I saw a commercial tonight with Celine Dion pronouncing it kwa-BEK. Is this correct? I was under the impression that the preferred version is ka-BEK. Does it matter?
I’ve always just pronounced it “Quebec”
I’ve always said “kwe-bek”.
ke-bek for me, please.
If you’re anglophone, you’re more likely to say “kwe-beck.” But there are plenty who say “ke-bek” (closer to the French version).
Francophones (who pay attention to the accent in “Québec”) will say “kay-beck.”
Generally the emphasis is on the second syllable. Canada has a lot of different accents, so I’d expect some variations between the Maritimes, priaries and out west though.
I was speaking with someone on the phone the other day who lived there, and I pronounced it somewhere in between “ke-bek” and “kay-beck” and she actually corrected me, pronouncing it “KWUH-bek.”
Iunno, Eats_Crayons. I think you’d need to look far and wide for a Quebec anglo who’ll call it “Kweh-bec”. Really, it’s just easiest to say “Ke-bec.”
White Lightning, that’s super-weird. SUPER-weird.
People from Quebec say Kuh-beck. People trying to denigrate it, or overcompensating for the vowel, say Kwuh-bek.
There was a young boy from Quebec.
Who was froze up in snow to his neck.
When asked, “Are you frizz?”
He replied, “Yes I is,
But we don’t call it cold in Quebec.”
Quebecois prefer “kay-beck”, given the aigu accent on the e.
My grandparents, who sometimes vacationed there, insisted on calling it “QUEE-beck,” often to the point of “correcting” the natives. I’m sure they were touched by the elderly American couple informing them that they had it wrong all their lives.
I say “kay-beck”
I like to torture my roommate, who is French and has lived in Quebec, by pronouncing it “kwuh-beck”. Drives him NUTS, I tell you.
Of course, it helps to have a southern drawl when saying it.
- Québec *, c’est “Kay-Bek”, tabarnak. Non mais ‘sti, c’est quoi vot’ problème!
Calisse…
