About Quebec French
Welcome!
The French that is spoken in Quebec, was brought to Canada by Quebec’s first French immigrants, more than 400 years ago. Over these hunrdeds of years, there have come to be many distinctions between Canadian French and the “standard” French that has evolved in Europe. Popular Quebec French, colorfully referred to as “joual” retains many traits of pronunciation and grammar that were common in France centuries ago but which have been lost in standard French. In addition, many new words and expressions were developed as the French-speaking Quebeckers sought to interact with their English speaking neighbors and their rugged North-American environment.
About the Glossary
Joualvert.com is proud to offer the Internet’s largest glossary of French Canadian words and expressions. For the most part, joual is a spoken language. Much of its character comes from accent and emphasis. As a result, there could be several ways to put a single expression into writing. For example, the joual expression “à c’t’heure”, which means ‘now’, could also be written “asteure”, or probably many other ways. As a result, a Google-type search box would not always be the best way to locate an expression, even though we have made every attempt to list entries with many possible variations of spelling. Therefore. we have chosen a format that allows you to browse through entries. Entries are organized alphabetically. Each entry contains the joual word or expression, the corresponding standard French equivalent, and the English translation.
I hope that you enjoy the glossary and also visit my blog. I would truly welcome your suggestions for additions to the glossary, as well as suggestions for improvement and correction of errors. Please email me with your feedback. If you are suggesting additions, please give an English or standard French equivalent and an example or two of usage. Thanks and enjoy! Philip
Warning: The glossary contains slang which some might find offensive and which might not be appropriate for small children.