# FR: Capitalization rules in French



## *cat*

Hello!

What are the rules for capitalization in French?
When do you have to write capital letters?

Can anyone help (in English)?

Thanks!


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## Gutenberg

Not a simple question. Too long to be answered here...


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## carolineR

as far as nationalities are concerned, the name of the country is capitalized : France. la Slovénie.
The name of the inhabitant is capitalized :
un Français né à Londres. Une Slovène. 
the rest (adjectives, language etc) is not
Je parle français.
Un camembert français


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## Gez

*cat* said:


> What are the rules for capitalization in French?
> When do you have to write capital letters?


Basically the same as in English, except adjectives are not capitalized, even when they correspond to a country or religion. So, "a Spanish-speaking African-American Muslim who speaks Spanish" becomes "un musulman africain-américain hispanophone". Common nouns are not capitalized except for nationalities, so "a Chinese" becomes "un Chinois". Languares aren't capitalized, so "Italian" is "italien". And the first person singular pronoun is not capitalized either. 

Names are always capitalized, of course. Titles are capitalized when used formally or respectfully. So, "le Président de la République" but "l'ex-président". Also, the abbreviations for titles are always capitalized. M. (monsieur), Mme (madame), Mlle (mademoiselle), Dr (docteur), Pr (professeur), etc. And finally, acronyms are normally written in all-caps. So, our national railway company is "SNCF".


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## mplsray

Gez said:


> And finally, acronyms are normally written in all-caps. So, our national railway company is "SNCF".


 
True, but there are at least two tricky cases where an acronym which is nearly always capitalized in English has a French equivalent which is often written in small letters: _OVNI_ (_UFO_ in English) and _COBOL_, for which French has, in addition to the all-caps version, _ovni_ (and _Ovni_) and _Cobol._


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## Gez

That happens when the acronym becomes a full-fledged noun. Radar and laser are examples of this in both languages.


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## Tresley

This is a very good question *Cat*, because I was taught at school that the days of the week and the months of the year, in French, are not capitalised.  However, I receive lots of e-mails at work from native French-speakers and some use capital letters for the days and months and some don't.

Has the rule been changed for days and months and capitalisation is now correct, or should they really continue to be spelt with a lower-case letter at the beginning?  (Ex. Lundi ou lundi? Décembre ou décembre?)

Word Reference has a lower-case letter at the beginning of the months in the English-French dictionary, but has a capital letter at the beginning of the months on its French calendar.

Merci d'avance.


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## jann

French contextual capitalization can be different from English, too.  For example, this is a good article on  capitalization of words in titles.


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## Gez

Tresley said:


> Has the rule been changed for days and months and capitalisation is now correct, or should they really continue to be spelt with a lower-case letter at the beginning?  (Ex. Lundi ou lundi? Décembre ou décembre?)



The rule hasn't changed. But given the lack of importance given to spelling and grammar in education, style is even less taught, so many people make these mistakes.


Something you may often seen and that's half-correct is dates on document given as "Lundi 18 décembre" for example -- here the day is capitalized because it's at the start of the phrase. But in a sentence, such as "hier était le lundi 18 décembre", then it definitely shouldn't be capitalized.


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## Hakro

Just for curiosity: In certain contexts it's a French usage to write family names and company names in all-caps, even in the middle of a sentence:

M. Jean UNTEL de la société UNETELLE.

I haven't seen this in general use in any other language.


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## Grop

I think that comes from some administrative forms, where it is customary to capitalize lastnames.

This custom may have been necessary to make sure no transcription error (due to odd handwriting) would be made on last names.

(I have no explanation for société UNETELLE)


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## Gez

That's indeed administrative conventions. And indeed, it's to avoid spelling confusions.

It's about as elegant as the practice of writing numbers both in numerals and in plain text, such as "twelve (12)" or "12 (twelve)" that is sometimes seen in old forms. Every grammarian will instantly hate any paper upon which they see it, but administrations have never had any taste for grammar and style.


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## humlum

Reading the begining of this thread I was at first surprised that there are so many things to consider (I'm a lazy rule breaker) but I did think of the family name thing.  On that note: 

When the surname is totally in capitals, does it normally precede the given name?  The example I'm thinking of here is the film title "LACOMBE Lucien".  

Is this a dated practice - the film is from the 1970's and relates to the 1940's - brilliant film by the way - I recommend it.


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## Hakro

I'd say that sometimes the all-capitals surname comes first but not always.

I checked the e-mails I had got from France and found five "signatures" with surnames in capital letters, one of them surname first. Others (about a dozen) were written in "normal" way.

In the French PowerPoint slide shows I often translate the surname of the author is always written written in capital letters (after the given name).


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## john_riemann_soong

Hakro said:


> Just for curiosity: In certain contexts it's a French usage to write family names and company names in all-caps, even in the middle of a sentence:
> 
> M. Jean UNTEL de la société UNETELLE.
> 
> I haven't seen this in general use in any other language.



That explains some strange Nigerian phishing scam mails (written in French) I've been getting in my mailbox recently ... in the English ones they capitalise the bogus amount in the form of "SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ($750,000.00)" in imitation of chequebook hauteur, but in the French ones, in addition to that, they capitalise the last name as well, as though this gives them more credence.


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## Grop

There is no rule saying that lastnames must be capitalized, of that lastname must precede firstname when capitalized: this is just odd customs that are not always followed, and don't have to.


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## lizd64

Family names in capital letters is also useful to avoid ambiguities in some cases like "Jean-Pierre LUCIEN".


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## Loafaway

Hello to <tout le monde>:
I still cannot get a handle on the issue "which letters got capitalized" in a French text. "La (t)our Eiffel" (the Eiffel Tower), "La (r)ue de la Paix", "L'Arc de (t)riomphe", "L'Organisation de la (s)ant('e)" (World Health Organization), "La Maison Blanche" (the White House), "le (f)leuve Jaune" (China's Yellow River), to name just a few. I've parenthesized the letters in question. I've been reading a copy of Zola's "J'accuse", and my mind has since been muddled by the ever-lower-case proper names in it. After fumbling about over a few grammar texts, I've found myself deeply "lost". The French rules seem to be a <laissez-faire> case, ain't they? Does the French Academy also dictate the "letter enlargement" of <les noms propres>? Who would throw a "rope" upon me that I could hold on to? Merci beaucoup.


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## Grop

Hi, I don't know the answer to your question (I generally use my intuition or look them up on Wikipédia), but French Laissez-faire is generally a concept about economics.

Edit: This thread is related but doesn't completely adress your question.


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## jann

I haven't checked, but you may find the information you're looking for in one of the links from this post on our Resources sub-forum.  Also see these threads.


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## Loafaway

I've to admit that I've been too fussy about it. Reading more texts may just smooth this kind of fuss away as I've done with the English. Thanks for the posts in the Forum. I shall be more diligent in scouting out the related posts that have already existed.


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