# # symbol -- (AE) number sign / pound sign / sharp -- (BE) hash / square -- (FR) dièse / carré / numéro / croisillon



## stevenpomeroy

what is the french word for the symbol "#" pound; found on a standard telephone and keypad, etc.

*#*​
*Moderator note:* Multiple threads merged to create this one. If you want a quick answer, see below. Otherwise, keep reading.

English:

UK: _hash_ (sometimes _square_)
USA: _pound sign_ (sometimes _number sign_)
Canada: _pound_
French:

France: _dièse_
Canada: _carré_ (sometimes _dièse_)
Belgium: _carré_
Switzerland: _dièse_

*N.B.:* Strictly speaking, _dièse_ is the sharp sign (♯) used in musical contexts but that word is used abusively to refer to the hash/pound sign (#).


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## halifacub

we just say  : le carré (the square)


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## ishatar

In France it's usually called "dièse".

"Tapez sur la touche étoile (*) de votre téléphone".

"Appuyez sur la touche dièse (#)".


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## valerie

dièse is the name of this symbol # when used in music, and also in other contexts as Ishatar explained


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## Focalist

And just on a point of interest, in the UK # is called "hash" ("pound" being £, or lb).
Telephone instructions: press star, press hash. In the US do people say "press pound"?

F


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## stevenpomeroy

Yes, americans do say: "press pound," As far as weight measures are concerned, we obviously use lb. (pound) as well. Do British people say press the asterisk?


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## OlivierG

Isn't the "#" symbol called "number" ?


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## Focalist

stevenpomeroy said:
			
		

> Yes, americans do say: "press pound," As far as weight measures are concerned, we obviously use lb. (pound) as well. Do British people say press the asterisk?


No, as I mentioned, we say 
"press star"  ... *
"press hash" .. #

E.g. 
"Type in your account number and then press star"
"To begin again, press hash"

F


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## Focalist

OlivierG said:
			
		

> Isn't the "#" symbol called "number" ?


I know that in the US, "#" is used to _mean_ "number", as in the cast lists of films, where you see such things as

Soldier #1
Soldier #2

# is not used with this meaning in GB. We either use "No" to stand for "number" (Symphony No 3) or, more often than not in situations like the cast list above, just use the bare numbers

Soldier 1
Soldier 2

F


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## Jean-Michel Carrère

The symbol *#* is often used to mean number (in references to orders, invoices, etc. for instance). In that case, the French equivalent is *n°*. My question is : what do you call the symbol in English (in French it is called *dièse*) ?


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## DDT

Isn't that "hash" or simply "number"?

DDT


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## sOULbROTHER

J'ai souvent entendu que l'on l'apelle "Grid", mais je sais pas si c'est le meilleur choix.


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## julieb01

The WR dictionnary says it is "sharp"


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## superromu

there is a programming language in computer science call C# also called c sharp


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## mnzrob

The actual sign (#) is called "pound" in english. As far as I know, "sharp" is only used in musical context.

Rob


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## Jean-Michel Carrère

I know that in music, the sign is called sharp, e.g. fa# (fa dièse) in French, F# (F sharp) in English, but would you use sharp in the sentence below ?

*The sharp symbol * is commonly used to mean number in invoices, orders, etc.


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## Jean-Michel Carrère

Rob, isn't the *pound sign *THIS : *£* ?


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## byutennismenace

The "pound" symbol is commonly used to mean number in invoices, orders, etc.


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## byutennismenace

£ is pound in money. # is pound in numbers. Ambiguity is the key to the english language.


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## Jean-Michel Carrère

Would anybody use this phrase : *the hash mark * ?


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## byutennismenace

Yes, I think that you would be perfectly understood if you were to use "hash mark"
byuTM


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## gliamo

Yes, # is _hash_.

G.


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## charlie2

Jean-Michel Carrère said:
			
		

> Would anybody use this phrase : *the hash mark * ?


I always thought it is the hash (sign) and I only know that it is called pound now that I have read this thread. I checked my dictionary which says that calling it _pound _ is American English.


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## timpeac

I have only ever heard "hash" for this, none of the other terms before this thread, apart from in terms of music where c# represents "c sharp". Whether it follows that "#" in this context is a "sharp" or not, I'm not sure.

You hear "hash", at least in the UK, a lot in terms of telephones eg "press 1 for x press 2 for y and press hash to return to the main menu".


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## Cath.S.

On French telephones you hear messages that say _appuyez sur __dièse_.
Edition :
Ceci n'était qu'une parenthèse.


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## Jean-Michel Carrère

Looks like 'hash' is British / Irish English and 'pound sign' is American English, then ... 

Many thanks !


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## mnzrob

timpeac said:
			
		

> You hear "hash", at least in the UK, a lot in terms of telephones eg "press 1 for x press 2 for y and press hash to return to the main menu".


 
Yeah, in the US on the phone you hear "...press pound to return to the main menu."

I've never heard anybody refer to it as a hash. I always thought a hash mark was just a line.

Rob


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## Gil

trouvé:

hash character
<character> "#", ASCII character 35.

Common names: number sign; pound; pound sign; hash; sharp; crunch; hex; INTERCAL: mesh. Rare: grid; crosshatch; octothorpe; flash; ITU-T: square, pig-pen; tictactoe; scratchmark; thud; thump; splat.

The pronunciation of "#" as "pound" is common in the US but a bad idea; Commonwealth Hackish has its own, rather more apposite use of "pound sign" (confusingly, on British keyboards the pound graphic happens to replace "#"; thus Britishers sometimes call "#" on a US-ASCII keyboard "pound", compounding the American error). The US usage derives from an old-fashioned commercial practice of using a "#" suffix to tag pound weights on bills of lading. The  character is usually pronounced "hash" outside the US.

The name "octothorpe" was made up by a Bell Labs supervisor, Don Macpherson.

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2005 Denis Howe


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## Kelly B

I agree with mnzrob that a hash mark in US usage is a line, and # is a pound sign.


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## mingze13

In abbreviations, can the symbol # be understood to mean 'number'?

I am wrestling with abbreviating 'numero', 'nombre', and 'nom' (name), and am having trouble devising distinct abbreviations.  '#' would be a handy addition.

Merci beaucoup,
Anne


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## Agnès E.

In French, we use *n°* for _numéro_.


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## mingze13

Bonjour, Agnes -- je le sais, le "No" avec superscript.  Merci!

Mais j'ai des difficultes dans mon projet avec pas assez de l'espace, et aussi plusieurs mots qui se rassemblent lui-memes  (whew- did I get that right? resemble each other?).  

En anglais la plus belle, nous employons 'number,' bien sur, mais de temps en temps aussi nous pouvons ecrire "#".  J'ai l'espoir que c'est le meme cas en francais.

a bientot--
Anne


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## geve

...qui se ressemblent entre eux  

I think we would understand the sign # followed by a number (#27 for number 27), even if we wouldn't use it ourselves... But not if you put the sign # by itself (for example, to indicate that one must fill in a number)


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## canacs

Bonjour!

Est-ce que quelqu'un sait le mot pour "pound key" en Francais?  C'est ce symbole sur le telephone: #.  

Merci!


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## zaby

# est le "dièse". Pour le "pound key" du téléphone, on dit "la touche dièse"


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## Cavatine

# --> dièse

(aussi utilisé pour la notation de la musique, d'ailleurs: morceau en fa dièse)


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## Garuda

On dit en général "la touche dièse" 
Car le signe # ressemble au signe "dièse" utilisé dans les partitions musicales.


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## Gil

Certains utilisent aussi la touche "carré", particulièrement au Canada, mais pas exclusivement.


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## chickpea

Is "carré" an approrpriate French translation for "pound sign", as in "please enter your acct number, followed by the pound sign." 
I can't seem to find a translation for it online.

Please help.

Thank you!
J


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## pyan

I don't know what a "pound" sign is like, apart from "£".  This sign "#" is called a hash in British English phone talk and is translated as "un dièse".  

It is a bit like a square so I wondered if it was the term for which you were looking?


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## wildan1

# is called _pound sign_ in AE because it is sometimes used to represent pounds (weight): 5# = 5 lbs. = "five pounds"--but this is an old-fashioned usage. It is now mostly used to indicate number (no.), as in the thread postings on this forum (#1, #2, etc.)

There is no confusion here with BE _pound_ (sterling--"£") since it's not a currency here.


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## JeanDeSponde

Isn't it _hash_ in BE ?


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## Tresley

JeanDeSponde said:


> Isn't it _hash_ in BE ?


 
Yes Jean, we call it a 'hash sign' (#) in the UK and it's mentioned in the Word Reference dictionary as such.

http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/hash

Thank you Wildan for explaining why it's called a 'pound sign' in North American.  I just cound not work out why this was so, but now I understand.


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## broglet

In BE un dièse is either a hash or, in musical notation, a sharp sign.  Dièse is also an adjective meaning sharp (in pitch) or 'of or pertaining to a hash' as in "appuyer sur la touche dièse".  The only thing that would be recognised as a pound sign in BE is £.


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## alisonp

I think it was BT (British Telecom - phone company) or something the other day where I was trying to work my way through their automated telephone system and was surprised to be told to "press square".


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## broglet

Square? Weird! It's not square at all; more of an extended parallelogram - but I sometimes call it 'noughts and crosses'.

The British, by the way, are notoriously bad at using the correct words for anything to do with IT. A common English solecism is the use of 'forward slash' (for /) instead of 'slash'.

"Hash", by the way, is potentially ambiguous since it also means "yesterday's muck cooked again" (which I have heard jocularly abbreviated to YMCA) - in other words old food re-heated in some lugubrious sauce - it is the origin of the pleonastic expression "a re-hash"


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## joss5119

Bonjour à tous,
J'aimerais traduire ce mot "touche dièse". Pourriez-vous m'aider ?
Merci d'avance et à bientôt de vous lire, Joss.


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## dunescratcheur

Touche dièse = Hash key


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## JeanDeSponde

Ou encore _pound sign_. […]


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## phynaert

Here is a full Wikipedia article on the topic for English.

So we have: _pound_, _square_, _hash_. Curiously it seems that _sharp_ is not used.

In French: _dièse_ and _carré_, with a more frequent use of _dièse_.


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## PetiteDanone

Quick note to this: In Canada, we say appuyer sur la touche carré.


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## Fleur de lys 1608

Au Canada, on dit également sur la touche dièse.


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## alive !

in french, we call this (#) "carré". it can be found in phone numbers etc.
does someone know what the equivalent of this '#' would be in english ? 
thanks !


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## clairet

# is called hash  (apparently only in BE - and I thought we got it from AE!)


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## iixvyvxii

"Pound" in American English.

e.g., "Press zero followed by the pound key."


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## dewsy

I thought it was "dièze" in French. Is this a Belgian/French difference?
In English it is known as the hash mark or sign. On a phone, it is the pound sign.


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## gaeilgeoir

dewsy said:


> I thought it was "dièze" in French. Is this a Belgian/French difference?


 I agree - when you want to top up your mobile here in France that is what you hear...


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## alive !

ok thank you pyan.

well, i've heard dièze lots of times too. but i know that in colloquial french, in belgium especially, everyone says "carré"...


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## dasubergeek

alive ! said:


> and 'hash' would be the equivalent in british english then ?


Yes, because the pound sign in Britain is this: £ (as in pounds sterling, their Euro-hating currency).

However, most Americans would not know what a "hash sign" is, so you will need to gauge your audience and decide which of the two is correct.

In either country, it can be referred to as "the number sign", except the # on the telephone, so that #6 is read "number six" but "dial 7373#" is read "dial seven three seven three pound" (.us) or "dial seven three seven three hash" (.uk).


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## L'irlandais

Bonsoir,
On a telephone it's sometimes called 'square' ; though I tend to call it 'hash".
France Telecom don't refer to it as "carré", but "dièze" as mentioned above.


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## clairet

dasubergeek said:


> However, most Americans would not know what a "hash sign" is, so you will need to gauge your audience and decide which of the two is correct.


 
I'm sure that's good advice, but Americans I used to work with in IT areas talked about it as "hash" - to the extent that, as I say, I always imagined we Brits got it from them!


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## dasubergeek

Definitely not.  I've never in multiple decades in the US heard anyone call it a "hash" sign unless they were deliberately trying to use the British term.  Sometimes you'll hear something like "please enter your ID number, followed by the pound or hash sign" but simply everyone in the US refers to it as a pound.

IT folks may also be trying to avoid confusion with the aforementioned £.


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## pirlouette

alive ! said:


> well, i've heard dièze lots of times too. but i know that in colloquial french, in belgium especially, everyone says "carré"...


les québécois aussi disent "carré" pour #  finalement, ce sont les français les intrus !  je suppose qu'on dit "dièse" à cause de ce que ça signifie en musique !


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## Zyprexa

dewsy said:


> I thought it was "dièze" in French. Is this a Belgian/French difference?
> In English it is known as the hash mark or sign. On a phone, it is the pound sign.



diè*s*e is the sharp sign in musical notation.
(I thought it was dièze too.)

eg 
F# minor >> "F sharp minor" (English)
Fa # mineur >> "Fa dièse mineur" (French)

Just another piece of semi-relevant trivia!


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## zacata23

Comment prononcerait on le bouton qu'on appuie sur le telephone, [...] *#*? En anglais americain, on dit [...] "_pound_" (en anglais 'anglais' on dit "_hash_" pour #). 

Customer service is wonderful. 

Merci mille fois!


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## OLN

[...]
# la touche dièse


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## online9

American English for #, *

When push button telephones first were introduced, no one knew which words to use for those symbols (* and #).  We called # "sharp" because we were all musicians.  Later we were trained by all those customer service recordings to understand that "press [the] pound [symbol]" meant to press #.

It is also quite correct to call it "the number symbol" -- just not the most common way to refer to it _in the context of the telephone_.

"Star" is used most commonly to refer to the asterisk (*), but "asterisk" is used as a technical term in cases where one wishes to avoid any doubt.

Customer service recording usage in the US is therefore:



> "Type in your account number, then press pound"
> "Type in your account number, then press the pound symbol"
> "Press star, then the extension number"


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## EngrProf

Une autre usage en AE:  avec ce symbole on veut dire "number".  En fait on entends quelque fois "number sign" comme le nom de ce symbol, au moins entre ingenieurs.  Ainsi on écrit "#1, #2, #3, etc."


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## Saxo

le nom français du symbole est "dièse" , ni carré, ni N°, ni quoi que ce soit d'autre. C'est un symbole musical.
Maintenant, il est utilisé pour dire N° effectivement, entre autre...


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## Budd

The French Wikipedia entry on Ponctuation says this *#* is a "croisillon," not a "dièse."  The former tilts up to the right, the latter to the left — 




 — and is used in musical notation and math.  It appears, however, from the notes above that this distinction may have become obsolete.  For your reference: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponctuation


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## jetset

a _croisillon_ is used to lay tiles for example, and it's cross shaped, not #.


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## Budd

Croisillon does indeed seem to refer to a cross shape, as in the equivalent of lattice and transept.  The French Wiki article may be specialized--or in need of your correction.


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## JeanDeSponde

Budd, this thread was not about French punctuation, but about the # sign on phones - and it's _dièse_.


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## Budd

I understand, Marc.  I just happened to notice it under "symboles typographiques" on that page and figured it might apply to the thread.  As Jetset pointed out, croisillon has other, more common meanings.  Perhaps there was a shift of accommodation.


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## L'irlandais

Budd said:


> ... croisillon has other, more common meanings.  Perhaps there was a shift of accommodation.


Nice one Budd,
You are correct, however in the context of a symbol on telephone keypads it is definitely called (albeit perhaps as you point out that should be "wrongly called") dièse in France.
So to suggest any alternative is only going to lead to confusion.


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## Pedro y La Torre

Québécois companies seem to use ''carré'' exclusively from what I've experienced up until now.


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## clairet

Just to note that Twitter regards # as "hash".  See Wikipedia "..hashtags: words or phrases prefixed with a hash symbol (#)".


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## Keith Bradford

Interesting that Twitter has opted for "hash" - and pretty inevitable if you think about it.  On a telephone, there are only 12 standard keys: the digits plus * and #.

But Twitter is a computer-based operation and on a computer keyboard there are anything upward of 50 keys including * # $ and very often £ (pound sterling).  Chaos would ensue if # was called "pound"!


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