French Canadians I need your help!

[*End Is Forever*]

And here's a thread title you don't see very often.

[Bosh]

Bosh, how was your weekend? Did you respond in the other thread? (I bumped it a couple days ago, and it seems to have resunk without a trace)

Yah, was in Canada all last week so no 'poly for me then...
Was great, the skiing at tremblant was amazing except for thursday when it rained and then froze while visibility plummeted. Montreal was great too, haven't been able to find asian food that cheap and that good in a while
Oh and I don't think I've ever seen a street with quite as high a strip club:bar ratio was St. Catherine...

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Boshko
Oh and I don't think I've ever seen a street with quite as high a strip club:bar ratio was St. Catherine...

I hope you had a chance to visit "Chez Paré". It's a cultural icon...

[Bosh]

[Richelieu]

One of the best known, most expensive strip joint in Montreal.

[Timexwatch]

Speaking of which, I'm headed to Montreal soon and I'd like some help from Apolytoners who know:

The strip joint with the best bang for your buck
The bars where I can pick up some beautiful Fren... I mean Freedom Women

[Ben Kenobi]

Obi wan, still a few problemes with order in your sentence
I know French is hard.

Lul Thyme:
Edit my sentence then, so that I can improve, svp.

[Spec]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Help? From A French Canadian?

Dude, when did you become such an ass?


As for the post, if you want to annoy your friends, try D-natural or Plastic Bertrand (Stop ou encore).

Spec.

[Spiffor]

Bravo, spiffor. Une petite amie, en francais est une 'blonde' en quebecois.

Spotless

J'ai une brunette petite amie aussi.

-> J'ai aussi une petite amie brune.
The adjective is most often after the noun, but there are many exceptions (the word "grand" is the one that comes to mind, but also "petit", "beau", "long" and probably many others).
"Brune" is the French word for the adjective brunette. "Brunette" can only be used as a noun (i.e une brunette, but une fille brune). "Brune" remains more used as "Brunette" even as a noun. At least in France.
The location of the word [i"]aussi"[/i] is a mystery. I don't know the rule behind it.

Peut-etre Richelieu sait autre mots.

-> Peut être que Richelieu connaît d'autres mots
Out of my head, I think that "Peut être" is followed by "que" when the subject of the sentence is after. If you place "Peut être" in the middle of the sentence, it will probably not be followed by "que" (example : "Richelieu connaît peut-être d'autres mots") I advise you to use "Peut être" in the middle of sentences when possible, it doesn't change the sentence's structure, AFAIK.
The verb "savoir" sounds strange when it has a direct object. The verb "connaître" sounds better in this occurence. When there is a proposition behind, the verb "savoir" is self obvious (example : "Je sais que tu es ici" is a sentence in which the verb "connaître" would have no place)
About the "d'autres mots". AFAIK, French nouns always have a word to determine them. "The" translates in "le, la, les" ; a determined quantity translates in the French word for it ("a" translates as "un, une") ; and an undertermined quantity, while not expressed by any English word, has a word in French ("du, de la, des"). That's why a sentence like "Do you want milk" translates in "Voulez-vous du lait ?". Or "Do you have coins" translates in [i]"Avez-vous des pieces[i].

Hope it helps ! French language is sure a hell of rules, but if you get to live in a French speaking countries, you'll quickly assimilate most of them. However, some will remain a mystery for years.

[Bosh]

One of the best known, most expensive strip joint in Montreal.

Considering what Tremblant did to my bank account, nope.

I'm headed to Montreal soon

Track down the Vietnamese restaurant at MacKay street a block or two from St Catherine st. its right next to a good cheap hostel and its sooooooooo good and damn cheap and the service was amazing (but that had probably something to do with us showing up late when there was almost nobody left).

The strip joint with the best bang for your buck

No idea, the one I ended up in was good but was the first I've ever been too and there was too much rum on my brain at the time for me to remember which it was.

[Spec]

Originally posted by Timexwatch
The strip joint with the best bang for your buck

Try Super Sex or Chez Paré......or get a girlfriend

The bars where I can pick up some beautiful Fren... I mean Freedom Women

Try St-Sulpice on St-Denis, spend the night there, wait until 1 a.m. atleast (let the girls drink a bit) and go on the bottom floor were the dance floor is. If you can dance, you wont even have to talk to.....sleep over. Trust me.


Spec.

[Spiffor]

Does Montréal have a specific reputation of being very liberal wrt sex ?

[Spec]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Does Montréal have a specific reputation of being very liberal wrt sex ?

Yes, pretty much. During the afternoon, on T.V., it's not considered "offensive" to have nude scenes in movies. And at 11 p.m. we have pornos playing on T.V.. Not Cable, T.V. so you get the idea.

Violence is more restricted than porn here, contrary to the U.S. where seeing a guy getting his head blown off is not bad compared to seeing a pair of Boobs. That's weird...

[Spiffor]

For a time, I have been watching user profiles of the French-speaking chat & mail servie Caramail (this service sucks, but is a huge community). I was surprised how 12-14 years-old Québecois pretended they got laid with their girlfriends, and were casually talking about them. Where I live, I hardly know anyone who got laid before 15 or 16.

Hmmmm, how much is the Paris-Montréal already ?

[Willem]

Originally posted by Spectator


Yes, pretty much. During the afternoon, on T.V., it's not considered "offensive" to have nude scenes in movies. And at 11 p.m. we have pornos playing on T.V.. Not Cable, T.V. so you get the idea.

Pretty much? There'd be an uproar if anyone broadcast porn here in Ontario. Although CITY-TV in Toronto was airing some blue movies at 11 pm on Fridays, don't know if they still are. They're not much though, just suggestive scenes with a little bit of skin every so often. Certainly not porn.

[alva]

We nowadays get more porn then regular programs on tv then anything else

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Calc II
It must suck to be french canadian.

You are made fun of by the canadians. But even worse....

You are made fun of by the french as well!

That's not quite accurate. I make fun of Newfies. The French are cool, though I wish they'd chuck out their language.

[Timexwatch]

Originally posted by Spectator

Try Super Sex or Chez Paré......or get a girlfriend

This is a weekend out with the boys, so even I did have a woman

[Ben Kenobi]

Spiffor:

"Brune" is the French word for the adjective brunette. "

I was lazy and didn't check to see the french adjective. Brunette did not sound right behind the adjective, so I moved it forward.

The verb "savoir" sounds strange when it has a direct object. The verb "connaître" sounds better in this occurence. When there is a proposition behind, the verb "savoir" is self obvious (example : "Je sais que tu es ici" is a sentence in which the verb "connaître" would have no place)

I thought that to know someone = connaitre
To know something = savoir.

The main problem is that English only has one word for both french concepts, to know.

(example : "Richelieu connaît peut-être d'autres mots") I advise you to use "Peut être" in the middle of sentences when possible, it doesn't change the sentence's structure, AFAIK.

That sounds much better.

About the "d'autres mots".

All your nouns have genders. Genders are evil!


Merci, spiffor. Je vais plus de practice avec la langue francais, parce que je l'ai perdu.

[Willem]

Originally posted by St Leo


That's not quite accurate. I make fun of Newfies. The French are cool, though I wish they'd chuck out their language.

So what, everyone makes fun of Newfies, including Newfies.

[Spiffor]

About Connaître and Savoir, I thought about it again, and my theory doesn't hold water. While it is very strange to use Savoir when there is a direct object, its use is sometimes obvious in this very context : like "Do you know that ?" translates into "Le savez-vous ?" (where Le is the direct object).
However, in older French, Connaître and Savoir were used as you describe, AFAIK. If you read 18th century literature or theatre, the use of Savoir with direct objects will be everywhere.

Merci, spiffor. Je vais plus de practice avec la langue francais, parce que je l'ai perdu.

De Rien
Ph34r the French teacher !
(more seriously, if you guys ever encounter one, fear the French teacher )

Correction of your sentence :
"Je vais plus pratiquer la langue française, parce que je l'ai perdue"

- the verb. As you see, there is no real verb in your sentence, since "Je vais" is used like "I will" and is followed by nothing. Practice is "la pratique" as a noun, or is "pratiquer" as a verb. "pratiquer une langue" is an idiotic idiomatic way to say it.

- the adjective : you forgot to accord the adjective "française" to the feminine noun "langue", no biggie.

- "je l'ai perdue". This is probably the most dreadful grammar rule a layman has to deal with. Countless times my grammar teacher explained it. Countless times the whole class didn't understand it. It is about according the past word ("perdu") to the direct object or not.
Normally, you accord the past word to the direct object if the latter is in front of the former : in you case, the "L' " (direct object) refers to the feminine "la langue", and hence "perdue" must become feminine. Had you said "J'ai perdu la langue", "perdu" would have remained unaccorded, because "la langue" was behind.
Is is more simple for reflexive verbs : the past word is always accorded to the gender of the subject : "elle s'est perdue" vs "il s'est perdu".

Bonne chance dans la pratique du Français !

edit
arg i hate these double posts

Not bad at all Obi
Spiffor's corrections are better though of course
As he said, there are so many rules that its very hard to learn in a book, much easier by just living in a place where French is spoken.
In Quebec, ppl speak very bad French though, specially in my area, which is right across the river to Ontario.
The language used is a mix of english and french, ppl understand each other, but they cant speak good french or english, its a bit sad really.
specially when they are always fighting about language issues

[Ben Kenobi]

specially when they are always fighting about language issues..

C'est la verite.
Nous sommes un gens au Canada, mais nous n'agissons pas cette facon.

Il serait meilleur si nous pourrions apprendre à nous comprendre.

(in engish)

It's the truth. We are one people in Canada, but we do not act that way. It would be better if we could learn to understand each other.

[Spec]

Originally posted by obiwan18


C'est la verite.
Nous sommes un gens au Canada, mais nous n'agissons pas cette facon.

Il serait meilleur si nous pourrions apprendre à nous comprendre.

(in engish)

It's the truth. We are one people in Canada, but we do not act that way. It would be better if we could learn to understand each other.

Sorry, can I correct you? Thank you, I knew you'd understand.

C'est la verite.
Nous sommes un au Canada, mais nous n'agissons pas de cette facon.

Il serait mieux si nous pourrions apprendre à nous comprendre.

And about that, I totally agree!!


Spec.

[molly bloom]

French Canadian accents are the sexiest accents I've ever heard- even better than Highlands and Islands English and soft Irish brogues.

I worked not far from Quebec House in London, and a lot of our temp staff were French Canadians- they went down very well with the permanent staff.

And of course, British Columbia seemed to be full of them too...tired of snow and poutine and beignets, and eager for rain, pho and nanaimo bars.

I like Denys Arcand's films too....

[Spec]

Originally posted by molly bloom
I like Denys Arcand's films too....