Écoute Québec: understanding Québec French by ear

Everyday dialogues, TEFAQ and TCF Québec-style listening exercises, and clear fiches for newcomers. Free, no account, no ads, no tracking.

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 (for example QD03).

How it works

1. Press Listen: the voice reads the dialogue (the transcript stays hidden).
2. Answer the questions: the right answer and an explanation appear straight away.
3. Show the transcript, read the glossary, then listen again, more slowly if needed.

10 Québec dialogues

Everyday situations, with a Québec, standard French and English glossary.

• At the corner store B1A neighbourhood corner store, late in the day. A regular customer and the cashier.
• At the SAQ liquor store B1A SAQ branch. A customer is looking for wine for a dinner and asks an employee for advice.
• At the walk-in clinic B1The front desk of a medical clinic. A patient talks to the receptionist.
• At the garage before winter B2A neighbourhood garage in November. A customer comes in to change his tires and mentions a noise.
• Hockey talk at the office B2The office coffee corner, on a Monday morning. Two colleagues talk about the Canadiens game.
• On the phone with Hydro-Québec B2A tenant phones Hydro-Québec customer service because his bill seems too high.
• July 1st: lease and moving day B2A tenant and her landlord talk about renewing the lease before July 1, the traditional moving day.
• Snow removal rules B2Two neighbours meet in the back lane after a big snowstorm.
• Job interview C1An interview for a coordinator job at a small company in Québec City. The manager meets a candidate from abroad.
• On the construction site: safety and CNESST C1A construction site in Laval. A foreman welcomes a new laborer and talks to him about safety.

Exam-style exercises

Original items in the style of listening tests (four options, one correct). They are not real exam questions.

• Public announcements: listening practice 2 itemsStore and library announcements, like the ones in listening tests.
• Phone messages: listening practice 2 itemsAnswering-machine messages: who is calling, why, and what must you do?
• Short dialogues: listening practice 3 itemsTwo people talk: a changed meeting, an apartment visit, a work report.
• Interviews: listening practice 3 itemsA journalist questions someone: you need to catch the opinion and the nuances.
• Radio reports: listening practice 2 itemsA report on a social topic: results and the positions of different groups.

Fiches: short answers to your questions

The listening tests (TEFAQ, TCF Québec, TEF)

• TCF Québec: what does the listening test look like?What we found about the TCF Québec listening test: number of questions, duration, and what is still to be confirmed.
• TEFAQ: format of the listening test (60 questions?)The 4 sections of the e-TEFAQ listening test according to the CCI Paris Île-de-France candidate manual (2018).
• PSTQ: what listening level to aim for (level 7, B2)?B2 is the first level that earns listening points in the grid we found; what is confirmed and what is not.
• TEFAQ or TCF Québec: what differs in listening?Two exams, two organisations: what we found about each listening test, with how sure we are.
• TEF: what the listening test looks like (official sample)The official TEF sample booklet: 40 questions, 40 minutes, each audio played once.
• How to practise listening for the TEFAQ or TCFA simple method in five moves: listen without reading, answer, check, listen again, slow down.

Understanding Québec expressions

• Québec expressions heard at the dépanneur: pinte, breuvage, piasse…What the words and phrases at a Québec dépanneur mean, with a dialogue to listen to.
• Québec expressions at work: entrevue, avantages sociaux, ne pas niaiserOffice, job-interview and construction-site vocabulary in Québec, with three dialogues to listen to.
• “Ça marche”, “pas pire”, “avoir de la misère à”: what do they mean?Five very common Québec expressions, explained simply, with dialogues where you can hear them.
• Déjeuner, dîner, souper: meal names in Québec and FranceIn Québec, déjeuner is breakfast, dîner is lunch and souper is dinner.
• Winter vocabulary in Québec: pelleter, gratter, souffleuse, déneigementThe words of Québec winter, from the November garage to the snowy back lane, with two dialogues.
• Housing vocabulary in Québec: bail, cinq et demi, July 1, TALThe words of the lease, the renewal notice and the electricity bill, with two dialogues to listen to.
• Health vocabulary in Québec: carte soleil, 811, walk-in clinicWhat “carte soleil”, “Info-Santé 811” and “sans rendez-vous” mean, with a clinic dialogue.

Accent and spoken French

• How to understand the Québec accent when learning FrenchFour features of the Québec accent and a five-step listening method, with dialogues and adjustable speed.
• “Tsé”, “pis”, “ben”, “fait que”: small words of Québec FrenchWhat the small words of Québec conversation mean, plus popular words such as tantôt, pantoute and icitte.

Who is it for?

Newcomers to Québec, people preparing the TEFAQ or the TCF Québec, and anyone who wants to understand better what they hear at work and at the dépanneur.

About the voice

The voice comes from your browser (your device’s speech synthesis). If your device has an fr-CA voice you will hear Canadian French; otherwise a French voice, and the player tells you. If there is no French voice at all, the transcript is shown.