Although French and English use nearly all of the same punctuation
marks,
some of their uses in the two languages are considerably different. Rather than
an explanation of the rules of French and English punctuation, this lesson is a simple
summary of how French punctuation differs from English.
One-part punctuation marks
These are very similar
in French and English, with a few exceptions. |
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le point
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| 1. |
In French, the period is not used after abbreviations of measurement:
25 m (mètres), 12 min (minutes), etc. |
| 2. |
It can be used to separate the elements of a date:
10 septembre 1973 = 10.9.1973 |
| 3. |
When writing numbers, either a period or a space may be used
to separate every three digits (where a comma would be used in English):
1,000,000 (English) = 1.000.000 or 1 000 000 |
| 4. |
It's not used to indicate a decimal point (see virgule 1) |
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la virgule
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| 1. |
In French, the comma is used as a decimal point:
2.5 (English) = 2,5 (French) |
| 2. |
Not used to separate three digits (see point 3) |
| 3. |
Whereas in English, the "serial comma" is
optional, it cannot be used in French:
J'ai acheté un livre, deux stylos et du papier. |
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| Note: When writing
numerals, the period and comma are
opposites in the two languages: |
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French |
English |
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2,5 (deux virgule cinq)
2.500 (deux mille cinq cents) |
2.5 (two point five)
2,500 (two thousand five hundred) |
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Two-part punctuation marks
In French, a space is required both before and after all two- (or more) part punctuation marks and symbols, including
: ; « » ! ? % $ # etc. |
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:
les deux-points
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The colon is much more common in French than in English. It
may introduce direct discourse; a
citation; or the explanation, conclusion, summary, etc. of
whatever precedes it.
Jean a dit : « Je veux le faire. »
Ce film est très intéressant : c'est un classique. |
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« »
les guillemets
et
—
le tiret
et
...
les points de suspension |
The quotation marks (inverted commas) " " don't
exist in French; the guillemets « » are used.
Note that these are actual symbols; they
are not just two angle brackets typed together << >>. If you
don't know how to type guillemets, see my page on typing
accents. |
| Guillemets are usually used only at the beginning and end
of an entire conversation. Unlike in English, where any non-speech is
found outside of the quotation marks, in French guillemets do not end when an incidental clause
(he said, she smiled, etc.) is
added. To indicate that a new person is speaking, a tiret (m-dash) is added. |
| In English, an interruption or trailing off of speech can be
indicated with either a tiret or des points de suspension
(ellipsis). In
French only the latter is used. |
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« Salut Jeanne ! dit Pierre.
Comment vas-tu ?
— Ah, salut Pierre ! crie Jeanne.
— As-tu passé un bon weekend ?
— Oui, merci, répond-elle. Mais...
— Attends, je dois te dire quelque chose d'important ». |
"Hi Jean!" Pierre says. "How
are you?"
"Oh, hi Pierre!" shouts Jeanne.
"Did you have a nice weekend?"
"Yes, thanks," she responds. "But—"
"Wait, I have to tell you something important." |
The tiret can also be used like parentheses
—
to indicate or
emphasize a comment:
Paul — mon meilleur ami — va arriver demain. |
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; le point-virgule
! le point d'exclamation
? le point d'intérrogation
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The semi-colon, exclamation point, and question
mark are essentially the same in French and English. |
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