to a person, they will often reply . In standard French, it means "I don't mind". is the way Kinois say 81, in Europe. , literally to make things "complicated" or difficult for someone. It can be anyone: , "She is giving me a tough time". is something someone does to make another person's life harder, and often refers to policemen or soldiers. A fine is often called a , especially because the policemen in Kinshasa usually ask for an unpayable sum of money that requires extensive bargaining. Linguistic Characteristics There are many linguistic differences that occur in Kinshasa French that make it a distinct dialect of French. Similarly to many other African dialects of French, many of these linguistic aspects are influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the linguistics of the local African languages spoken. It is also essential to note grammatical differences between local Congolese languages and the French language, such as the lack of gendered nouns in the former, which result in linguistic changes when speakers of Congolese native languages speak French. Some of the phonetic characteristics of Kinshasa French include: the posteriorization of anterior, labial vowels in French, more specifically, the posteriorization of the common French phoneme [ɥ] for [u] (ex. pronunciation of the French word cuisine [kɥizin] as couwisine [kuwizin]) the delabialization of the phoneme [ɥ] for the phoneme [i] (ex. pronunciation of the French term bureau [bɥʁo] as biro [biʁo]) the vocalic opening of the French phoneme [œ] creating, instead, the phoneme [ɛ] (ex. pronunciation of the French word acteur [aktœʁ] as actère [aktɛʁ]) in some cases, the denasalization of French vowels (ex. pronunciation of the French term bande [bɑ̃d] as ba-nde [band]) the mid-nasalization of occlusive consonants that follow the nasals [n] and [m] (ex. in relationship to the example above, the French word bande [bɑ̃d] could be pronounced both as ba-nde [band] or as ban-nde with a slightly nasalized [d]) the palatalization of French apico-dental consonants that are followed by [i] and/or [ɥ] (ex. pronunciation of the French word dix [dis] is pronounced as dzix [dzis] and, similarly, the term parti may be pronounced as partsi) As briefly mentioned above, because many Congolese languages are ungendered languages, there is often some mixing of the French masculine and feminine articles in speakers of Kinshasa French, such as the phrase Je veux du banane rather than the "correct" French Je veux de la banane.