Transcript of the video

Hi everyone, I hope you're well and ready for a new video in French. So today, I'm going to suggest a rather special theme. You'll see. It's going to be a pretty funny video. Not many of you may know this, but I'm not actually French. I'm from another French-speaking country. I'm from Belgium, so I'm Belgian. Belgium is a very small country, just above France.

It's a fairly important country in Europe, because Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is also the capital of Europe. Most European institutions are based in Brussels. It's quite an important city. In this video, I'd actually like to talk to you about Belgian French. Obviously, most of the language is the same as the French spoken in France. But there are linguistic peculiarities, expressions, words that are only used in Belgium, or even words that are different to describe things.

Words we use in France, so objects we'll name differently. You'll see, even a vegetable is not called the same thing. If you're a beginner, I'm afraid that's going to confuse our language learning. So, it's more for you if you want to enrich your knowledge of the French language, or if you're planning a vacation in Brussels or Belgium soon, or if you're learning French because you live in Belgium, or if you're planning to move there, or if you're just curious.

We will see together these linguistic particularities.

Before you start, don't forget to activate the French subtitles if you need them. It'll help you to understand the video better and, above all, to understand these particular words of Belgian French. I've brought my dictionary of belgicisms. I'll show you. A belgicisme is the word we use to describe words that come from Belgian French. So, a belgicisme is a word in Belgian French.

You see, it's huge. There are many words, in fact, that are peculiar to Belgium. I've selected a few. I assure you, we don't have to see them all, otherwise the video will last 10 hours, but we'll have a few. The most important or the funniest. If you live in the north of France, or if you're planning to go there, you'll see that a lot of these words are used there, in the Lille area.

It's true that we share a very strong culture between Belgium and the north of France. And in ways... in certain festivals or ways of life, but also in language. I suppose that in your country too, it must be like that, depending on the region. Even if you share the same language, there must be words that are used in one region and not in another. So it's also the case in France, for example, in Marseille, there are words we'll use that we don't use elsewhere in France, which are linguistic particularities of certain regions.

Let's start with the first words. They're rather peculiar because they're also used in France, but not for the same times of day. These are the words we use to describe mealtimes. In France, we say breakfast for the morning, lunch for midday and dinner for the evening. And if you eat between meals, you'll say you're having a snack.

In Belgium, we say "le déjeuner" for breakfast. So, what we use in France for lunch. Dinner, whereas in France, dinner is for the evening. And supper for the evening. So in France, it's breakfast, lunch and dinner. And in Belgium, it's lunch, dinner, supper. It's true that when I first arrived in France, it could be confusing. I often made mistakes. I didn't say the right word, so it was complicated to be able to plan things with people because I'd tell them dinner, and for me, dinner was at noon. And they thought we were going to meet in the evening.

I've been in France for six years now, and I'm also going to tell you a few anecdotes about the words we're going to use, or what may have happened when people didn't understand. A second particularity also concerns a meal time. As I was saying, in France, it's a snack. In Belgium, when you go to eat at the morning break between breakfast and lunch, but for Belgium, between lunch and dinner. For example, a snack can be a Kit Kat, for example, we'll call it a dix-heures, so dix-heures like the hour.

That's because, in general, when you're at school, the break between the start of school and when you go for lunch is at 10 o'clock. So we'll say: I'm eating my ten o'clock snack. Another peculiarity is numbers. When we count in France, we say soixante-dix, soixante-et-onze, soixante-douze, soixante-treize, soixante-quatorze... and we also say quatre-vingt-dix, quatre-vingt-onze, quatre-vingt-douze... In Belgium, we say septante and nonante.

All the other numbers are the same, from 1 to 100, everything is the same, except for the seventies and the nineties. So we'll say seventy-one, seventy-two, seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five, seventy-six, seventy-seven, seventy-eight, seventy-nine. After eighty, it's all the same. And when we get to ninety, we say nonante, nonante-et-un, nonante-deux, nonante-trois, nonante-quatre, nonante-cinq, nonante-six, nonante-sept, nonante-huit, nonante-neuf.

For me, this particularity is difficult, especially when I have to count. For me, it was also difficult when I picked up the phone at work and had to write down a number. For example, if someone told me their number was seventy-four, I didn't know if it was 60 and 14 or just 74. Septante-quatre in Belgian French. That's still a bit difficult for me, even though I've been living in France for years.

Another peculiarity of Belgian French is when you're leaving someone, but you're going to see them again during the day. In French, we say "à tout à l'heure". In Belgian French, we say "à tantôt". In reality, à tantôt is really... sorry... à tantôt is really very, very old French. So if you say "à tantôt" in France, nobody says that. Or very, very old people. In Belgium, we hardly ever say "à tout à l'heure", we always say "à tantôt" to say we'll see you later.

So, other words where it's a bit complicated... that are different... it's... I'll show you. This, in French, is a bath towel. And this is a tea towel. It's for the kitchen. In Belgium, we call these two towels: "un essuie de bain" (a bath towel) and "un essuie de vaisselle" (a dish towel). But, depending on the context, you can just say "essuie" and everyone understands. On the other hand, in France, when you say "essuie", nobody understands what you're saying.

And... it's true that when you're used to using a word, it's hard to change your habit. And from one day to the next, to say "towel" instead of "wipe".

Another word that's different. In France, we say un téléphone portable or a cell phone. In Belgium, it's called a GSM. G...S...M.

Another word that's different. I'll show you because I don't have one at home.

Endive is a vegetable that can be eaten either as a salad or cooked. Here's a photo to show you how. Endive gratins are often made with ham. In Belgium, we call it a chicon. So this is really a different word for a vegetable. But in the north of France, we also say chicon.

It's an expression we use a lot in Belgium, but don't understand very well in France.

In fact, it happened to me with a colleague. It's the expression "je te dis quoi". In French, it could mean... je t'informe plus tard. Je t'en dit plus un peu plus tard. In Belgian, it's "je te dis quoi". So it happened to me with a colleague, we had to... We were taking the same metro, we said we were going to leave work together to catch our metro and we didn't really know what time he and I would finish.

I tell him: "I'll tell you what later today". And in fact, he didn't understand what I was saying, and in fact, he left without me. So, it's an expression that's used a lot in Belgium, but not at all in France. If you say to someone "je te dis quoi", they're not going to understand you.

Another difference sometimes is just in little words, for example. In France, we'll say "knock on the door" when you want to... that's how you signal.

In Belgium, we say "to knock on the door". Another word we use differently is this... In France, we call it adhesive tape or a roll of scotch tape. In Belgium, it's called papier collant. In itself, it's much more logical because it's a piece of paper that's sticky.

Another expression that's different. In Belgium, when we wait one behind the other, for example at the bakery, we say we're queuing, so we're one behind the other.

We wait. In France, we're more likely to say we're queuing. It happened... I was on vacation with my parents a few years ago. And we bumped into some French people and the discussion went on for a really long time. One French woman asked my father, "Est-ce que c'est la queue?" And my father replied "Oui, c'est la queue" and the French woman said "Ah mais est-ce que c'est la queue?" And my dad was like, "Oui, c'est la queue". And it went on like that for a very long time.

Another word that's different, when in France... When you take a drink in one go. Like this. We call it boit cul sec. In Belgium, we say "affone". I affoné this glass of water.

As another difference, what else is there, for example, hair when it's like that? In Belgium, we call it crollés hair. In France, we call it curly hair. So crolles and curls.

If not, there are plenty of other words.

For example, we say "foire". And in France, we say "fête foraine". It's a place where you can go... where you can eat toffee apples and cotton candy. You see, there are so many of them. I'm going to give you three more, because otherwise it never ends. There are so many.

One we use a lot in Belgium, because it rains a lot. It's when it really rains... it pours. That's what we say in France.

It's raining really hard. In Belgium, we call it drache. It's draught.

Another word is this ring, for example, it's a fake ring. We'll say in France. It's fake. It's not a precious metal. So, in France, we say it's fake. In Belgium, it's called cacaille. So we'll say if it's peanuts, it's a peanut ring.

That means it's not precious, it's not good quality.

And finally, opn will end on a last word. Where same, every time I go to a store to buy some, we don't understand. I'll show you.

In Belgium, this is what girls wear in winter with dresses. We call them bas-collants. So with a hyphen bas-collant. So, that's it.

In France, it's either stockings or tights. So what I've shown you are tights. Stockings are a little more... They're like socks. You see, there's an end. It's true that often, when I go into a store and say "I'd like some stockings", people look at me and say "I'd like some stockings". They look at me and say, "Do you want stockings or tights? So there you have it, another confusing word.

Where they don't understand me in France.

That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you've ever been to Belgium or live in Belgium and there are words you've noticed that are not the same in Belgian French as they are in French, don't hesitate to comment on them. Above all, let me know if you liked this video, and if you did, don't forget to put a like on it, it helps me a lot.

If you're new too, please subscribe so you can get all the videos and it helps me a lot to keep my channel going.

See you soon and have a wonderful day.