Do Canadians Really Speak French? Things to Know About Quebec French 

Despite what some people think, Canadian French is actually very clear French although the accent is different and Canadians can use different vocabulary to express certain ideas. In the Anglophone world, there is even more diversity in the way English is spoken as the language is so widespread (USA, Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, India, Philippines, etc.). But contrary to a certain "elitist" mentality still prevalent in the French speaking world, Anglophones are used to the linguistic diversity within their own language and do not consider that English should be spoken in one accent only. However, in most of the Francophone world, there is an "unconscious" bias whereby Parisian French is considered the "norm". The only Francophones who are somewhat liberated from this "colonialist" mentality are Quebecers. So this is why when it comes to discussing diversity within the French language, so much of the conversation revolves around Quebec. It's not so much that Québécois French is that much different than Parisian French on a formal level (written French remains the same in both varieties) as it is the fact that Québécois don't see why they should change their accent to imitate Parisians, unlike the rest of the Francophonie. So to sum up: French speaking countries in Europe, Africa and elsewhere all consider Parisian French as the norm to attain, whereas Canadians and Quebecers don't. And that is perfectly fine. Just like there is no reason why an American should speak like a Londoner, there is no reason why a Canadian or a Québécois should speak like a Parisian.

His French is most likely the most authentic since it has preserved it's liguistic integrity for 100s and 100s of years. I love that Québecois is this pure.

Our french is not old it's the original and the best. Shopping, parking are english words. Magasiner and stationner make more sense.

We don't use "parking", or shopping or weekend. Magasiner est bien mieux que shopping qui est anglophone!!!

Interesting video. I learned French in both Quebec and in France. I LOVE comparing the two varieties, it is absolutely fascinating. I am now learning Portuguese. Personally I find that the differences between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese are greater than the differences between European French and Québécois French. Ps I would also agree with Benoit, I’m not sure I would have used the explanation used by Marie at the beginning of the video. Québécois French has evolved as well.

I defy an Englishman speaking Oxbridge to go to rural Texas and try to understand the locals. Language changes by distance, time and how the links were maintained. The Dutch who settled the western Cape planted their language, but due to policies that discouraged schools, press and urban life and the loss of the colony to the British in 1814 the Cape Dutch language evolved into Afrikaans.

To use the french name is not old BUT normal, the word Parking is not French but english.

What people also need to understand is that people in France have a certain tendency to look down on French speakers who don't speak with a "Parisian accent". Whereas this "aristocratic" mentality has disappeared for the most part in the Anglophone world (no Anglophone will say that the "London" accent is to be emulated), it is still very present in France today. French people tend to see other accents as deviations from the "norm" rather than natural evolutions of the French language that speak to its diversity. Many French people actually consider that speaking with a different accent means speaking a different language. They don't even consider that Americans speak English but they'll say they speak "American". This is how crazy French people can be in the way they approach "other" accents. This "ethnocentrism" is probably the reason why it's so difficult for French people to learn other languages properly. Because in order to learn another language well, you need a certain "mental flexibility", something that's difficult for people in France because of how they perceive their "French identity". An example of this can be seen on this very video: the Québécois guy speaks English perfectly and with almost no accent while the French girl speaks English hesitantly and with a very strong French accent...

Americans also use an older form of English pronunciation than in the UK.

that guy is so cute

I'm sure she meant not harm but what she says is quite offensive (evolved French ???). I'm French by the way. I think it got lost in translation.

There are parallels in other colonial languages in the Americas. I am an English-speaking polyglot that grew up in Texas but, my native language is Spanish. I am from Central America. In some places, we speak an archaic version of Spanish the preserves features that have been lost in European Spanish and in the standard register of Latin American Spanish for about 300 years. There are other parts of Latin America that use different archaisms that go back at least as far. In the case of English, There are people in the Appalachian mountains that use expressions and pronunciation tendencies that date back to the 1600s. There are also similar cases with regards to Brazilian Portuguese as opposed to that spoken in Portugal. Same goes for some of the German dialect spoken in the United States. Texas German comes to mind here. I am sure Dutch has a similar story but, I don’t speak Dutch so I can’t really say for certain. Long story short, as monsieur le Quebecois so excellently explained, when a group of people become isolated from mainstream speakers of their language, they tend to preserve features of it that go out of style elsewhere and add new features of their own as their language evolves over time.

Loathe using English words when there are perfectly good and valid ones in Spanish in my case. Learning French and try to avoid them too. Fin de semana. Fin de la semaine. Estacionamiento. Stationnement. Magasiner. Ir de compras (that one is really different 😅). Personally I find French rather old-fashioned in comparison to Spanish. Listening to it there are things that are said that can be easily understood for a Spanish speaker but sound as if they came out of a literary work ie. A l'ombre de la nuit. A la sombra de la noche. All in all it is a beautiful but challenging language.

The French accent of Quebec corresponds with the time when the monarchs and Kings of the 18XX century spoke, only the monarchy and royalty spoke like the Quebecers, the peasants spoke more broken French. Only real historians knows this facts. In other words, french accent is directly from the King of France and the bourgeoisie. We kept the real French from France and France adopted another pronunciation.

Actually, both Québec and France (metropolitan) french evolved, they just evolved differently. Québec kept most of the vowel sounds that metropolitan eliminated. When you look at the evolution of the french language, you can see how it constantly removed the pronunciation of certain letters or sounds with time. Québec french kept a lot of those sounds, but we had our own evolution, mostly through the 20th century, where a focus on spoken french started to appear. Our low confidence regarding our own spoken language, compared to the perceived "purity" of metropolitan french, led to many changes in Québec french as well.

Le titre est nul. oui on parle français

so if t has ts sound and d have dz sound, sounds italian to me. weird that french canadian is surrounded by english speaking regions when french france doesnt use weekend and parking words in french?

The question is "Do the FRENCH really speak French anymore?!" Quel titre idiot!

it's like Australia or new Zealand or the US different accent thank god

They would make a cute couple ❤

Why do French pronounce the name 'Marie' as 'Mary' in English? It's Mar-EE in the UK at least!

Yes Canadians speak a different kind of French but its French over the decades things have changed I am bilingual so yes its French Canadian

Quebec French never went through 19th century standardization. It still retains its hard sounding, germanic elements that were "purified" in the 19th century by Elites in Paris who didn't like "ugly" the language was compared to the other romance languages. But French was never a true Romance language, and it's important to celebrate its uniqueness!

I won't lie, the girl looked like she was using a bit of classism in favor of her French

Fascinant d'entendre les différents accents de cette archive. J'en compte 3 ou 4 qui s'apparentent au Québécois. On détecte même une saveur Acadienne chez la dame de Berry! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Egrfsn2CU8E.html

Right French 🙄

This French canadian sounds just like european portugueses... Its like they literally translated to portuguese... We say weekend and Park/parking just like them

Really the evolve french...serious. Do American speak new english and the British OLD British, that is not the way to look at it.

i found her laughter over quebecois french or xpressions a bit annoying. To begin with to even think that quebecois speak old french is simply stupid. I could laugh at her on that. Quebecois french is under attack and dies everyday. we survived hundred of years. and we continue to survive. where as in France they also die from within. This is why they say shopping, email, or that they watch "the voice", La Voix" au Quebec.. Yes, in Quebec we have a great history of the language. It is a language of pioneers, lumberjack, full of expressions and strong emotions. where in france is very clear and refinned. For a quebecois, french from France sounds girly, fragile and vuknerable, thats why they accept all new english words without a fight, where in Quebec we will fight and translate. because we have to survive..alone.

J,adore ces discussions sur le francais en anglais ! C,est ridicule.

The girl is fine as hell, the whole snack

Marie 🥵

canadian dont speak fench the speak american english the québecois speak french

Why you speak english????

Nope, those of us who are labeled as speaking French are actually speaking Quebecoise which is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE ACTUAL FRENCH SPOKEN IN FRANCE.

The only reason Quebec has French speaking speaking people when France helped England fight against the Americans people in France that came here decided to stay