Learn Canadian French

Learn Canadian French online with practical, real-life situations! Simple, fast and easy learning. Speak Quebec French with confidence. Start now with uTalk!


About Canadian French

French is spoken by about 20% of the Canadian population and has official status alongside English. It is also the only official language of Quebec, where 80% of the population speaks French as a first language. There is no standardisation between the different varieties of Canadian French, but the most dominant is Québécois, which is also what you’ll learn on uTalk. Canadian French retains some features from 17th century French and may sound slightly archaic to European speakers.

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Planet Earth

Where is it spoken?

Canada

People Talking

Number of speakers

7,000,000

Family Tree

Language family

Indo-European

Italic

Romance

Fun facts — French (Canadian)

  • There are quite a few differences in vocabulary between European and Canadian French, such as 'blonde' for girlfriend instead of 'petite amie', 'croustilles' for crisps instead of 'chips', and 'frette' for cold instead of 'froid'.
  • In very casual street language, 'you and me' or 'toi et moi' tends to sound more like 'toé et moé' which was in fact the classic French pronunciation before the French Revolution.
  • Canadian French is happier than European French to borrow words from English, as well as from Canadian First Nation languages.
  • The expression 'lâche pas la patate' means 'don't give up' but literally translates as 'don't let go of the potato'!

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