Don't Worry Anglophones, Even François Legault Sometimes Gets Confused By French Grammar

The premier stumbled on a weird grammar rule and had a good laugh.
Don't Worry Anglophones, Even François Legault Sometimes Gets Confused By French Grammar
francoislegault.pm | Instagram
Staff Writer

During his opening statement at a press conference on Thursday, Premier François Legault proved that even the most fluent French speakers can get confused about their native tongue's grammar rules. 

In the middle of discussing decreasing COVID-19 case counts and reopenings this past spring, Legault stumbled on the word "reopen" or "rouvrir" in French. 

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“

It's réouvert but rouvrir...huh, ok we can't mix that up!

Premier François Legault

"[...] et on été capable de...réouvrir, rouvrir...uh, réouvrir ou rouvrir?" asked a smiling Legault. 

Visibly laughing at himself and his confusion, Legault employed the help of the room's journalists, each of them chiming in to correct the premier. 

He then tried to comprehend the sense of having such an unusual set of verbs, which made everyone laugh even more.

"It's réouvert but rouvrir...huh, ok we can't mix that up," he said, "Réouvert..rou...yeah, that's it!" 

During an otherwise serious press conference, Legault's language confusion provided a much-welcomed moment of levity. 

So don't worry Anglophones, even the premier of Quebec gets confused with French grammar rules! 

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  • Teddy Elliot
  • Teddy Elliot
    Teddy Elliot was a Staff Writer for MTL Blog. He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec and has a B.A. in Literature. Teddy has been a journalist for three years and was once an English teacher. His creative work has appeared in The Blasted Tree and Parenthetical Magazine. When he's not chasing scoops, Teddy can be found cheering on Aston Villa and listening to 80s power ballads. He was shortlisted for a Digital Publishing Award in 2021.

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