# FR: Niveau d'Activité - majuscules



## Jakec

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering which is correct here:

Niveau d'Activité

or

Niveau D'activité

or

Niveau D'Activité

This is used as a proper noun (hence the capitalisation).


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## Maître Capello

As a proper noun?  I can't see how… Could you please give us the whole context?

Anyway, if that noun phrase needs capitalization, you should capitalize only the first word: _Niveau d'activité_.


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## Jakec

It is a proper noun because it is unique to a specific company. So in French do you not ever capitalise the second word?


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## Maître Capello

Is it a company name, a division/department name, a brand name, a trademark?

In French, we usually capitalize only the initial word, but it really depends on the exact case, whence my request for more information and context…


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## Jakec

Activity Level in English is a term referring to a numbered system which determines how physically active a person is.

Activity Levels range from 1 to 4 and the noun phrase is unique (created by) to this specific company.


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## Maître Capello

OK, but this is *not* a proper noun! It therefore shouldn't be capitalized at all in French (_niveau d'activité_) – unless it is the name of a header in a table, in which case only the first word should be capitalized (_Niveau d'activité_).


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## Don Calvus

I second Maître Capello (how not to?). Overcapitalization is a capital sin in French.


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## Jakec

It is my understanding that a proper noun is a name given to something to make it more specific. Therefore if a company has created a name to qualify something specific to their industry this is technically a proper noun. Is this not so?


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## Don Calvus

Not in French. Companies certainly don't get to decide which is a proper noun and which is not.

You will refer to the "Head of Product Development", we will write "le directeur du développement produit". All nouns concerned here are not proper nouns at all, they are common nouns. Capitals don't add any useful meaning in this case. A car model name is a proper noun, a brand name too. But an activity level is not. As far as I know only the common noun "État", when it refers to the State, has to be capitalized in French.

Then again, you will find numerous examples of infractions to this rule, as people in French organizations too like to be addressed with full blown capitals added to their title. But it doesn't make it right. 

In your example, only a rock band name or similar would be capitalized as such: Niveau d'Activité. In French, Téléphone, like the Police, can be a proper noun...


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## Jakec

Thank you Don Calvus .
This is what was confusing me about French capitalisation and now it's very clear!

It seems the French rule is much clearer and less ambiguous


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## Don Calvus

Oh, I wouldn't count on that! 

It's actually very confusing to most people not working as copy editors, if you ask me.


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## Maître Capello

See also:
FR: Integrated Coastal Zone Management - majuscules
FR: Majuscules dans les titres d'œuvre - Capitalization rules for book titles
FR: Capitalization rules in French
Usage des majuscules en français — Wikipédia


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## Jakec

Hello everyone thanks for you replies.

I have a specific question about product names (which are proper nouns).

If a product name is for example "Laminate Adapter". Would you capitalise it the same as any other product, e.g. "L'Adaptateur Stratifié"?


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## Don Calvus

No!

The tendency in French, when brands become so common that their name is used commonly to designate all objects of the same category, regardless of which brands make them, is to consider them, soon enough, as common nouns.

Frigidaire, for instance - once a brand of refrigerators - gradually gave us the word "frigidaire", then "frigo" (no cap to either), and most people are using this word instead of "réfrigérateur", which is the proper common noun (see what I did there?).

The same went for "mobylette", once the brand Mobylette, now referring to all mopeds. Incidentally it was shortened too, to "mob", in everyday language.

Same with "escalator", "botox", among many others, like explained here: Nom de marque lexicalisé — Wikipédia

As you see, we don't like to capitalize. We do it the less we can (it's also a way to respect the "gris typographique", in publishing - at least our way of doing it). For instance, we don't capitalize month names.

By the way, I don't know much about this kind of thing, but why do you consider "laminate adapter" a proper noun when it refers to a product? Aren't all of them products, after all? It seems to me it is a very common noun. The fact that something is mass produced doesn't make it a proper noun at all: a car is a car, an adapter is an adapter...


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## Nicomon

I agree with Maître Capello and Don Calvus on all counts. 

Except for the fact that « _Frigidaire _» is still a brand of appliances on this side of the Atlantic.
I find it funny, actually, that my own electric range is a Frigidaire. Ne trouvez-vous pas que « _cuisinière Frigidaire _» a un effet comique? 

I can't count the number of times I've had to remove superfluous capitals, when proofing texts - and that includes English.
I don't get the capitalization of _laminate adapter_ either. Disons que moi aussi, la « majusculite » m'énerve.

In any event, like MC wrote earlier, whether the first word is capitalized or not, the second one rarely, if ever, is capitalized in French. 
_President and CEO / Chief Executive Officer_  would be in French   _PDG / Président-directeur général._.. end even the P isn't capitalized if the title is within a text.

For those who, like me, might be interested in the proper rules of capitalization in English, I found *this page* (30 + various rules) interesting.  I'm not sure that all anglophones apply them properly,  





> Capital letters have three basic uses, of which nearly all others may be regarded as particular cases: (1) to give emphasis, as in official titles and initial words; (2) to distinguish proper nouns and adjectives from common ones; and (3) to highlight words in headings and captions.


  And here's a link from the same website to French rules :  *La majuscule*

Then for those who have lots of time to spare, there are these :
Majuscules (3 sous-thèmes)
Règles générales d'emploi de la majuscule [7 articles]
Emploi de la majuscule pour des types de dénominations [47 articles]
Emploi de la majuscule pour des noms particuliers [64 articles]

Or more specifically for Jakec's last question :  *Marques de commerce*


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## jekoh

Nicomon said:


> In any event, like MC wrote earlier, whether the first word is capitalized or not, the second one rarely, if ever, is capitalized in French


That's only true if the first word is a noun. If it is an adjective, which is very common, the following noun is capitalized as well. See _Première Guerre mondiale._

As for _Adaptateur stratifié_, even if you were to regard it as a proper noun (brand name), the adjective still shouldn't be capitalized. For some reason this page (OQLF) gives _la *B*anque *N*ationale_ as an example though I think it should really be _la *B*anque *n*ationale._


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## Don Calvus

Yes, the rule is actually pretty simple (at first sight): the first noun only is capitalized, *and all adjectives qualifying it if they're before it*. Hence "Première Guerre mondiale". It's maybe the best way to remember the rule.


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## Maître Capello

Hello guys,

I'm afraid we cannot discuss all capitalization rules in a single thread. That would be too broad and hence outside the scope of our forums. This thread is therefore closed to prevent further off-topic discussion.

Thank you for your understanding.

Maître Capello
Moderator


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