Montreal English

Hey everyone, I am in my hometown of Montreal and so I decided to write a bit of a short post about Montreal English. Here most people speak French fluently, so the French language has a big influence on how people speak English. I am going to talk about some of those differences ^_^

First off, when talking about apartments we use a 1 1/2 system. A 1 1/2 (one and a half) is a one room studio apartment with a bathroom(which is the half 1/2). So a 3 1/2 (three and a half) is a one bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom apartment. Interesting no?

When talking about what language some speaks, especially their mother tongue(first language spoken) we use anglophone for an English speaker, francophone for a French speaker and an allophone for someone who has a mother tongue other than English or French.

In Montreal, I think most people say breakfast, lunch and supper... Because dinner is too similar to diner which is French for lunch. While supper is the same as the French souper. So to avoid people getting mixed up when making plans to meet for a meal we use the words that are least likely to cause people to get confused¬!

Here are 5 words that are common in Montreal English:

5 - autoroute, this is French for highway but is commonly used by English speakers

4 - guichet, this means ATM and is short for guichet automatique

3 - stage, which is French for apprenticeship or internship

2 - all dressed, which is used for hot dogs, hamburgers and other foods with all the toppings, lettuce, onions, relish, mustard... but strangely all dressed does not include ketchup!!!

1 - depanneur or DEP, this is my FAVORITE Montreal English word! It means convenience store and is from French. I really love this word it is the shortest word for convenience store, konbini, corner store, 7/11... that I have heard in any language!

Ok everyone, I gotta go to the dep see you later!

Phil