Montreal City Weblog

Kate 08:41 on 2022-08-24 Permalink Reply  

• Thomas 08:48 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  A stop sign is commanding you to stop — as in the imperative form of the verb ‘to stop’ — is it not? So shouldn’t all stop signs in Quebec actually say ‘Arrêtez’ instead of ‘Arrêt’? This has been troubling me for well over a decade…

• Kate 09:29 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  I think of the French version as a noun, not a verb.

• mare 09:42 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  With just two rectangular red stickers stopping at intersections in Montreal becomes conceptual A R T

• Thomas 09:54 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  @Kate they’re definitely using it as a noun, but I think they’re mistaken. English grammar is so simple that several forms of a given verb (and even the noun form) will often use the same spelling. My theory is that they mistakenly translated the noun ‘stop’ instead of the imperative verb ‘stop’.

  Of course most countries simply use ‘stop’, but there must be another society out there somewhere that is as proud as the Quebec nation and that has also translated their stop signs, thereby allowing for a grammatical comparison 😉

• walkerp 10:08 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  Ceci n’est pas un arrêt

• Kevin 11:07 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  Imagine being so insecure that you’re threatened by the word on a sign, and so righteous that you think a sticker will finally convince all non-francophones to see the error of their ways and abandon their mother tongues.

• Daisy 11:10 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  Thomas, the stop signs in Kahnewake have Mohawk on them. Unfortunately I don’t know if it’s a noun or a verb.

• denpanosekai 11:13 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  This reminds me how a street is called Stephens in Verdun but Stéphens in ville-émard (possibly vandalized)

• Ephraim 11:48 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  Really? We can’t just move to this stop sign? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Israeli_Stop_Sign.png with a damn palm and stop with the language nonsense? But officially STOP is a French word. And it’s origin is NOT English, it’s German. Some people need a new hobby

• Robert H 12:08 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  Ah ! Officiellement français mais pas exclusivement français.

  We could go on all day.

• mare 14:13 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  In Europe they solved this a long time ago by omitting the text completely. It’s already a very special sign because of its hexagonal shape, why do we need to put words on it?

• Ephraim 20:45 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  I thought that every country in Europe except Turkey (or is it Türkiye yet?) and Northern Cyprus have all agreed to use STOP.

• CE 23:09 on 2022-08-24 Permalink

  All through Latin America, the stop signs say either “PARE” or “ALTO”, never “STOP”.