French Canadian Sayings Comme on dit au Québec Quebec Expressions Les Dits Québécois Quebecois Phrases Les Adages Québécois Folk Sayings of La Belle Province Locution Québécoise
1. Va pèter dans le trèfle. ‘go fart in the clover’; c’est-à-dire, piss off.
2. Il lui manque des bardeaux. He’s missing a few tiles.
3. Reçu comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles. ‘Welcome as a dog in a bowling alley.’
4. Avoir des bébites dans la tête ‘to have bugs in your head,’ to be a little crazy.
5.
La rondelle ne roule pas pour lui. The puck isn’t going his way.
6. Pas un pet de travers! Apple pie order, literally ‘not a fart out of place.’
7. Va donc pétaler dans les fleurs. Go pick the petals off flowers, that is, buzz off.
8. Baise-moué l’ail! Kiss my ass; literally ‘kiss my garlic.’
9. Avoir mal aux cheveux To be so sodden with booze and hung-over on the morning after that you are having a ‘hair ache.’
10. Mange-toi du pain blanc . ‘eat your white bread.’ Sometimes said in Québec French when a situation is only going to get worse. Enjoy what you have before you.
11. Aussi faux que les diamants Canadiens. ‘Fake as Canadian diamonds.’ When Jacques Cartier returned to France in 1542 after a third voyage to the new world, he sailed home with barrels of rocks that he thought contained diamonds and gold. He was merely the first European to be fooled by those twinkling tricksters of geology: quartz and iron pyrite (fool’s gold). Continental French still has the expression. But, of course, it is no longer a valid comment, especially since the discovery of diamonds in Canada ’s northland. The image of the stamp is © Canada Post Corp.
12. Se pèter les bretelles ‘to fart off your suspenders.’ To burst with pride.
13. Grosse Corvette, p’tite quéquette ‘big car, little dick.’ Said in Québec about a guy who is always showing off his new car, and a completely appropriate squelch for an automotive braggart.
14.
Le diâble est aux vaches. ‘the devil’s in the cows.’ In Québec, it means the weather will change soon.
15. Le temps a viré comme une anse de cruche . ‘the weather’s turned like the handle on a jug.’
© 2012 copyright William Gordon Casselman
French Canadian Translation Services
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