A2 · Fine points and style
Punctuation and capitals
No capital on Monday, March, French or German.
At a glance
- Remember
- Languages and months are written small.
- Form
- Ça va ?Are you all right?
- Signal words
- ?
- !
- «
- »
- Trap
- Wrong:Elle parle Français et Allemand.Right:Elle parle français et allemand.
Your turn
5 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
The form
The forms and what they mean
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in French.
| Are you all right? | Ça va ? |
| Look out! | Attention ! |
| "Hello" | « Bonjour » |
| 3.5 kilos | 3,5 kilos |
| Monday 3 March | lundi 3 mars |
| See you soon | À bientôt |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
A space stands before a question mark, an exclamation mark, a colon and a semicolon.
Tu viens ce soir ?Are you coming this evening?
Quotations are angles with a space inside.
Il a dit : « Je reviens demain. »He said: "I will come back tomorrow."
Days, months and languages take no capital.
Le cours de français a lieu le mardi.The French class is on Tuesdays.
The decimal separator is a comma.
Le paquet pèse 2,4 kilos.The parcel weighs 2.4 kilos.
Example sentences
Vous avez l’heure, s’il vous plaît ?Do you have the time, please?
Il m’a demandé : « Où vas-tu ? »He asked me: "Where are you going?"
Nous partons le samedi 12 avril.We are leaving on Saturday 12 April.
Elle parle français, allemand et italien.She speaks French, German and Italian.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Capitals on days, months and languages are the clearest sign of an English hand. Lundi and Français in the middle of a sentence are wrong — unless the inhabitant is meant, because un Français is a Frenchman while le français is the language and il est français is the adjective. The rule is short: only the person keeps the capital.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
In front of ?, !, : and ; French puts a space: Ça va ?, Attention ! In front of a full stop and a comma it puts none. Quotation marks are angles with a space inside: « Bonjour », dit-il.
The decimal point is a comma and the thousands are separated by a thin space: 3,5 and 12 000. English does both the other way round, so a French 1,5 is one and a half and not fifteen hundred.
And here is the one that gives an English text away instantly: French writes no capital on the days of the week, the months, the languages or the adjectives of nationality. lundi, janvier, français, allemand. English capitalises every one of them. Only the inhabitant keeps a capital — un Français is a Frenchman, le français is the language, and il est français is the adjective.
Capital letters carry their accents: À bientôt, École. Leaving them off is a habit from the typewriter and not a standard.
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