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Neighbourhoods

The island of Montreal is divided into 19 boroughs (arrondissements) plus 15 "breakaway" municipalities, which despite being located on the island, are considered autonomous "suburban units" since January 1st, 2006. Most boroughs are very large and are further sub-divided into neighbourhoods.

One street holds a special importance in the city's layout. Blvd St-Laurent (sometimes called 'the main') runs North-South and divides the city into "East" and "West" (with the "Eastern" side being traditionally more French-speaking than the "Western" one). When the suffix "Est" is added to the name of the street, it means the address is located East of Blvd St-Laurent. Conversely, the suffix "Ouest" means the location is West of Blvd St-Laurent.

The following are the main neighbourhoods in Montréal:

Borough Ville-Marie

Ville-Marie is the oldest and the most central of all boroughs. Within the borough, there are several distinct neighbourhoods:

Centre-Ville (Downtown) - the main commercial and business area with many hotels and restaurants. Residential buildings do exist, but their density is not very high.
Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal) - the historic part of Montreal roughly corresponding to the city's 18th and 19th century layout. The neighbourhood features some of the city's oldest (and, many say, most beautiful) buildings.
The Cité Multimédia - a former industrial suburb with some residential buildings, just west of Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal).
The Quartier International - a new, mostly office and commercial neighbourhood just north of Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal).
The Quartier des Spectacles - a new neighbourhood under (re)development. As the name implies, le Quartier des Spectacles is home to many entertainment venues.
Shaughnessy Village - a lively, studenty area west of rue Guy.
The Quartier Latin - a small area next to the campus of UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal).
The Village - an area east of Quartier Latin which lives up to its unofficial name.
The The General Hospital Area - the area at the foot of the mountain, north of rue Sherbrooke.
Chinatown - sometimes called "Chinablock" because of its miniscule size

Borough Le Plateau Mont Royal

Le Plateau - one of the hippest areas of the city boasting a lion's share of the city's restaurants and bars.
Mile End - previously known simply as the north-western part of the Plateau, Mile End has been considered a separate neighbourhood for many years now. While Mile End is not as popular as Le Plateau, it's generally considered "the next big thing" in Montréal.
McGill Ghetto - a small area just east of McGill University mostly populated by its students (who are mostly anglophone). The "ghetto" moniker is misleading - the area is neither dangerous nor is it rundown.

Borough Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce

A very large, mostly residential borough which consists of two mega-neighbourhoods:

Côte-des-Neiges - a very diverse and immigrant-rich area north-east of the mountain.
Notre Dame de Grâce - mostly English-speaking residential area.

Borough Sud-Ouest

Griffintown - an old (and until recently, neglected) Irish neighbourhood just steps from downtown Montreal.
Saint-Henri - a working-class (but rapidly gentrifying) neighbourhood just west of Rue Atwater.
Point St-Charles

Borough Outremont

A mainly francophone residential area located just north of the mountain. In many ways, Outremont is similar to Westmount, except it's mostly francophone whereas Westmount is anglophone.

Municipality of Westmount

Westmount is predominantly English-speaking residential district located just west of Shaughnessy Village. Since January 1, 2006 is it one of the self-governing areas of Montreal.

( See comments^* below about suburban municipalities. )

OTHER BOROUGHS

As you might have gathered, the island of Montreal is very large. Here are some other districts that are technically part of Montreal:

Verdun
LaSalle
Lachine
Saint-Laurent
Ahuntisic-Cartierville
Villeray - Saint-Michel - Parc-Extension
Rosemont - La Petite-Patrie
Mercier - Hochelaga - Maisonneuve
Anjou
Rivières-des-Prairies - Pointe-aux-Trembles
Saint-Léonard
Montréal-Nord
Pierrefonds
L'Île-Bizard - Sainte-Geneviève
Roxboro

^* And here are the island's 15 "breakaway" municipalities (i.e. pre-2006 boroughs or parts of boroughs that chose to have their own municipal infrastructure rather than be part of the city of Montréal): Beaconsfield; Baie d'Urfé; Côte-Saint-Luc; Hampstead; Montréal-Ouest; Dollard-Des Ormeaux; Dorval; Kirkland; L'Île-Dorval; Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue; Mont-Royal; Senneville; Pointe-Claire; Montréal-Est; Westmount.

For details on the separation of the 19 districts and 15 "suburban cities" see Montreal Merger and Demerger (wikipedia.org)

MONTREAL's NORTH, EAST, SOUTH AND WEST

A note of caution about local geographic terminology. The city is laid out on something resembling a grid, but its orientation is such that it'd be very inconvenient to give directions in precise geographic terms (e.g. "you need to go NorthEast from here"). So, in Montréal, the meaning of the words "East", "West", "North" and "South" has been changed to mean "NorthEast", "SouthWest", "NorthWest" and "SouthEast", respectively.

IN CONTENXT: MONTREAL METRO

Thus far, we've only talked about what's located on the island of Montréal. Around it, in what's known as the Montréal Metro Area (or CMM, Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal) are located other territories of Montreal metro.

The other four "pieces" to this puzzle shown here on a very schematic map, are called South and North Shore (Couronne Nord and Sud), Laval and Longueuil.