“Ça marche”, “pas pire”, “avoir de la misère à”: what do they mean?

You will hear them in your first week.

Short answer : “Ça marche” means “okay”. “Pas pire” means “not bad”. “Avoir de la misère à” means “to have trouble doing something”. “Être capable de” means “to be able to”. “Pas de quoi” and “bienvenue” answer “thank you”.

Beta. The voices are synthetic voices supplied by your device and vary from one device to another. The content was written with the help of artificial intelligence; a review by a native Québécois speaker is under way. Found a mistake? Write to [email protected] with the item id (F-phrases).

The expressions and where to hear them

Québec	Standard French	English	Dialogue
ça marche	d’accord	okay, sure	At the corner store
pas pire	pas mal, ça va bien	not bad	At the corner store
avoir de la misère à	avoir du mal à	to have trouble doing something	At the corner store
être capable de	pouvoir	to be able to	At the walk-in clinic
pas de quoi	de rien	you’re welcome	At the walk-in clinic
bienvenue (en réponse à merci)	de rien	you’re welcome	At the corner store
la semaine passée	la semaine dernière	last week	At the corner store
quand même	tout de même	all the same (very frequent)	Hockey talk at the office

A trap for the exam

In a TEFAQ- or TCF-style exercise the French is generally international: “avoir du mal à” will be more frequent than “avoir de la misère à”. Knowing both helps you understand people around you and spot the meaning in the exam. For daily life, see also the dépanneur expressions and “tsé”, “pis”, “ben”.

Dialogues to listen to

At the corner storeA neighbourhood corner store, late in the day. A regular customer and the cashier.
At the walk-in clinicThe front desk of a medical clinic. A patient talks to the receptionist.
Hockey talk at the officeThe office coffee corner, on a Monday morning. Two colleagues talk about the Canadiens game.

Vocabulary fiche. The content is in beta: a review by a native Québécois speaker is under way.