Relaxed Pronunciation - French

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 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)

    Vivian Rutledge: So you do get up. I was beginning to think perhaps you worked in bed like Marcel Proust.
    Philip Marlowe: Who’s he?
    Vivian: You wouldn’t know him. French writer.
    Marlowe: Come into my boudoir.
    William Faulkner (1897–1962)

    Such is the nature and make-up of the French that they are only good at the start. Then they are worse than devils, but, given time, they’re less than women.
    François Rabelais (1494–1553)