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"On" to mean "we" in Canada | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4472 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes  Speaks: English*, German | Message 9 of 21 15 December 2012 at 8:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for all the explanations. That answers my question. If anyone is curious, these are the French-language Canadian films I've seen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incendies -- I highly recommend this one. It's brilliant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelstr%C3%B6m_%28film%29 -- It's by the same director. I also recommend it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_American_Empire -- My thumb goes so far down for this film, it's stuck in the mud. I'm not offended by the title. I don't like it because it's one of the most talky and boring films I've ever seen in any language. So, I recommend two out of the three, and especially Incendies. I've seen many more films from France. If anyone's interested, I could list some of them. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4684 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 10 of 21 15 December 2012 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
Please go ahead. I'll be watching cartoons for a while, but I intend to move to full- fledged films later on. Having a list of good movies would be handy. Thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4779 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 11 of 21 15 December 2012 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm a fan of Déclin de l'empire américain. It was nominated for an Oscar (as was Incendies, btw). The sequal to Déclin was called "Les invasion barbares" and included almost all the same characters twenty years later. It is an amazing movie and it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2004. Déclin is a dialogue-based film. If you're looking for explosions and car chases, it's probably not for you, and French-language movies in general will probably disappoint you. My advice is to give Déclin another try once you are comfortable enough in French to watch films without subtitles. Edited by lecavaleur on 15 December 2012 at 10:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4667 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 12 of 21 15 December 2012 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I remember seeing Incendies in the theater, before I had even started learning French, and really enjoyed it.
I've watched a ton of French movies on Netflix and enjoyed lots of them. It's true that car chases and explosions are pretty few and far between. :-P 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5534 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 21 15 December 2012 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
Oh, I don't know. The French are actually pretty good at explosions and car chases. :-) Here's a small sample of films I've watched recently: Bon Cop, Bad Cop: At least 3 good explosions. Taxi (plus Taxi 2, 3 and 4): Lots of silly car chases. Banlieu 13: The plot's incoherent, but there's lots of action. Intouchables: Only one car chase, but it's a fun movie. Lots Jean Reno films. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5383 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 14 of 21 15 December 2012 at 11:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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To return to the original question,
I looked at the subtitles for a few movies from both sides of the Atlantic to get a better picture. This is not a thorough investigation, but a general picture is already starting to emerge -- subject nous is rare, if not plain non-existant, in the informal language of both QF and EF. However, the level of formality at which nous kicks in is lower in EF. In one Québec movie, the only nous was in a public announcement made on a speaker system for the passengers of a boat. Nous essentially belongs to the written language. In contrast, in EF movies, nous would be used when addressing strangers or the police, etc. It's obvious learners of French should become familiar using on before nous; even in EF, on is about 10 times more common than nous! Edited by Arekkusu on 15 December 2012 at 11:54pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5432 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 15 of 21 16 December 2012 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There is no doubt that on is much more common than nous in the spoken language. This is not new. But I think it should be pointed out that not all "on" are replacements of "nous." On and nous are not always synonymous. "On" can replace all the other subject pronouns quite easily.
As I write these lines, there is an advertisement on the walls of the métro system that says "Qu'est-ce qu'on fait ce soir ?" The "on" can be "nous" but it just as well could be "vous". Or it could be indefinite, which is something that "on" was originally meant to be. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4779 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 16 of 21 17 December 2012 at 6:32am | IP Logged | |||||
Car chases and explosions certainly do exist in certain French movies, but I daresay they aren't French cinema's forte. So a fan of great car chases and mega explosions may still be quite disappointed even by the few examples of them he will stumble upon in French films. French-language cinema's strong points are diaologue, humor, storytelling, etc. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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