Spelling and punctuation

The alphabet and accents

This table presents a useful way of clarifying difficulties when you are spelling names etc.

A comme Anatole means A for Anatole, and so on.

When spelling aloud…

A A comme Anatole

B B comme Berthe

C C comme Célestin

ç c cédille

D D comme Désiré

E E comme Eugène

é e accent aigu

è e accent grave

ê e accent circonflexe

ë e tréma

F F comme François

G G comme Gaston

H H comme Henri

I I comme Irma

J J comme Joseph

K K comme Kléber

L L comme Louis

M M comme Marcel

N N comme Nicolas

O O comme Oscar

P P comme Pierre

Q Q comme Quintal

R R comme Raoul

S S comme Suzanne

T T comme Thérèse

U U comme Ursule

V V comme Victor

W W comme William

X X comme Xavier

Y Y comme Yvonne

Z Z comme Zoé

Spelling

capital B

= B majuscule

small b

= b minuscule

it has got a capital B

= cela s’écrit avec un B majuscule

in small letters

= en minuscules

double t

= deux t

double n

= deux n

apostrophe

= apostrophe

d apostrophe

= d apostrophe

hyphen

= trait d’union

rase-mottes has got a hyphen

= rase-mottes s’écrit avec un trait d’union

Dictating punctuation

. point or un point (full stop)

, virgule (comma)

: deux points (colon)

; point-virgule (semicolon)

! point d’exclamation† (exclamation mark)

? point d’interrogation† (interrogation mark)

à la ligne (new paragraph)

( ouvrez la parenthèse (open brackets)

) fermez la parenthèse (close brackets)

() entre parenthèses (in brackets)

[] entre crochets (in square brackets)

- tiret (dash)

… points de suspension (three dots)

« ou " ouvrez les guillemets (open inverted commas)

» ou " fermez les guillemets (close inverted commas)

«» ou "" entre guillemets (in inverted commas)

The use of inverted commas in French

In novels and short stories, direct speech is punctuated differently from English :

The inverted commas lie on the line, e.g.

«Tiens, dit-elle, en ouvrant les rideaux, les voilà!»‡

This example also shows that the inverted commas are not closed after each stretch of direct speech. In modern texts they are often omitted altogether (though this is still sometimes frowned on) :

Il l’interrogea :

- Vous êtes arrivé quand?

- Pourquoi cette question? Je n’ai rien fait de mal.

- C’est ce que nous allons voir.

Note the short dash in this case that introduces each new speaker. Even if inverted commas had been used in the above dialogue, they would have been opened before vous and closed after voir, and not used at other points.

English-style inverted commas are used in French to highlight words in a text :

Le ministre a voulu "tout savoir" sur la question.

† Note that, unlike English, French has a space before ! and ? and : and ;, e.g. Jamais !, Pourquoi ? etc. This is not usual, however, in dictionaries, where it would take up too much room.

‡ Single inverted commas are not much used in French.

Big English-French dictionary. 2003.