# FR: Français / français - majuscule / minuscule



## amargulies

I want to translate 'A message for you, in French.'  I figured that would be 'Un message pour toi, en Français.'  But, I don't know whether the word 'Français' needs to be capitalized.  If so, is it always capitalized?  Thanks very much.

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


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## Monsieur Hoole

No, you only capitalize it if you're using it as a proper noun for a person

un Français = a French man

le français = French (the language)

M.H.


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## betty85

Hi
 
Should the Québécois and the Français be 'les' or le, when talking about a natinality? 
 
Les individus disent que les Québécois sont plus français que les français de France.
 
thank you


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## mapping

the sentence is fine. we use "les" here. If you use "le" then it's the language you're talking about (unless you're talking about a particular person, eg. le Français avec qui j'ai parlé, the Frenchman I talked to. But then it takes a capital F I think).

Le français = la langue française
Les Français = the French (people)


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## betty85

Thats a great help, thank you..I get confused!


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## dizzyorange

When referring to French people as 'Les Français', should a capital F always be used? Because my teacher corrected my work changing it to a lower case f, but not everywhere. Are there certain contexts in which you would use a capital letter and others where you wouldn't? 

Thanks


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## lilatranslator

To my knowledge, if it's a noun it should be capitalized. If it's an adjective, it shouldn't.


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## Pticru

Are you sure that in some places it wasn't a correction of "*le* français", because of course both are capitalized in English, so easy to make a mistake there. Seems to me that if it refers to the people, then it's les Français. Or maybe where it wasn't supposed to be capitalized was in a situation like "le peuple français"?


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## Arvernian

What I've learnt at school corresponds to what is explained here :

pincetonfrancais.be/v1/article.php3?id_article=1

I try to translate : 

"Les Français parlent en français à leurs amis français" sum up the problem.

The rules : 

an upper case has to be used only if the adjective is used as a name to designate a person: ex. un Français, un Belge, un Chinois. This cans of course be extended to adjectives corresponding to cities, continents, regions... Ex. un Auvergnat, un Lyonnais, un Martien...

For any other cases a lower case must be used. No execption for the name of languages Ex. Les Belges parlent flamand ou français.


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## dizzyorange

So when referring to French people, les Français should always have a capital? And if I'm saying French, it ought to be français with a lower case f?

Thanks


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## ?e©am

I think your example "le français™ refers to the language. lilatranslator  is absolutely right: Capital letter for a noun , peoples, civilization ... and small letter for adjective, or the french language.

Check out this page and try to fulfill the boxes http://platea.pntic.mec.es/cvera/hotpot/nationalites_majuscules.htm (it's a good example)


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## ?e©am

eg: la communauté *f*rançaise au Canada = French community (because _french _is an adjective)

les *F*rançais du Canada = French people (because the function of _french_ is a noun)

on parle le *f*rançais (l'*a*nglais, le *c*hinois...) = *french* in this case means the french language, it's used like an "adjective" in the sentence = on parle la langue *f*rançaise (or* a*nglaise, or *c*hinoise...)


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## Bulbul

May I ask:
la France is in capitol letter.
But les français(e) sometimes appear in small letter. 
Can we use both small and capitol letters for nationalities?


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## madolo

you have to capitalize the nouns, but not the adjectives
Les Français préfèrent les produits français
Il n'est pas citoyen français =) il n'est pas français


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## melu85

The adjectives don't need a capital letter (une femme française, un écrivain chinois)
The nouns do (les Français, les Anglais, les Chinois,etc.)


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## Laura91360

La France : it's a proper noun
Les Français : it's a proper noun 
Les régions françaises : it's an adjective

For nationalities we use an uppercase (it not it's a bad spelling)


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## itka

No capital letters for the names of the languages : le français, l'anglais, le russe...
_"Il apprend le chinois"_


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## elsaa

A couple questions:

In the case of      "Je suis américain" and J'ai vu un Américain. What is the difference here?

Also, I heard a rule that all languages in French are masculine but if I write "la langue français", wouldn't it be correct to add an "e" at the end of français because langue is femenin? 

Thank you!


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## miou-pixel

Hey we say " la langue française " française is an adjective  although la langue is a feminine noun that's why  you need to make a "e",
we say also " la langue anglaise " .
Do you understand? ;o


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## kizza

Hello,

I would like to know which is grammatically correct (as in, should it be a capital letter or not?):

le gouvernement fran  çais OR le gouvernement Fran  çais?

And similarly, I'm guessing the same rule would follow for:
"  du Czar russe" or "du Czar Russe"

Thanks.


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## timpeac

Hi. Unlike English these adjectives don't take a capital letter. With a capital letter Français would mean "Frenchman".


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## BasilAustinPowers

I saw somewhere where when someone asked
Etes-vous Française and the person capitalized the word Française. Is that acceptable? I asked a Belgian friend, and he was unfamiliar with that. 
I also asked a French woman. They are used to it being written in lowercase if you ask if someone is French. I know in some cases you can capitalize it.


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## Maître Capello

BasilAustinPowers said:


> I saw somewhere where when someone asked
> Etes-vous Française and the person capitalized the word Française. Is that acceptable?


Yes, it is definitely correct.  As a matter of fact, you can consider it either as an adjective (same as _Êtes-vous souffrante?_), in which case the initial letter is lower case (_Êtes-vous *f*rançaise?_), or as a noun (same as _Êtes-vous coiffeuse?_), in which case the initial letter is capitalized (_Êtes-vous *F*rançaise?_).

_Êtes-vous *f*rançaise? _
_Êtes-vous *F*rançaise? _


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## Moi-même.

When we are talking of someone/something being French as an  example, in the French language:

a)*SPEAKING OF SOMEONE'S NATIONALITY:*
When I say, I'm French, do we say:
Je suis *F*rancaise OR Je suis *f*rancaise?


b)*TO DESCRIBE SOMETHING:*
When I'm saying a word like: American Dollars in French, Do we say:
Dollar *A*méricain OR Dollar *a*méricain?

The main question of this thread is when should I write a term like Français/Française 1)starting with a capital latter, 2)starting with a small letter?


En Avance, Merci beaucoup pour votre aide!

*Please correct me if I make any mistake in a thread, even when its not a mistake in the question being asked.


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## DearPrudence

Hi,

If I should summarise:

All *adjectives *of nationalities are written with no capital letter:
_le dollar *a*méricain 
une élève *f*rançaise 
je suis *f*rançaise _

Only a *noun *that refers to a person will start with a capital letter:
_un *F*rançais 
des *F*rançais _
But:
_*le français *(la langue) 
*→ je parle français*_


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## gpuri

Hi,

I refer to Vis-a-vis beginning french third edition by Amon....

I realise that I have not included the accents in some letters above.

My question is about when I need to capitalise the F in "francaise".

In the book it shows the F capitalised in: "ce sont des Francaise?" meaning are they French?
and;
not capitalised in "Il est francais?"

I realise that an adjective is not capitalised but I don't understand why the first sentence had a capitalised F.

I look forward to your comments.
Merci.


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## DearPrudence

Hello and welcome to the forums, Gpuri 

You're right, *adjectives *are not capitalised in French:
_*→ "Il est français"
→ "Elles sont françaises".*
_
But in your sentences:
_*"Ce sont des Françaises ?"* _(literally: Are these Frenchwomen?)
"*Françaises*" is not an adjective, but a *noun *that refers to a nationality. As such, it must be capitalized:
*"Les Français sont arrogants."
"Ce sont des Françaises."
"J'écris à un Français très sympa."
*but:
_*"Elles sont françaises ?"* _(as it is here an adjective)

I hope it is clearer


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## coronaggers

Hi,
Post number 1 and here we go:
My sentence: 'Amelia et James sont tes copains anglais.'

I'm not sure if the word 'anglais' is acting as adjective or noun. I think it's the former and the sentence should be as it stands. Am I correct?

From reading former posts concerning nationality acting as potentially adjective or noun, presumably a simpler sentence could be written both as 'Amelia and James sont Anglais' and also 'Amelia et James sont anglais' ?

Thank you for any feedback


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## Maître Capello

Hello coronaggers and welcome!

Yes, you are correct! 

In your first sentence, the noun is _copains_ so _anglais_ is necessarily an adjective (like "English" in "your English pals" by the way). It should therefore *not* be capitalized.

_Amelia et James sont tes copains anglais._
_Jeanne est ta copine française._

Regarding your second example, _anglais_ can be considered as either an adjective or a noun (capitalized only in the second case).

_Amelia et James sont anglais._ (adjective)
_Amelia et James sont Anglais._ (noun)
_Jeanne est française._ (adjective)
_Jeanne est Française._ (noun)

See also post #20 above.


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## coronaggers

Thank you!


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## gpuri

Tresley said:


> C’est un *français *= He’s a Frenchman


(I think this should be capitalised to become "*Français*".)

...This is capitalised when referring to a person (homme) and is used as a pronoun but when used as an adjective it is not capitalised.
Please confirm.


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## DearPrudence

"C'est un Français" ("Français" = noun → capital letter is necessary)
"Il est français" ("français" = adjective → no capital letter)

[…]


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## Maître Capello

gpuri said:


> This is capitalised when referring to a person (homme) and is used as a pronoun but when used as an adjective it is not capitalised.


You are correct. 



DearPrudence said:


> "C'est un Français" ("Français" = noun → capital letter is necessary)
> "Il est français" ("français" = adjective → no capital letter)


Both are correct in your second example:

_Il est français._  (↔ Il est grand.)
_Il est Français._  (↔ Il est menuisier.)

See also the thread C'est un Français / Il est français - majuscule/minuscule pour les gentilés in the Français Seulement forum.


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