Writing in French

 

 Here are a few tips about using ponctuations when writing in French

In French, full stop is not added after abbrevations
Ang ( Français )
Eng. (In English, we add full stop when we abbrevate)
(Note that "Ang" is short for Anglais which mean English in French)

Full stops can be used to seperate dates
24.10.2014

Full stop is used to seperate every three digits
1.000.000 / 1 000 000 ( Français )
1,000,000 (In English, we use comma)

In French, virgules are used to indicate decimal points
0,5 ( Français )
0.5 (In English, full stop is used)

In French, a space is used before punctuation marks and certain symbols like : ; « » ! ? % $ # etc.

Examples :

Note that i put space after example and before the colon

( In French, space is used when a bracket is opened and before it is closed )

In French, space is used between figure(s) and percentage
60 % ( Français )
600% (English)

In French, a space is used before and exclamation or question mark
Salut ! Ca va ? ( Français )
Hello! How are you?  (English)

Space after opening a qoutation mark and another before closing it in French. Note quotation marks in French are like this : « »
« Je t'aime » a-t-elle dit ( Français )
"I love you" she said (English)

When you write your name in French, the surname is often written in capital letters.
Ayo DEFORGE ( Français )
Ayo Deforge (English)

In French, street, avenue, drive, close etc. are written in small letters. Only the name of the street starts with a capital letter.
5 rue Gambetta ( Français )
5 Davies Street (English)

In French months of the year start with small letters.. unlike in English
Le 12 septembre 2013 ( Français )
12 September 2013 (English)

Days of the week start with small letters.
C'est vendredi ! ( Français )
 It's Friday ! (English)

The name of the people of a country, a tribe etc., start with small letters.
J'aime les nigérians ( Français )
I love Nigerians (English)

In French, a language starts with small letters.
Le français est difficile
The French language is difficult