Yes they would understand each other very well.In Quebec the language is more the same unlike in France where they have many dialects.The language is the same as taught in the schools.

By: Cutiepie U.E

Cutiepie U.E — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:07:01 +0000

They would, in general, but like my French teacher said the Canadians really don’t use the nasal sound like the Europeans do– they say “queeeenze” instead of “quinze” and stuff like that.

By: Louie the linguist

Louie the linguist — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:45:46 +0000

Well I knew this one lady who came from France and she said at first she had trouble understanding us. We have different dialects and informality/slang, kind of like the European and north american English we speak the same language just a little differently. So when I talk to people from France I always speak very formally, so the don’t get confused with the slang.

By: theafran

theafran — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:21:58 +0000

First of all, there are different language levels and dialects both in Europe and in Canada. It’s not true that all French people understand eachother perfectly because it depends on where they are from and their social standing. A young rapper speaking verlan in the North of France may not be understood by a 40 year old man from Marseilles or Biarritz.
There are also different dialects in Canada, including Québec French, Acadian French, etc., but for the sake of the argument, let’s talk about Québec French here.
Most educated Québécois have a good knowledge of written standard French, which in essence, means that they are able to make themselves understood by any other French speaker, provided they are accustomed to the accent. I’ve travelled abroad, and I’ve never had problems making myself understood anywhere. Of course, I know which are local words and I avoid them.
There are differences in pronunciation (more nazalisation, whole sentence intonation and prosody differs, several longer vowels no longer distinguished in Europe (like côte/cote, on/un, pâte/patte, etc.) and there are also differences in vocabulary. But most importantly — and this is where communication becomes difficult — at the other end of the spectrum, there is also an old Quebec French dialect which does have different grammatical rules. One could say all Québécois are billingual and they go back and forth between these 2 extremes.
For instance, there are many contractions in prepositions.
dans les = dins
sur la = s’a
sur les = s’es, etc.
Last consonants are often dropped
il = i (i mange)
elle = a (a mange)
table = tab
Nous form is unused and replaced by “on”.
“Ne” is almost never used — but that’s true in Europe as well, actually.
There is an epenthetic t inserted in many verb forms:
je suis arrivé = j’t'arrivé
je suis à Montréal = j’t'à Montréal
quand tu arriveras = mèque t’arriveras
je vais t’aider = m’as t’aider
While it’s true that there are English words in QFrench, it would be false to say there aren’t in European French and often times, Québécois tend to be more careful to avoid such words.
weekend = fin de semaine
chewing gum = gomme
ferry = traversier
label = étiquette (in music)
Borrowed English words that tend to be masculine in Europe, tend to be feminine in Québec, such as job, sandwich, etc.
Some people compare American and British English to French and Quebec French, but the difference is greater in French for 2 reasons. First, settlers came to America much earlier than the British and so have been separated for longer, and secondly, French settlers did not speak Parisian French and came mostly from Normandy, Burgundy, etc. It is only later that Parisian French became the standard.

By: ichiban

ichiban — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:08:37 +0000

An interesting question. Looks like most answers deal with VOCABULARY differences. Any differences in grammar or pronunciation?
I am trying to develop a metric that focus on just how different / similar languages (and dialects) are. For example, many ask how different are Swedish and Norwegian (the language I teach). And it would be great to give a specific figure taking into account all the aspects of language.