How different is the Canadian French language from the European French language?

First of all, there are different language levels and dialects both in Europe and in Canada. It's not true that all French people understand eachother perfectly because it depends on where they are from and their social standing. A young rapper speaking verlan in the North of France may not be understood by a 40 year old man from Marseilles or Biarritz.

There are also different dialects in Canada, including Québec French, Acadian French, etc., but for the sake of the argument, let's talk about Québec French here.

Most educated Québécois have a good knowledge of written standard French, which in essence, means that they are able to make themselves understood by any other French speaker, provided they are accustomed to the accent. I've travelled abroad, and I've never had problems making myself understood anywhere. Of course, I know which are local words and I avoid them.

There are differences in pronunciation (more nazalisation, whole sentence intonation and prosody differs, several longer vowels no longer distinguished in Europe (like côte/cote, on/un, pâte/patte, etc.) and there are also differences in vocabulary. But most importantly -- and this is where communication becomes difficult -- at the other end of the spectrum, there is also an old Quebec French dialect which does have different grammatical rules. One could say all Québécois are billingual and they go back and forth between these 2 extremes.

For instance, there are many contractions in prepositions.

dans les = dins

sur la = s'a

sur les = s'es, etc.

Last consonants are often dropped

il = i (i mange)

elle = a (a mange)

table = tab

Nous form is unused and replaced by "on".

"Ne" is almost never used -- but that's true in Europe as well, actually.

There is an epenthetic t inserted in many verb forms:

je suis arrivé = j't'arrivé

je suis à Montréal = j't'à Montréal

quand tu arriveras = mèque t'arriveras

je vais t'aider = m'as t'aider

While it's true that there are English words in QFrench, it would be false to say there aren't in European French and often times, Québécois tend to be more careful to avoid such words.

weekend = fin de semaine

chewing gum = gomme

ferry = traversier

label = étiquette (in music)

Borrowed English words that tend to be masculine in Europe, tend to be feminine in Québec, such as job, sandwich, etc.

Some people compare American and British English to French and Quebec French, but the difference is greater in French for 2 reasons. First, settlers came to America much earlier than the British and so have been separated for longer, and secondly, French settlers did not speak Parisian French and came mostly from Normandy, Burgundy, etc. It is only later that Parisian French became the standard.

I speak European French and if you are not used to hear Canadian French, it can still be difficult to understand at first.

Some words can be feminine in France and masculine in Canada. Canadians also coin new words to avoid using English words : like magasiner in Canada = faire du shopping in France

barre oblique au Canada = Slash in France

They also use the same words as in France with different meanings :

Dépaneuse is a shop in Canada and a tow truck in France

Liqueur can be pops in Canada and in France it is only used for alcoholic drinks.

In Quebec it can also happen that some people say "bonjour" when they leave...

Canadian French also used old fashioned French words.

Canadian have a specific distinct accent : It seems to me that the Canadian "a" sounds more like a French "o".

But In France too there are differences of pronounciation between the north and the south.....Some people pronounce the "t" at the end of "vingt" while some others pronounce the "s" at the end of "moins" or the silent "e" at the end of words.

It s like if you learned your English in England and then went to Mississippi and tried to be understood or talk to people. Quebecois is "joual" and it s a slang that I noticed that Louisiana Cajuns and Creoles seemed able to almost understand. And the worst part is that the uneducated slang is considered "right" whereas the way certain European countries, namely Belgium and Switzerland, speak French, is considered "wrong" by the Quebecois. It s not so much their ghettoized slang French as their attitude toward proper Belgian or Swiss French, that s the real insult.

Well the accents are really different like when ever I talk to a Canadian in French I can barley understand but there is also a slight vocab difference.

Well I knew this one lady who came from France and she said at first she had trouble understanding us. We have different dialects and informality/slang, kind of like the European and north american English we speak the same language just a little differently. So when I talk to people from France I always speak very formally, so the don't get confused with the slang.

I´m native french speaker from Europe and have a lot of french speaking customers from Quebec and I must admit that the french they use is a lot different because of the many twisted english words they use during a french conversation. They have also a lot they use witch have a different meaning in their ¨french¨.

Example

- Ma blonde (even if she has black hair)

- Dispendieu ( expensive on the long run)

- Chere (expensive at the time of purchase)

and so many more........

But, Yes I can understand them easely.

Minor vocabulary changes, minor phonology changes. Basically the same kind of difference between Canadian English and European English.

An interesting question. Looks like most answers deal with VOCABULARY differences. Any differences in grammar or pronunciation?

I am trying to develop a metric that focus on just how different / similar languages (and dialects) are. For example, many ask how different are Swedish and Norwegian (the language I teach). And it would be great to give a specific figure taking into account all the aspects of language.

Yes they would understand each other very well.In Quebec the language is more the same unlike in France where they have many dialects.The language is the same as taught in the schools.

They would, in general, but like my French teacher said the Canadians really don't use the nasal sound like the Europeans do-- they say "queeeenze" instead of "quinze" and stuff like that.