Quebec French syntax
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In Quebec, it is common to say Fais-toi-z-en pas rather than (ne) t'en fais pas (don't worry, don't get upset).
In colloquial speech, the verb être is often omitted between je and un(e), with a t inserted: J't'un gars patient. A t is also often inserted after the second person singular: T'es-t-un gars patient.
[edit] Particle -tu
The particle -tu is used colloquially to ask a question whose answer can be either yes or no, or in the equivalent exclamative construction. It has exactly the same distribution as Metropolitan France est-ce que.
- C'est-tu loin, ça ? "Is it far?"
- J'ai-tu l'air fatigué ? "Do I look tired?"
- Y'en a-tu d'autres ? "Are there any others?"
- Ça vous tente-tu vraiment d'y aller ? "Do you [formal or plural] really want to go?"
- Faut-tu être cave pas à peu près ! "How very stupid [that other person] is [to do such a thing]"
Although this construction strikingly resembles a formal question asked in the 2nd person singular, there is no evidence that the particle tu came from the pronoun tu in the first place. It is actually more likely to come from the 3rd person pronoun il with a euphonic -t-, as using a particle ti in exactly the same way is a feature found in the Oïl languages (other than French) in France and Belgium.
Use of the particle -tu can also lead to redundancy within a question's syntax. In such a case, either "Tu" (but not both) can be eliminated to form correct syntax.
- Tu le veux-tu? (Le veux-tu? / Tu le veux?) "Do you want it?"
Other uses of -tu include:
- in a declarative sentence in which the speaker assumes accord from the addressee: On a-tu bien mangé! "We ate well! (Didn't we?)"
- as an alternative to pas, sometimes in exasperation: J'sais-tu, moi!, which literally means "I don't know" but has the same tone as "How should I know?"
[edit] Verbs
There are very few differences in verb forms. For the verb s'asseoir (to sit), the conjugation with oi is much more common in Quebec than ie or ey; je m'assois instead of je m'assieds, assoyez-vous instead of asseyez-vous. In the French of France, people favour oi in the three persons of the singular as well as in the 3rd person of the plural ("je m'assois", "ils s'assoient"), but ey is favoured in the 1st and 2nd persons of the plural ("nous nous asseyons" "vous vous asseyez"). In France, "nous nous assoyons" carries a feeling of "countryside" talking. Also, the verb haïr usually is conjugated as j'haïs /ʒa.i/ (the verb has two syllables) in Quebec rather than je hais /ʒǝ ɛ/ (the verb has one syllable) in France.
In colloquial speech, the first person singular of aller is often vas instead of vais. This is also found in the countryside in France, especially in the northwest, where one could hear old people saying "J'vas traire les vaches" ("I'm on my way to milk the cows"), with the r pronounced as an alveolar trill as in Spanish. Furthermore, in Quebec je vais + verb (future) is often modified to m'as, as in M'as t'tuer. The usual hypothesis refers to a contraction of j'm'en vas /ʒmã vʵ;/. The construction "M'a" /ma/ for a near future has however been confirmed in dialects of the Parisian region as old as the 17th century and was more than likely imported with the colonists.
One remarkable phenomenon in Quebec French is the potential use of an infinitive phrase in some contexts to replace the si + imperfect hypothetical construct: si j'avais su, for example, becomes avoir su. Although no other dialect or chronolect of French seems to allow the use of non-embeddable hypothetic infinitives, other languages such as Italian have similar structures.
Also, some expressions that take the subjunctive in standard French take the indicative in Quebec French, or vice versa (bien qu'il est trop tard rather than bien qu'il soit trop tard). This is mostly colloquial spoken usage, since written usage tends to follow the usage of France more closely.
[edit] number
On the other hand, many Quebecers in informal context will decide on the agreement with collective nouns based on semantics rather than morphology. That is to say, for instance, that a verb whose grammatical subject is le monde (people, folks) may appear in the 3rd person plural because le monde designates multiple people although it is singular: le monde là-dedans sont en train de chiâler (the people in there are complaining).
