What You Need to Know About Language in Montreal (Before Visiting or Moving)

Montreal is unique as a major North American city where the main language of everyday life isn’t English or even Spanish — it’s French. But how exactly language dynamics and etiquette work in the metropolis of French Canada isn’t remotely obvious if you’re new to the city. We hear a lot of questions: how French is Montreal, exactly? How much French do you need to move here? Do you need any French to visit? Is it rude to speak English to people? Let’s clear some things up.

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[leopoldleoleo]

I love it when you apply your clear, reasonable, and humane style to all topics, not just urbanism. I feel incredibly lucky to be perfectly bilingual living here - I have a couple unilingual anglophone friends, and their experience of society just seems so limited - I can’t imagine living in a place without having access to all of it.

[petersilva]

Quebec born and raised (bilingual) anglo. That video was really well done.
I always start in French, and it's a fun secret-handshake thing for anglos to talk to eachother for a couple of minutes before we figure out we're both anglo. If you're obviously not from here, people understand, but that doesn't mean they can help, because most of Quebec only speaks French.

In Montreal, "everyone" (exceptions exist) tries to be accomodating and usually can switch., Although you nailed that the further east you go, the closer Montreal gets to the rest of the province. Outside Montreal, it's not that people are less accomodating, they just don't have enough English to help. The longer you intend to stay, the more French you should learn.

[humanecities]

9:42 This is hugely important! Most people in real life are quite kind and thoughtful. Despite hearing online that Francophones would disapprove of my French, everyone in Montreal was perfectly delightful and spoke French with me.

The internet is not a reflection of reality.

[Imsemble]

As a bilingual francophone, I really find this video to be the most accurate and well-made on this subject. Anyone who comes to Montreal should see this.

I'm so glad you guys feel happy here in QC and that everyone has been nice to you, and it doesn't surprise me because you really seem to respect and enjoy the fact that you live in a place where the language and culture are different. Whenever I speak to someone from elsewhere and feel that attitude, it instantly makes me smile and I want them to feel welcome. I think many francophones are the same.

Cheers and see you on the streets!

[TheNmecod]

I’m glad you had a nuanced conversation on the importance of french in Montreal and Quebec. We don’t expect immigrants and new comers to know french, we expect them to put in the effort to learn our language.

[shday]

I've lived almost 30 years in Montreal (West Island) and my interactions with francophones have been overwhelmingly positive, despite being practically unilingual. Recently moved closer to downtown (NDG) and hope to finally use (and learn) more French.

[elenir]

I am a US American living in Montreal - I speak French fluently, go to university in French, have mostly francophone friends. People can't tell I'm Anglo when they meet me. I agree with everything you said in this video! I will say that I have met a lot of anglos who do not want to and do not make an effort to learn French, some from Montreal, but the majority are transplants from Anglophone Canada or the US. In general, Ι am resistant to any ideology that forces minority language speakers to confirm to a more powerful linguistics hegemony, so I am both a bit frustrated by those anglophones and at the same time by Québécois nationalists who think 6 months is sufficient for refugees to learn French. It's a complicated situation for sure!

[djd]

I moved to Montreal two years ago from another Province and this is 100% accurate to my experience. I've also been taking the Francisation courses since arriving here and it has helped a lot with gaining the confidence to open a conversation in French. It was thanks to your channel as well, as some other great youtubers (Paige Saunders + The New Travel), I made the choice to come here and I have zero regrets.
Thank you as always for all the informative and well produced content.

[stephcorn]

Vision honnête et lucide de la situation linguistique à Montréal. Bravo.

[MisdirectedSasha]

One thing I've found from living in Ottawa and passing back and forth between Ontario and Quebec is that the social cues on the two sides of the river are subtly different in a way that goes beyond just the language. It's not a huge difference, but some things that people might be self-conscious of on one side are normal on the other, the process of forming friendships goes a little differently, etc.

The cultural difference goes a bit further than just the language.

[eusa]

Beautiful presentation! As an American who visits Montreal often and knows basic French, I found it very educational and enjoyable. Thank you

[Lifelikesky]

I would have been nice to mention that, the proportion of Quebec residents who can converse in English and whose first language is French reached 42.2 per cent in 2021, compared with 31.4 per cent in 1991.

Et je doit dire que votre francais est tres bon, tres facile a comprendre. Merci pour la video 🙂

[EB-ypwu]

Wow jai tellement aimé votre chaîne avant cette vidéo mais quand vous avez commencé à montrer comment vous parler en français ça m'a fait chaud au cœur. Je suis anglophone moi aussi et je vis à Québec depuis 6 ans. Je viens des États Unis. C'est toujours beau à entendre d'autres anglos surtout qui parlent bien comme vous autres. Je me sens moins seul. J'ai bcp du respect pour vous!

[Naktya]

I have lived all my life in Montreal and yet, I still learned things from this video

[knarf_on_a_bike]

Former anglo Montrealer here, who lived in mostly English areas (NDG, Lasalle, Ville-St-Laurent) but also a couple years in predominantly franco St-Bruno. I speak a bit of French and franglais. Because I learned what little French I know on the street, my accent isn't too bad. I've never had a language problem, ever. If I'm not sure, I always open in French. People are kind and accommodating.

[lotoo]

Thank you for talking about the online situation with the english news coming from a very small (and often biased) bubble, and the whole anglo sphere / franco sphere being completely separated online. It's an issue that's causing a lot of tension for sure!

Merci à vous pour la superbe vidéo bien informée! Montréal, c'est votre ville à vous 100%. À mes yeux, vous êtes déjà des québécois de Montréal! ❤

[mrfrog]

Je profite de ce forum pour vous féliciter de vos efforts et progrès en français! Bravo!!!

[BetterYet]

I visit Montreal often. I've had a rough go with not speaking french in stores in Laval and Montreal . A couple of times I was even treated rudely. I discovered that if I announced at the start that I am visiting from Winnipeg, everyone who could, happily switched to English. Or they found a colleague who could. It turns out that their intolerance has to do with locals, not visitors. Crazy.

[debuthunter]

I'm literally moving there in 2 weeks. However I was just there last month for the first time for work, and really enjoyed the place, and the language.

[cooljonathan]

Thank you for including that section of you two speaking in french. It made me much more confident in my pronunciation.