French
Among other relaxed pronunciations, tu as (you have) is frequently elided to t'as in colloquial French or tu es (you are) to t'es. The same with je suis (I am) to j'suis or ch'uis (very informal, or regional), and je (ne) sais pas (I don't know) to j'sais pas or ch'ais pas (very informal, or regional). Moreover, most of the negative forms ne or n' are lost in non-formal discussion. The expression, "Qu'est-ce que..." is little used in colloquial speech for forming the interrogative, but when it is, in very informal use, it is shortened:
"Qu'est-ce que tu veux ?" becomes... "Qu'est-c'tu veux ?"
"Qu'est-ce que tu as dit?" becomes... "Qu'est-c't'as dit?"
Read more about this topic: Relaxed Pronunciation
Famous quotes containing the word french:
“The French manner of hunting is gentlemanlike; ours is only for bumpkins and bodies. The poor beasts here are pursued and run down by much greater beasts than themselves; and the true British fox-hunter is most undoubtedly a species appropriated and peculiar to this country, which no other part of the globe produces.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“The terrible tabulation of the French statists brings every piece of whim and humor to be reducible also to exact numerical ratios. If one man in twenty thousand, or in thirty thousand, eats shoes, or marries his grandmother, then, in every twenty thousand, or thirty thousand, is found one man who eats shoes, or marries his grandmother.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The French are a logical people, which is one reason the English dislike them so intensely. The other is that they own France, a country which we have always judged to be much too good for them.”
—Robert Morley (b. 1908)