The English compositor called upon to
set works in the French language will do
well, first of all, to make a careful examination
of some examples from the best
French printing-offices. He will find that
French printers act on rules differing in
many points from the rules to which the
English compositor is accustomed; and he
will not be able to escape from his difficulties
by the simple expedient of ‘following copy’.
For works in the French language, such
as classical text-books for use in schools,
the English compositor generally gets reprint
copy for text and manuscript for
notes. It is, as a rule, safe for him to follow
the reprint copy; but there is this difficulty,
that when the work forms part of a series it
does not always happen that the reprint copy
for one book corresponds in typographical
style with reprint copy for other works in
the same series. Hence he should apply
himself diligently to understand the following
rules; and should hunt out examples of
their application, so that they may remain
in his memory.[76]
1. Capital and lower-case letters.—In the
names of authors of the seventeenth century,
which are preceded by an article, the latter
should commence with a capital letter: La
Fontaine, La Bruyère.[77] Exceptions are
names taken from the Italian, thus: le Tasse,
le Dante, le Corrège.[78] As to names of
persons, the usage of the individuals themselves
should be adopted: de la Bruyère
(his signature at the end of a letter), De la
Fontaine (end of fable ‘Le Lièvre et la
Tortue’), Lamartine, Le Verrier, Maxime
Du Camp. In names of places the article
should be small: le Mans, le Havre, which
the Académie adopts; la Ferté, with no
hyphen after the article, but connected by
a hyphen with different names of places, as
la Ferté-sous-Jouarre.
Volumes, books, titles, acts of plays, the
years of the Republican Calendar, are put
in large capitals: An IV, acte V, tome VI;
also numerals belonging to proper names:
Louis XII; and the numbers of the arrondissements
of Paris: le XVe arrondissement.
Scenes of plays, if there are no acts, are
also put in large caps.: Les Précieuses ridicules,
sc. V; also chapters, if they form the
principal division: Joseph, ch. VI. If, however,
scenes of plays and chapters are secondary
divisions, they are put in small capitals:
Le Cid, a. I, sc. II; Histoire de France, liv. VI,
ch. VII. The numbers of centuries are generally
put in small capitals: au XIXe (or
XIXème) siècle.
The first word of a title always takes
a capital letter: J’ai vu jouer Les Femmes
savantes; on lit dans Le Radical. If a substantive
in a title immediately follows Le,
La, Les, Un, Une, it is also given a capital
letter, thus: Les Précieuses ridicules. If the
substantive is preceded by an adjective, this
also receives a capital letter: La Folle
Journée; if, however, the adjective follows,
it is in lower-case: L’Âge ingrat. If the
title commences with any other word than
le, la, les, un, une, or an adjective, the words
following are all in lower-case: De la terre
à la lune; Sur la piste.
In titles of fables or of dramatic works
the names of the characters are put with
capital initials: Le Renard et les Raisins;
Le Lion et le Rat; Marceau, ou les Enfants
de la République.
In catalogues or indexes having the first
word or words in parentheses after the substantive
commencing the line, the first word
thus transposed has a capital letter: Homme
(Faiblesse de l’); Honneur (L’); Niagara
(Les Chutes du).
If the words in parentheses are part of the
title of a work, the same rule is followed as
to capitals as above given: Héloïse (La
Nouvelle); Mort (La Vie ou la).
The words saint, sainte, when referring
to the saints themselves, have, except when
commencing a sentence, always lower-case
initials: saint Louis, saint Paul, sainte Cécile.
But when referring to names of places, feast-days,
&c., capital letters and hyphens are
used: Saint-Domingue, la Saint-Jean. (See
also, as to abbreviations of Saint, Sainte, p. 82.)
I. Use capital letters as directed below:
(1) Words relating to God: le Seigneur,
l’Être suprême, le Très-Haut, le Saint-Esprit.
(2) In enumerations, if each one commences
a new line, a capital is put immediately
after the figure:
1o L’Europe.
2o L’Asie, &c.
But if the enumeration is run on, lower-case
letters are used: 1o l’Europe, 2o l’Asie, &c.
(3) Words representing abstract qualities
personified: La Renommée ne vient souvent
qu’après la Mort.
(4) The planets and constellations: Mars,
le Bélier.
(5) Religious festivals: la Pentecôte.
(6) Historical events: la Révolution.
(7) The names of streets, squares, &c.:
la rue des Mauvais-Garçons, la place de
la Nation, la fontaine des Innocents.
(8) The names of public buildings,
churches, &c.: l’Opéra, l’Odéon, église de
la Trinité.
(9) Names relating to institutions, public
bodies, religious, civil, or military orders
(but only the word after the article): l’Académie
française, la Légion d’honneur, le
Conservatoire de musique.
(10) Surnames and nicknames, without
hyphens: Louis le Grand.
(11) Honorary titles: Son Éminence,
Leurs Altesses.
(12) Adjectives denoting geographical
expressions: la mer Rouge, le golfe Persique.
(13) The names of the cardinal points designating
an extent of territory: l’Amérique
du Nord; aller dans le Midi. (See II. (2).)
(14) The word Église, when it denotes the
Church as an institution: l’Église catholique;
but when relating to a building église is put.
(15) The word État when it designates
the nation, the country: La France est un
puissant État.
II. Use lower-case initials for—
(1) The names of members of religious
orders: un carme (a Carmelite), un templier
(a Templar). But the orders themselves take
capitals: l’ordre des Templiers, des Carmes.
(2) The names of the cardinal points: le
nord, le sud. But see I. (13) above.
(3) Adjectives belonging to proper names:
la langue française, l’ère napoléonienne.
(4) Objects named from persons or places:
un quinquet (an argand lamp); un verre de
champagne.
(5) Days of the week—lundi, mardi;
names of months—juillet, août.
In plays the dramatis personae at the head
of scenes are put in large capitals, and those
not named in even small capitals:
SCÈNE V.
TRIBOULET, BLANCHE, HOMMES,
FEMMES DU PEUPLE.
In the dialogues the names of the speakers
are put in even small capitals, and placed in
the centre of the line. The stage directions
and the asides are put in smaller type, and
are in the text, if verse, in parentheses over
the words they refer to. If there are two
stage directions in one and the same line, it
will be advisable to split the line, thus:
(Revenu sur ses pas.)
Oublions-les! restons.—
(Il l’assied sur un banc.)
Sieds-toi sur cette pierre.
Directions not relating to any particular
words of the text are put, if short, at the
end of the line:
Celui que l’on croit mort n’est pas mort.—
Le voici!
(Étonnement général.)
2. Accented Capitals.—With one exception
accents are to be used with capital letters
in French. The exception is the grave accent
on the capital letter A in such lines as—
A la porte de la maison, &c.;
A cette époque, &c.;
and in display lines such as—
FÉCAMP A GENÈVE
MACHINES A VAPEUR.
In these the preposition A takes no accent;
but we must, to be correct, print Étienne,
Étretat; and DÉPÔT, ÉVÊQUE, PRÉVÔT
in cap. lines.[79] Small capitals should be
accented throughout, there being no fear of
the grave accent breaking off.
3. The Grave and Acute Accents.—There
has been an important change in recent
years as to the use of the grave and acute
accents in French. It has become customary
to spell with a grave accent (`) according to
the pronunciation, instead of with an acute
accent (´), certain words such as collège
(instead of collége), avènement (instead of
avénement), &c. The following is a list
of the most common:
allège
l’Ariège
arpège
avènement
barège
collège
le Corrège
cortège
évènement
florilège
grège
lège
Liège, liège
[80]
manège
mège
la Norvège or Norwège
piège
privilège
sacrilège
sacrilègement
siège
solfège
sortilège
sphège
[81]
4. Hyphens.—Names of places containing
an article or the prepositions en, de, should
have a hyphen between each component
part, thus: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Valery-en-Caux,
although the Académie
leaves out the last two hyphens.
Names of places, public buildings, or
streets, to which one or more distinguishing
words are added, take hyphens: Saint-Étienne-du-Mont,
Vitry-le-François, rue du
Faubourg-Montmartre, le Pont-Neuf, le
Palais-Royal, l’Hôtel-de-la-Monnaie.
In numbers hyphens are used to connect
quantities under 100: e.g. vingt-quatre;
trois cent quatre-vingt-dix; but when et
joins two cardinal numbers no hyphen is
used, e.g. vingt et un; cinquante et un.
But print vingt-et-unième.
5. Spacing.—No spaces to be put before
the ‘points de suspension’, i.e. three points
close together, cast in one piece, denoting
an interruption (...). In very wide spacing
a thin space may be put before a comma,[82]
or before or after a parenthesis or a bracket.
Colons, metal-rules, section-marks, daggers,
and double-daggers take a space before or
after them exactly as words. Asterisks and
superior figures, not enclosed in parentheses,
referring to notes, take a thin or middle
space before them. Points of suspension
are always followed by a space. For
guillemets see pp. 86, 87.
A space is put after an apostrophe following
a word of two or more syllables (as
a Frenchman reckons syllables, e.g. bonne
is a word of two syllables):—
Bonn’ petite... Aimabl’ enfant!...
Spaces are put in such a case as 10 h.
15 m. 10 s. (10 hours 15 min. 10 sec.), also
printed 10h 15m 10s.
Chemical symbols are not spaced, thus
C10H12(OH)CO.OH.
6. Awkward divisions: abbreviated words
and large numbers expressed in figures.—One
should avoid ending a line with an
apostrophe, such as: Quoi qu’ | il dise?
If a number expressed in figures is too
long to be got into a line, or cannot be taken
to the next without prejudice to the spacing,
a part of the number should be put as a word,
thus: 100 mil- | lions.
7. Division of words.—Words should be
divided according to syllables, as in what
the French call épellation (i.e. syllabication).
Therefore a consonant should never be
separated from the vowel following. Thus
divide: amou-reux, cama-rade; and always
take over vr: li-vraison. If a consonant is
doubled, the consonants may be divided:
mil-lion, pil-lard, in-nocent. It is optional
to divide ob-scurité or obs-curité, according
to convenience. Vowels are divided only in
compound words: e.g. extra-ordinaire; not
Mo-abite, mo-yen.
In compound words an apostrophe may
be divided from a consonant following;
thus: grand’-mère, grand’-route.
Divide sei-gneur, indi-gnité (gn pronounced
as ni in ‘mania’), i.e. take gn over.
The following divisions should be avoided:
Ma-ximilien, soi-xante, Me-xique; é-légant.
In a narrow measure a syllable of two letters
may stand at the end of a line: ce-pendant,
in-décis; but a syllable of two letters must not
be taken over to the next line; therefore élégan-ce,
adversi-té, are not permissible; but
élégan-ces, mar-que, abri-cot, are tolerated.
Avoid terminating a paragraph with only
the final syllable of a word in the last line.
Verbs taking the so-called euphonic t
should always be divided before the latter,
thus: Viendra- | t-il?
Avoid dividing abbreviated words.
Etymological division finds no favour in
French, unless it is in accord with épellation,
or syllabication, as in trans-porter, trans-poser.
But divide transi-tion, transi-ger.
Mute syllables may be turned over to the
next line, thus: ils mar-quent, les hom-mes.
8. Abbreviations.—Such words as article,
chapitre, scène, titre, figure, are abbreviated
only when in parentheses, as references; in
the text they are put in full. If, in works
divided into articles, the first article is put
in full (thus: Article premier), those that
follow may be in figures and abbreviated
(as Art. 2).
Saint, sainte, when they occur very often,
as in religious works, may be abbreviated,
taking a capital letter: S. Louis, Ste Marie.
But not when they form part of the name
of a place, e.g. Saint-Germain-des-Prés; in
which case Saint- and Sainte- take a capital
and are followed by a hyphen.[83] (See also p. 75.)
The words monsieur, madame, monseigneur,
messeigneurs, messieurs, mesdames,
mademoiselle, mesdemoiselles, are written
in full and all in lower-case when addressing
a person: Oui, madame; Non, monsieur
le duc. Also in the following instances:
J’espère que monseigneur viendra; j’ai vu
monsieur votre père. In most other cases
M. (for monsieur), Mme (for madame), Mgr.
or Mgr (for monseigneur), and so on, are used.
The words Sa Majesté, Son Éminence, Leurs
Altesses, when followed by another title, are
put as initials, thus S. M. l’Empereur; but
not otherwise.
The name Jésus-Christ is abbreviated only
when in parentheses after a date, thus: (337
avant J.-C.). This is more frequently printed
337 A.J.C.
Other examples of abbreviations:
| liv. |
(livre) |
etc. |
(et cætera) |
| ch. |
(chapitre) |
c.-à-d. |
(c’est-à-dire) |
| t. |
(tome) |
Cie |
(compagnie) |
| do |
(ditto) |
Dr |
(docteur) |
| fo |
(folio) |
Me |
(maître) |
| in-fo |
(in-folio) |
Mlle |
(mademoiselle) |
| in-8o |
(in-octavo) |
N.-S. J.-C. |
(Notre-Seigneur |
| in-4o |
(in-quarto) |
|
Jésus-Christ) |
| ms. |
(manuscrit) |
Cte |
(comte) |
| mss. |
(manuscrits) |
Mis |
(marquis) |
| no |
(numéro) |
Vve |
(veuve) |
| P.-S. |
(post-scriptum) |
S.A. |
(Son Altesse) |
| Ier } |
(premier) |
LL. AA. II. |
(Leurs Altesses |
| 1er } |
|
Impériales) |
| II, 2e |
(deuxième) |
|
|
| Abbreviations of metric signs: |
| [84]Mm. |
(myriamètre) |
t. |
(tonne) |
| {84}Km. |
(kilomètre) |
q. |
(quintal métrique) |
| {84}Hm. |
(hectomètre) |
kg. |
(kilogramme) |
| dam. |
(décamètre) |
hg. |
(hectogramme) |
| m. |
(mètre) |
dag. |
(décagramme) |
| dm. |
(décimètre) |
g. |
(gramme) |
| cm. |
(centimètre) |
dg. |
(décigramme) |
| mq. |
(mètre carré) |
cg. |
(centigramme) |
| mm. |
(millimètre) |
mg. |
(milligramme) |
| mmq. |
(millimètre carré) |
kl. |
(kilolitre) |
| mmc. |
(millimètre cube) |
hl. |
(hectolitre) |
| ha. |
(hectare) |
dal. |
(décalitre) |
| a. |
(are) |
l. |
(litre) |
| ca. or m2. |
(centiare) |
dl. |
(décilitre) |
| das. |
(décastère) |
cl. |
(centilitre) |
| s. or m3. |
(stère) |
ml. |
(millilitre) |
| ds. |
(décistère) |
|
|
Put: 20 francs, 20 mètres, 20 litres, 20 milligrammes.
If, however, followed by fractions,
then put—20 fr. 50, or 20fr,50; 20 m. 50,
or 20m,50; 20 l. 50, or 20l,50; 20 kilog. 5,
or 20kilo,5.
In works crowded with figures, one can
even put—0m,5 for 5 décimètres; 0m,15 for
15 centimètres; 0m,008 for 8 millimètres.
The cubic metre followed by a fraction is
given thus: 4mc,005 or 4m3,005 (= 4 mètres
cubes 5 millimètres cubes); the square metre
thus: 4mq,05 or 4m2,05 (= 4 mètres carrés
5 décimètres carrés).
The French use a decimal comma instead
of a decimal point—2,3 = 2·3.
The words kilogrammes, kilomètres, and
kilogrammètres, followed by fractions, are
given thus: 50 kg. 3 or 50kg,3; 5 km. 3
or 5km,3; 2 kgm. 4 or 2kgm,4.
Per cent. is generally put 0/0, but pour
100, p. 100, and % are also used. In business
letters pour cent is always pour %, e.g.
A trente jours, 3 pour % d’escompte.
9. Numerals.—When cardinal numbers
are expressed in Roman lower-case letters,
the final unit should be expressed by a j,
not an i, thus: ij, iij, vj, viij.
Numbers are put in full if only occasionally
occurring in the text. If used
statistically, figures are used.
Degrees of temperature are generally
given thus: 15°, 15 (in English 15° 15′).
Age or the time of day must be given in
full: huit ans, six heures (eight years, six
o’clock).
Dates, figures, &c., are put in full in legal
documents: l’an mil neuf cent quatre (the
year one thousand nine hundred and four).
One should not put ‘de 5 à 6,000 hommes’,
but ‘de 5,000 à 6,000 hommes’.
Commas in figures are used as in
English, thus: 20,250 fr. 25 or 20,250fr,25.
But dates, and numbers in general, are
always put without a comma: l’année
1466; page 1250; Code civil, art. 2000.
Fractions with a horizontal stroke are
preferred in mathematical and scientific
works; but in ordinary works the diagonal
stroke is used, thus: 1/2, 2/3 (½, ⅔).
In logarithm tables the fractional part of
a logarithm is printed with spaces, thus:
Log. 2670 = 3, 426 5113; and also: Log.
2670 = 3, 4 265 113.
10. Roman and italic.—In algebraical
formulae the capital letters are always put
in roman and the small letters in italic.
If, however, the text is in italic, the small
letters are put in roman type.
The titles of works, of plays, of journals,
names of ships, of statues, and titles of
tables mentioned in the text, are put in
italic; thus: La pièce La Chatte blanche;
J’ai vu Les Rois en exil; On lit dans Le
Figaro; le journal Le Temps; le transport
Bien-Hoa.
Foreign words[85] and quotations are, as in
English, italicized: Agir ab irato; Cave
canem! lisait-on....
Superior letters in words italicized should
be in italic, thus: Histoire de Napoléon Ier.
11. Reference figures.—References to notes
are generally rendered thus: (1), or thus: 1.
Sometimes an asterisk between parentheses
(*) or standing alone *, or italic superior
letters (a), are used. The second example (1)
is the best from the English point of view.
The figure in the note itself is put either
1. or (1) or 1. In many works the reference
figure is put 1, and the note-figure 1.
12. Metal-rules.—These serve in French
to denote conversational matter, and take
a thick space (or more, if necessary) after
them. In fact, metal-rules, as in German,
always have a space before or after, and
are never put close to a word as in English.
They are likewise never put after colons.
They are also used to give more force to
a point: Il avait un cœur d’or, — mais une
tête folle; et vraiment, — je puis le dire,
— il était d’un caractère très agréable.
They are likewise used, as in English, for
intercalations: Cette femme — étrangère
sans doute — était très âgée.
13. Quotation marks.—The French use
special quotation marks « » (called
guillemets). A guillemet is repeated at the
head of every subsequent paragraph belonging
to the quotation.
In conversational matter, guillemets are
sometimes put at the commencement and
end of the remarks, and the individual utterances
are denoted by a metal-rule (with
a space after). But it is more common to
dispense with guillemets altogether, and to
denote the commencement of the conversation
by only a metal-rule. This is an important
variation from the English method.
If the » comes after points de suspension,
a middle space is put before and after it:
La cour a décrété qu’ « attendu l’urgence... » .
If, in dialogues, a passage is quoted, the
« is put before the metal-rule:
« — Demain, à minuit, nous sortirons enfin! »
In tables and workings the » is used to
denote an absent quantity:
| 125 . 15 |
130 » |
| 10 » |
15 . 25 |
If a sentence contains a citation, the point
at the end of the latter is put before the », and
the point belonging to the sentence after:
« Prenez garde au chien! » , lisait-on à l’entrée
des maisons romaines.
If the matter quoted ends with a full
stop, and a comma follows in the sentence,
the full stop is suppressed:
« C’est par le sang et par le fer que les États
grandissent » , a dit Bismarck.
Also, if the point at the end of the
citation is a full stop, and the sentence
ends with a note of interrogation or exclamation,
the full stop is suppressed:
A-t-il dit: « Je reviendrai » ?
If citation and sentence end with the
same point, or if the sentence ends with
a full stop, only the citation is pointed:
Quel bonheur d’entendre: « Je vous aime! »
A-t-il dit: « Qui est ici? »
Il a dit: « Je viendrai. »
But if the punctuation of the citation
differs from that of the sentence, both points
are put:—
A-t-il dit: « Quel grand malheur! » ?
Guillemets should have before and after
them the same space as between words.
In the case of a citation within a citation,
the « must stand at the commencement of
each line of the enclosed citation:
On lit dans Le Radical: « Une malheureuse
erreur a été commise par un de nos artistes du
boulevard. Ayant à dire: « Mademoiselle, je ne
« veux qu’un mot de vous! » , il a fait entendre ces
paroles: « Mademoiselle, je ne veux qu’un mou de
« veau! »
In passages quoted down the side put an
en quad after the « commencing each line.
Only one » is put at the end of two citations
ending simultaneously.