# FR: guillemets in a French dialogue



## Summerj4444

I'm having lots of difficult understanding the French punctuation rules, particularily with 'les guillemets'.

For example, if I wanted to put the dialouge

_"Hello," she said, shaking his hand. "Welcome to my home."
"It's good to be here," Tom replied, "I've heard so much about you."_

into French, where would les guillemets go in the sentences? Would it be simply at the beginning (in front of Hello) and at the end (after you), or do I have to break it up to inerrupt the actual speech (like with 'she said, shaking his hand) ? I have heard several different things about it, and as a result I am thoroughly confused.

Please help me!


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## RuK

Often, French novelists write dialogue without guillemets. 

- Hello, she said, shaking his hand. Welcome to my home.
- It's good to be here, Tom replied. I've heard so much about you.

I too find this perplexing. I'm responding mainly so that even though I'm heading off to bed, I'll be copied on all the numerous replies that are bound to flood in and explain it all to both of us!


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## -[taki_paki]*

oohh. okie.. umm, i think i might have somewhat of an answer to this. we read petit nicolas in class, so the "discussions" that they have in the book are like this [this is copied verbatim]:

-Qui a dit ca? a til repondu.
-C'est Nicolas, a repondu Agnan. 

so.. i guess if you use that example, you would just seperate the "said" stuff from the "description" of the dalogue.. if i'm making sense... so it might be something like this.
-Bonjour, elle a dit, *shaking his hand*, bienvenue a ma maison.
-C'est bon pour etre ici, il a repondu. J'ai entendu beacoup.

... excuse my french if its bad. 
again, not sure.


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## Summerj4444

quick question.... when you say _'you would just seperate the "said" stuff from the "description" of the dalogue' _have you seen this done? If so, what has been used to separate it? Sorry to bother you, I'm just still kinda blurry on this.


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## Cath.S.

I was taught to write dialogue thus:

« Blablabla, dit-il.
— Bloubloublou, répondit-elle, arrogante.
— Blibli ? Déjà, il semblait moins sûr de lui.
— Blo ! » lança-t-elle, triomphante, puis elle s'éloigna, l'air digne.


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## RuK

Pardon. Mais tout le monde est d'accord, on _ouvre _un bloc de dialogue avec un guillemet, qui ne réapparait qu'à la_ fin_ du bloc de dialogue; et pour tout le dialogue à l'intérieur de la conversation, on sépare les interventions par des tirets. C'est bien ça?


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## Cath.S.

On ouvre la première réplique avec un guillemet ouvrant («), ensuite toutes les autres répliques sont introduites par un tiret moyen de préférence (— alt + 0151), ou deux tirets courts accolés. La dernière réplique est précédée d'un tiret et fermée par un guillemet fermant (»).

Il faut avouer que de plus en plus, les guillemets à la française sont oubliés au détriment des "" anglosaxons.


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## Qcumber

egueule said:


> I was taught to write dialogue thus:
> 
> « Blablabla, dit-il.
> — Bloubloublou, répondit-elle, arrogante.
> — Blibli ? Déjà, il semblait moins sûr de lui.
> — Blo ! » lança-t-elle, triomphante, puis elle s'éloigna, l'air digne.


 
What mars the French system (in the eyes of a foreigner) is that the reader doesn't know what is part of the reply and what is not. For instance in 
— Blibli ? Déjà, il semblait moins sûr de lui.
How do we know that Déjà ... is not part of the reply?
If you take a real dialogue in a French novel, this can be a real problem at times. 
The English system doesn't allow such ambiguity; every piece of reported speech is between quotations marks.
'No, he didn't look that cocksure then,' he recalled.


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## ilydork

What would happen if the verbs were in passé composé instead?
For example, in the following, where do you place the hyphens?
- Blablablah, a dit il.


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## jann

« Blablabla ! » a-t-il dit.

The verb appears in the usual form for inversion, with the usual hyphenation for inversion.  If you're wondering about that "t" in the middle, please see FR: euphonic -t- in inversion - parle-t-il, etc.


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## ilydork

Did I do these ones correctly? I'm wondering whether I can add these other actions of the speaker after the dialogue.

-	Ta serviette, Papa, a-t-il dit Nicolas, qui l’a passé à Jacques. 
-	Ah oui, merci, a répondu Jacques, et il sortait encore.
-	Jacques! a crié Hélène. Tu as oublié quelque chose!
-	À ce soir, a appelé Hélène d’un ton taquin.


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## jann

I'm sorry, Ilydork, but we can't just proofread/correct your sentences. That's not how these forums work.


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## ilydork

Oh, sorry. I'll phrase in question form..
If I want to say add an action of the speak after his dialogue, is it okay to put just a comma after, then add the action? For example:
 -	Ah oui, merci, a répondu Jacques, et il sortait encore.


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## Maître Capello

I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you mean by "et il sortait encore…" Did you mean "et il sortit"? What is your original sentence in English?

Anyway, it is OK to add the main verb and subject of the quote as a parenthetical clause (possibly with adverbs and/or a relative clause). However, this should be the only phrase that doesn't belong to the quote. In other words:

_Ah oui, merci ! répondit Jaques. _
_Ah oui, merci ! répondit Jaques avec reconnaissance. _
_Ah oui, merci ! répondit Jaques. Je l'avais oubliée. _ (the last sentence is a quote)
_Ah oui, merci ! répondit Jaques. Et il sortit. _ (the last sentence is not a quote)

Regarding your other question about the hyphens, note that we rarely use the passé composé for such parenthetical clauses in the past; we rather use the passé simple. But if you want to use it, we would write _a-t-il répondu/dit_ (not _a dit il / a répondu il_ ).


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