FlexiLingoIn one line
French capitalises far less than English, and it puts a space before
? ! ; :.
The table
| What | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| days of the week | lundi /lœ̃.di/ | Monday |
| months | mars /maʁs/ | March /maʁʃ/ |
| seasons | l'été /le.te/ | Summer /sy.me/ |
| languages | le français /fʁɑ̃.sɛ/ | French |
| nationality (adjective) | un livre français /œ̃ livʁ fʁɑ̃.sɛ/ | a French book |
| nationality (person) | un Français /œ̃ fʁɑ̃.sɛ/ | a Frenchman /a fʁɑ̃ʃ.man/ |
| country | la France /la fʁɑ̃s/ | France /fʁɑ̃s/ |
je | je /ʒə/ — even mid-sentence | I |
| job titles | le président /lə pʁe.zi.dɑ̃/ | the President |
Read that table as one rule: English capitalises almost all of these and French capitalises almost none of them. Days, months, seasons, languages, nationality adjectives, job titles — all lowercase. And the pronoun
jeis lowercase too, which looks wrong to an English eye and is correct:Demain, je pars.The one row that goes the other way is nothing to celebrate: French capitalises
Françaisfor the person, so the same word is capitalised or not depending on its job in the sentence.
un étudiant français— adjectiveun Français— a personle français— the language, lowercase
The space before punctuation — a French-only rule
French puts a space before "two-part" punctuation marks:
| Mark | French | English |
|---|---|---|
? | Ça va ? /sa va/ | How are you? |
! | Bravo ! /bʁa.vo/ | Bravo! /bʁa.vo/ |
: | Voici : … /vwa.si/ | Here: … |
; | Oui ; mais … /wi mɛ/ | Yes; but … /jɛs byt/ |
% | 20 % | 20% |
€ | 15 € | €15 |
And no space for the single-part marks:
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
, | Oui, merci. | /wi mɛʁ.si/ |
. | C'est fini. | /sɛ fi.ni/ |
In formal typesetting that space should be a narrow non-breaking space, but an ordinary space is accepted. Leaving it out is counted as an error.
Note the currency symbol too: French writes
15 €, after the number and with a space. English writes€15or$15, before it and with none.
Quotation marks — « and »
French uses angle quotes, with a space on each side:
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
| French | Il a dit : « Bonjour. » | /il a di bɔ̃.ʒuʁ/ ·/ |
| English | He said: "Hello." | /hi sɛd ɛ.lo/ |
And for a quote inside a quote, English-style marks are used.
Dashes — three sizes, three jobs
| Mark | Name | Job | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
- | trait d'union | compound words — week-end donne-moi | /tʁɛ dy.njɔ̃/ |
– | tiret | a parenthetical clause | /ti.ʁɛ/ |
— | tiret cadratin | dialogue in fiction | /ti.ʁɛ ka.dʁa.tɛ̃/ |
Capitals in titles
French capitalises only the first word, not all of them:
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
| French | Le petit prince | /lə pə.ti pʁɛ̃s/ |
| English | The Little Prince |
Capital É — and the accent that must not be dropped
In modern French, capital letters take their accents:
| ✅ | ❌ |
|---|---|
École | Ecole |
À bientôt | A bientôt |
Être | Etre |
They used to be dropped because of typewriter limitations, but today that is an error. The Académie française has stated explicitly that accents on capitals are required.
Numbers and units
| thousands separator | 1 000 — a space, not a comma |
| decimal | 3,5 — a comma, not a point |
| unit | 15 kg /kɛ̃z ki.lo/ — with a space |
| time | 15h30 /kɛ̃.z‿œʁ tʁɑ̃t/ — no spaces |
| date | 15/03/2026 — day first |
15/03/2026is 15 March in France. French writes day-month-year, so a numeric date can be read wrongly in either direction —05/03is 5 March in France and 3 May in the United States.
Examples
| English | French | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Monday the fifteenth of March. | Lundi 15 mars. | /lœ̃.di kɛ̃z maʁs/ |
| I speak French. | Je parle français. | /ʒə paʁl fʁɑ̃.sɛ/ |
| A Frenchman. | Un Français. | /œ̃ fʁɑ̃.sɛ/ |
| How are you? | Comment ça va ? | /kɔ.mɑ̃ sa va/ |
| He said: "Hello." | Il a dit : « Bonjour. » | /il a di bɔ̃.ʒuʁ/ ·/ |
| Twenty per cent. | 20 % | |
| Fifteen euros. | 15 € | |
| The school is closed. | L'École est fermée. | /le.kɔl ɛ fɛʁ.me/ |
| Yes, thank you. | Oui, merci. | /wi mɛʁ.si/ |
| Three point five. | 3,5 |
Common mistakes
| ❌ | ✅ | Why |
|---|---|---|
Lundi 15 Mars | lundi 15 mars | Days and months are lowercase |
Je parle Français. | … français. | The language is lowercase |
Ça va? | Ça va ? | French puts a space before ? ! : ; |
20% | 20 % | A space is needed before % too |
Ecole | École | Capitals take accents |
"Bonjour" | « Bonjour » | French quotation marks |
3.5 | 3,5 | Decimals use a comma |
€15 | 15 € | The symbol goes after, with a space |
Why that space
a typesetting rule that stayed
In French metal typesetting, "two-part" marks — those made of two elements — were separated by a thin space so that they stayed legible on the printed page.
| One part | Two parts |
|---|---|
. , | ? ! : ; |
And the logic was visual: a tall or complex mark pressed against a word made a black clump that the eye snagged on.
English printing had no such rule — English presses worked differently from the start.
Metal type is gone and the rule stayed, and it has become part of French written identity. Examiners do notice it.
The practical point: if you have no narrow space on your keyboard, use a normal one. What matters is that something is there.
And a technical warning: an ordinary space can push the mark onto the next line. In handwriting the problem does not arise.