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Is it useful to practice with French speakers from Quebec if you plan to study in France? In the past, I have seen quite a few discussions in my corrected entries about words and sentences that sound strange to the French and to me, but that seem to exist Quebec. Also, my French penpals have told me that Quebec French is hard to understand for them. Is this true? I have never heard Quebec French to honest.
Nov 29, 2015 11:33 PM
Answers · 6
3
I would also say yes, any interesting interaction in French will help you become more fluent. That being said, if your practice time is limited, I would concentrate on finding people from France to practice. You have to realize that while standard (written) French is pretty much the same anywhere, the more casual or informal speech gets, the larger the differences. Slang and casual expressions vary widely from region to region, and so does pronunciation. Also, you probably realize that informal spoken French is very different from standard written French, no matter where people are from. In addition to vocabulary, the grammar also changes: "Tu fais quoi?" instead of "Que fais-tu?", for example (also the dropped "ne" in the negation). And so does pronunciation, but that has to do primarily with the phonology of French. Contrary to a common misconception, casual or slang pronunciation exists everywhere, not just in Quebec (or Canada - there are native French speakers in other Canadian provinces as well, unlike what Benny Lewis' friend Geneviève, in the previous video, believes). I don't know the slang from France enough to say which is harder to understand. Here are a couple exemples of casual pronunciation: "Je suis" is almost never pronounced the way you see it written. It's usually contracted to "j'suis", which sounds like "chui". That's normal everywhere. The difference with quebecois is it's pronounced "chu" instead of "chui". Likewise, "je sais" will be contracted to "j'sais" (pronounced "ché"), and "je ne sais pas" will be contracted to "ché pa" ("ché po", with a quebecois accent). "Tu as" is usually contracted to "t'as". I hope this helps! Basically, if your language partner is able to speak a more standard kind of French, you won't notice that much of a difference. But the more casual the vocabulary and pronunciation, the bigger the differences will be between regional accents. Here's an interesting video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYm83H5TOMM
November 30, 2015
1
If you can understand Quebecois French, French from France will be very easy for you. If you're looking for a challenge, go ahead! Also, it might be useful because many of the common parts of Quebecois French are occasionally used in other forms of French. For example, saying "chuis" instead of "Je suis".
November 30, 2015
1
Hi there! I do not know very much French since I started to take Spanish seriously, but I do know that Quebec French is a little different compared to French in France. For one, I believe that Quebec French may be slanged, sort of like how we as Americans/Canadians slang English compared to speakers in England. I still think you should speak with Quebec French people if you can, it will just be a little different than what the actua French natives are speaking. Here is a video I found on YouTube that might help you: Differences between French in Quebec and France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw5Re7k1KBA Hope this helps!
November 29, 2015
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