World Travel Guide Search for a City   Destination Guides > North America > Canada Canada •  Canada   · Where To Go •  When To Go •  Getting There •  Red Tape And Visas •  Information, Web Sites And Maps •  Travellers With Disabilities •  Insurance, Crime And Personal Safety •  Costs, Money And Banks •  Health •  Getting Around •  Eating And Drinking •  Communications, Post, Phones, And The Media •  History •  Language •  Emergency Number •  Opening Hours, Time Zones And Holidays •  Nature •  Spectator Sports •  Directory •  Canada's Aboriginal Peoples •  Books •  Explore Canada CANADA - LANGUAGE Canada    view all cities Top Destinations •  Calgary •  Edmonton •  Halifax •  Montreal •  Ottawa •  Quebec City •  St John's •  Toronto •  Vancouver •  Victoria •  Winnipeg Canada has two official languages - English and French - but there are numerous native tongues as well. Tensions between the two main groups play a prominent part in the politics of Canada, but the native languages are more or less ignored except in the country's most remote areas, particularly in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, where Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit, is spoken widely. The Inuit are the only native population with their own-language TV channel; the only group afforded comparable attention are the Montagnais - Montagnais-Naskapi translations appear in northern Québec and Labrador official publications. In a brief glossary such as this there is no space to get to grips with the complexities of aboriginal languages, and very few travellers would have any need of them anyway - most natives (including those in Québec) have a good knowledge of English, especially if they deal with tourists in any capacity. If you plan to be spending much time in French-speaking Canada, consider investing in the Rough Guide to French (Penguin), a pocket-guide in a handy A-Z format. French in Quebec Quebec's official language differs from its European source in much the same way North American English differs from British English. Yet while the Québécois French vocabulary, grammar and syntax may not constitute a separate language, the speech of Quebec can pose a few problems. Tracing its roots back to seventeenth-century popular French, the Québécois language has preserved features that disappeared long ago in France itself and it has also been affected by its close contact with English. The end result is a dialect that is - frankly - a source of amusement to many French people and bafflement for those educated in the French language back in Europe, not to mention other parts of Canada. Within Quebec itself there are marked regional differences of pronunciation, so much so that Montrealers find it hard to understand northern Québécois. The Québécois are extremely sympathetic when visiting English-speakers make the effort to speak French - and most are much more forthcoming with their knowledge of English when talking to a Briton or American than to a Canadian. Similarly easy-going is the attitude towards the formal vous (you), which is used less often in Quebec - you may even be corrected when saying S'il vous plaît with the suggestion that S'il te plaît is more appropriate. Another popular phrase that you are likely to come across is pas de tout ("not at all") which in Quebec is pronounced pan toot , completely different from the French pa du too . The same goes for c'est tout? ("is that all?" pronounced say toot ), which you're likely to hear when buying something in a shop. With pronunciation there's little point trying to mimic the local dialect - generally, just stick to the classic French rules. Consonants at the ends of words are usually silent and at other times are much as in English, except that ch is always sh, ç is s, h is silent, th is the same as t, ll is like the y in yes and r is growled.