# FR: Majuscules dans les titres d'œuvre - Capitalization rules for book titles



## buttermuffin18

If I am writing a French essay and I am writing the title on the top of the essay, what are the rules for Capitalizing words in the title. I think it is pretty close to english but I need to know because this has been bugging me. The first letter of the first word is obviously capitalized. Then what are the others that must be capitalized?

*Moderator note:* multiple threads merged to create this one


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## jann

Maybe this will help, or this or this


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## jdcopp

The IMDb list the title of an 1961 French film as "Une aussi longue absence". The Allocine site lists the title as "Une Aussi longue absence" but notes that the films original title was "Une aussi longue absence" Can anyone explain the vagaries in capitalization here?

Thank you.


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## SwissPete

That does not make sense  . I, too, would welcome an explanation...


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## Aupick

Usually with film and book titles, etc, only the first word is capitalised, unless that first word is a definite article in which case the following noun, and any adjectives that come between them, can also be capitalized.

Eg:
Dialogue avec mon jardinier
Le Scaphandre et le papillon
La Double Vie de Véronique

That's the theory (supported by Grevisse), but in practice capitalisation can be pretty random. It's probably just not a high priority.


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## ElColorRojo

What are the rules for capitalizing titles in French? My example:

"Pourquoi J'ai Choisi l'Université Franciscaine"

Should the "L'" be capitalized? Should the U of université be capitalized? What are the basic rules and how do they differ from the English rules?

Merci beaucoup pour votre aide!
-Rebekah
​


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## jann

Hello Rebekah, 

The only letter that should be capitalized in your French title is the very first one.

We have collected a set of useful links about French capitalization (punctuation, typography, etc) here in our Resources subforum.  Specifically, there is this site that discusses capitalization in the titles of works.

Please refer to those sites.  We can't outline a complete list of the rules for you here... although we can certainly help you with specific example situations if you are having trouble applying those rules. 

Thanks,
Jann
Moderator


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## fll5njt

When you refer to a film title in a french essay […] do you use capital letters?


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## Maître Capello

When referring to the title of a work (film, novel, etc.), we typically capitalize only the first word — unless that word is _le, la_ or _les_, in which case the first *noun* is capitalized as well as all the adjectives and adverbs *preceding* it.


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## echidna

Dear language lovers, 

I am writing a paper in which I discuss a book called _L'Oiseau_ by Jules Michelet. One of the chapters is called "L'Œuf." When I refer to these two titles, what is the rule on capitalization? 

L'Oiseau / L'Œuf

OR 

L'oiseau / L'œuf. 

Or something else? 

Also, does anyone know what punctuation is appropriate? In English I would use italics for the book title, and quotation marks for the chapter (as I did above). Is that correct? 

Thanks a whole lot!


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## CodeAndBunny

I'm almost certain that a title in French would capitalize both, the article and the noun following it.  Even Le Monde capitalizes both on its website...and I always see both capitalized here in France.


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## echidna

That's very helpful, thanks CodeAndBunny! 

Does anyone have a clue about italics & quotation marks for book titles & chapters?


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## CodeAndBunny

This may help...I found it on the this website in the French language section:


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## echidna

Wow, that is some helpful info! How nice of you to provide it! 

Do you happen to know whether book titles go in italics, whereas chapter titles go in quotation marks (guillemets), as is the case in English? 

Thanks a ton.


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## CodeAndBunny

Hm, I'm looking at a French book that I have here and the chapter titles are all capitalized using method A above.  Other than that, I don't really know how that would be done, especially within a paper such as the one you're writing.


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## echidna

Oh well. I appreciate your help VERY much! Perhaps I'll make a separate post about the italics and so on. Have a great day!


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## OdileJA

Bonjour,
Je viens de recevoir la version "corrigée" d'une traduction que j'avais faite et pour tous les titres, le correcteur a rajouté des majuscules à tous les mots, comme cela se fait en anglais. J'ai l'impression qu'il a tort et que cela ne se fait pas en français. 

Qu'en pensez-vous ? J'aimerais avoir d'autres opinions avant de lui écrire pour lui dire qu'il a tort !

Merci,
Odile


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## Quaeitur

Cela ne se fait pas en français. Malheureusement, on le voit de plus en plus souvent...


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## the expat

Bonjour,
Je pense que tu as raison. Cela ne se fait qu'en anglais.


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## Fred_C

Bonjour.
Je n'y connais rien, mais se pourrait-il que la règle qui interdit les majuscules aux titres ne soit pas une règle d'orthographe, mais une norme typographique industrielle?

Dans ce cas, il serait faux de considérer que cela ne se fait pas en français, mais plus juste de dire que cela ne se fait pas en France.

Pour d'autres pays francophones, les règles typographiques pourraient changer...
(En Afrique, par exemple...)


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## OdileJA

merci pour vos réponses. En fait, la personne qui a fait ces corrections et américaine, ce n'est donc pas une question de différence entre les pays francophones. En tous cas, merci d'avoir confirmé ce que je pensais.


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## pyan

This short (about 2 minutes) TV programme , "Merci Professeur" discusses the subject.  This series is usually sensitive to variations in French. Bernard Cerquiglini, "éminent linguiste et spécialiste reconnu de la langue française", agrees with what you write, OdileJA.


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## scartol

I am writing a rédaction and need help capitalizing the title. I know that in general the first word is the only word which should be capitalized (aside from proper nouns) — unless the first word is an article, but what about after a colon? My proposed title is:*Les Ordinateurs et l'humanité: Une guerre pour Zion?*​(Obviously I'll be referencing _The Matrix_.) Is the "une" capitalized after the colon, or not? Does "un/une" work like "le/la/les" with regard to capitalization (ie, do I capitalize the "guerre" as well)?

Merci en avance pour votre assistance!


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## Maître Capello

The answer is fairly simple: don't capitalize words following a colon, semicolon or comma.

_Les Ordinateurs et l'Humanité: une guerre pour Sion ?_

On the other hand, when there is a symmetry in the title (the title is made of two parts separated by _et_ or _ou_), both parts are capitalized.

Notes:
- Quoting titles requires italics in French.
- Zion is spelled “Sion” in French.


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## radiodurans

So this has been bothering me this week reading about Albert Camus . . . in citing the book title of his work should it be "L'étranger" or "L'Étranger" ?

I've seen both, but "L'Étranger" seems to be more prevalent in non-French speaking countries, such as the US, and does seem to fit the rules better as outlined here:  http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_des_majuscules_en_français

However, I would say the most of the documents from French-speaking countries seem to favor "L'étranger" and indeed the original 1942 edition I found has it spelt this way on the title page.  Is there a right or wrong way here?  Personally, I think "L'étranger" looks better, though "L'Étranger" seems to fit the rule of:  "Si le titre commence par un article défini _(le, la, les)_ et qu'il ne constitue pas une phrase verbale, alors le premier substantif prend une majuscule".


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## Maître Capello

In French, we usually capitalize only the first word of the title. However, when the first word is the definite article (_le, la, les_), we also capitalize the following noun. Therefore, you have to write _L'Étranger_ (in italics!).

See also this thread on the French Only forum → Majuscules dans les titres d'œuvre.


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## radiodurans

Yes, I know there is this rule . . . but the observational evidence is to the contrary on the covers of the books whether the the é is capitalized or not.  

Please watch the first 24 seconds of the news clip below for example . . . the cover of very first book has it _L'étranger _then there is a motage of book covers . . . Doing a count, I see one in French with the title written _L'Étranger_, one as _L'ETRANGER_ (so it doesn´t count), but 3 or 4 written as _L'étranger_.  http://www.france24.com/fr/20100103-france-bre-le-50e-anniversaire-mort-dalbert-camus-fond-pol-mique

For this reason, I am wondering if there is a different rule for l' or if this indeed isn't a very strong rule.


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## Maître Capello

Both _L'étranger_ and _L'ETRANGER_ are wrong. The only correct way to quote that title is _L'Étranger_.

It is not surprising that many incorrect "spellings" can be found, especially on the Internet, because most people are just ignorant of proper typography…


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## pointvirgule

Maître Capello said:


> It is not surprising that many incorrect "spellings" can be found, especially on the Internet, because most people are just ignorant of proper typography…


Does that include Gallimard, publisher of the Folio collection? (Look at the book covers.)

It's safe to say that this so-called rule is not ironclad. It's more of a tradition that an rule, really. And modern usage goes either way.


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## radiodurans

Maître Capello -->  thanks . 

Yes the video contains shots of a variety of different printed covers, mostly Gallimard the original publisher, as "L'étranger".  The original 1942 was spelled this way too.  Honestly, "L'Étranger" typographically looks uglier to me than "L'étanger", even if I know someone wrote down a rule about capitalization after the first definite article. And it looks like the majority of French typesetters agree with me in this case. I think, as Capello says, it is perhaps not so much a rule but a suggestion, even if one.  Again, I've found that University documents outside of France (eg. people who learn things taught as the rules of French) almost always follow "the rule" in the case of this title.  However, actual usage among native French speakers, even among native typesetters and publishers, tends to mostly support writing "L'étranger".  It's like there is an unwritten exception to the rule that when the title starts "one letter followed be an apostrophe" as in L'étranger, J'ai, etc.  the letter following the apostrophe should be lowercase.  

I'm going to write Gallimard to see if they have their own set of in-house rules, I'll post if I get a response from them.

Ah ha!  I think I've found it, the "rule" isn't really a "rule" at all . . . it is a guideline.  I have just noticed the following:



> Cependant les conventions d'usage des majuscules pour les titres d'œuvres restent mal établies. Par exemple, les règles typographiques édictées par le _Lexique des règles typographiques en usage à l'Imprimerie nationale_ sont contredites dans certains cas par l'usage flottant et parfois excessif de la capitalisation parmi les éditeurs. L'Université Laval (Québec) indique à ce sujet que : « sur la couverture d’un livre, par exemple, le graphiste peut décider de n'employer que des bas de casse (minuscules d’imprimerie), même dans les noms propres ; il peut mettre des majuscules à tous les mots ou même utiliser systématiquement les capitales sur toute la page. […]
> 
> Source


*Moderator note*: citation shortened and link to the source added (rule 4)


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## Maître Capello

pointvirgule said:


> Does that include Gallimard, publisher of the Folio collection? (Look at the book covers.)


Be careful! Don't mix up the title on the book cover itself with the citation of such a title in a text! As a matter of fact, there are no strict typographical rules for titles printed on book *covers*. The rule I mentioned earlier is only valid when *quoting* such titles… By the way, it definitely _is_ a set rule, not just a recommendation (although some publishers seem to disregard it).


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## radiodurans

It isn't just the cover, the title page keeps it lowercase too after the L' in the Gallimard for example.


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## Maître Capello

Well, the title page logically uses the same typographical convention as the one found on the cover…  Again, I was only talking about the quotation of a title in another document.

So, in short, the title of a book on the cover and on the front page may be _L'étranger_, _l'étranger, L'Etranger, L'Étranger, L'ÉTRANGER_—either in roman or in italics—, but when quoting that title, you should always write _L'Étranger_ (in italics)…


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## radiodurans

Well, it is interesting the theory that it is only acceptable for the title page / cover, but I sent Gallimard the rule and asked why in some cases it was followed, other times not, and this is what they wrote:



> En résumé : nous considérons cette règle comme ancienne et un peu... arbitraire.
> Nous préférons utiliser des capitales quand cela s'avère absolument nécessaire (soit que l'auteur le souhaite ou l'ait souhaité, soit que le sens du titre en dépende, etc.).



So I think this has more to do with the statement I found previously, rather than the placement in the book: les conventions d'usage des majuscules pour les titres d'œuvres restent mal établies.


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## pointvirgule

See this entry from the Banque de dépannage linguistique: Œuvres littéraires et artistiques.


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## susanna76

Hi,

If I'm writing a poem in English and using in it the words "Parlez-mois de vous" both in the title and the body of the poem, how do I style the title? Do I have to capitalize "Moi" and "Vous"? (The title being "Parlez-Moi de Vous")

Merci


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## Nicomon

Hi susanna,

It wouldn't be right to capitalize _Moi _and _Vous._  You could eventually bold the title, but capitalize only the P.  

*Parlez-moi de vous*


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## xiongmao-wugui

Does anyone know what the convention is for writing the title of a work within the body of an essay? I was reading an article on "La Haine", but in the essay it was referred to as "la Haine" if in a sentence. For example, the title of the essay was: "Regarde-les tomber: A propos de _la Haine _de Matthieu Kassovitz". Is it conventional to do this? Thanks!


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## Maître Capello

It is definitely a mistake: the initial definite article must always be capitalized: "à propos de _La Haine_"_._


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## SwissPete

Must it also be in italics?


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## Nicomon

@ SwissPete.  La réponse est : oui.  Extrait de l'article de la BDL que pointvirgule a mis en lien (post 35) : 





> Par ailleurs, on écrit les titres en italique ou soulignés. Les guillemets ne sont plus admis pour les titres que dans les textes manuscrits.
> Les titres des parties d’œuvres ou d’ouvrages cités conjointement avec un titre complet sont cependant mis entre guillemets.
> Exemple :« La marche à l’amour », poème de Gaston Miron tiré du recueil _L’homme rapaillé. _


  Je crois que c'est seulement dans les références bibliographiques, et non à l'intérieur d'un texte, qu'on voit les titres soulignés plutôt qu'écrits en italique.


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## Maître Capello

L'italique est en effet obligatoire comme je l'avais déjà suggéré plus haut en 2010. J'irais en revanche plus loin que la BDL : les guillemets sont à proscrire même dans les textes manuscrits où on souligne les mots qui seraient normalement composés en italique dans un texte imprimé.


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## Nicomon

@ MC : J'avais bien vu les posts 24 et 26, mais bon, j'ai cité la BDL que je pensais au moins aussi fiable que toi. 

Je n'aurais pas dû écrire que (comme je le croyais) les titres étaient soulignés dans les référence bibliographiques seulement.
À ma défense... je n'ai pas souvent lu de textes manuscrits.


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