Double Negative: "Isn't that right?"

Factual Questions
21

[QUOTE=mnemosyne]
I grew up speaking Québec French and I don’t think I have ever heard of this. “Si” to me means “if” and is used to describe conditional situations. I Googled and did find references for this, but I suspect, at least in this part of the world, that it is a usage that is fading away. Can anyone confirm?
[/QUOTE]

“Si” is rarely used in Quebec French, but yes, it does indeed mean what Noone Special says it does. I don’t know if it is more widely used in other francophone countries, maybe clairobscur or someone else can tell us.

Of course, “si” also means “if”, among other things, but in this case it’s a conjunction, not an adverb.

22

heh, and I call myself bilingual. Still, I have a feeling that if I were to use “si” like this at work, people would look at me funny and/or ask me if I actually speak Spanish or something! Good to learn something new, though - it doesn’t happen every day!