A question about the French Language?

Question

What are the main differences of the French spoken in France and the French spoken in Quebec, Canada? Merci beacoup!

Answer 1

The basic difference is in rhythm and I think it's similar to the difference between British and American English. There's a different accent as well; Quebec French is more nasally.

On a pragmatic level, Quebecers are much quicker to use the informal "tu" form for "you", rather than "vous".

There's this weird grammatical thing of adding a little "tu" into questions in Quebec, I don't know what it's about, nothing to do with "you" though. "Il y a-tu une banque ici?"

And the vocabulary is different, but in a tricky kind of way. Some people say Quebec French has more English, but I think French French has more. What I think it is, is that they adopt English words in different ways. Quebecers will use English words like "fun" but with no sense that they are legitimate French words. And they will translate expressions into French where the French will simply pronounce the English word in a French way. Classic example is "la fin de semaine"/ "le weekend", but also chien-chaud/hot-dog, souliers de cours/les baskets, stationnement/ le parking, courriel/le email. However, French people think of their words as legitimately French (and find the Quebec versions goofy or sometimes incomprehensible). (Quebec people think the French are putting on airs.)

Voilà! Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Languages evolve continuously.
As a result of the geographical distance between France and Quebec before the dramatic progress in communications and transport during the last century, the language spoken there is much more classical than modern day French and more akin to that of the 17th century .
However Quebecois has absorbed expressions from native American dialects, English phraseology, and modern American terminology through seepage. In France the language has evolved differently in that there has been absorption of terminology from ex-colonies, in particular from North Africa, the adoption and common daily use of "argot" (slang) and local provincial expressions. Added to this the French Academy has recently made considerable concessions to modern usage, adapting some English terms into French ones, or admitting them as they are, and has simplified certain rules, essentially because many French people could not cope with the complexities of their own language.
So the two have drifted apart considerably, and many French people who go to Canada are quite bewildered by the language, accent, and expressions used in Quebec.
You may like to read about the main differences for yourself on the following websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French
http://www.republiquelibre.org/cousture/FRANC2.HTM
http://www.bigpedia.com/encyclopedia/Quebec_French

Answer 3

Parisian french is spoken in France and Canuck french is spoken in Canada, which is less refined than Parisian french. Like the difference between the Queen's english and inner city american/english.

Answer 4

The main difference is dialect/accent. Also there seems to be some more english/and english cognates more so in Quebec than in France

Answer 5

Mostly different accents depending on region and different slang.

Answer 6

i think the quebecois use alot more english words also.