Une journée à Montréal entre café et shopping

What does “faire les magasins” mean in French?

In France, faire les magasins is the normal way to say “go shopping” — walking from store to store, trying things on. The verb faire means “to do/make,” so word for word it is “to do the shops.” In Québec, where this video is filmed, people usually say magasiner instead. Same idea, one simple word, and a clear sign of where the speaker is from.

Two French friends are in Montréal. After coffee they take the metro toward the shopping street: “on a pris le métro direction [...] pour faire les magasins” — “we took the metro [...] to go shopping.” The speaker is from France, so she uses the France phrase faire les magasins rather than the local Québec word. A note on the grammar: it is always les magasins — plural, with the definite article. You are not visiting one shop; you are going around many. You can also say faire du shopping (very common in France, borrowed from English) or faire des courses — but faire des courses usually means grocery shopping, not clothes or general browsing. Here is the regional difference. In Québec the everyday verb is magasiner (“to shop”), and the activity is called le magasinage. Someone from Montréal would more likely say “je vais magasiner.” Both words come from the same root: magasin, which simply means “shop” or “store.” When you hear faire les magasins instead of magasiner, it is often a quick clue that the speaker learned their French in France, not in Canada.