-
Learning French: the many flexible uses of the word 'coup'
The flexible word can be used with many different expressions
-
Meet France's great garden acrobat
With its bright yellow and blue plumage, the Eurasian blue tit is easy to spot in the garden.
-
René, Renée: Navigating subtle gender differences in French forenames
Columnist Nick Inman explores why masculine and feminine versions of first names can trip up foreigners
Think again before you reach for 'Shift' key
France uses capital letters sparingly. For example, you might be reading this, keen to improve your français , on a samedi in décembre (whereas in English it would be a Saturday in December). Nationalities are only capitalised when they are a noun, such as “ un Anglais ”.
Even the titles of published works go easy on the majuscules, often with a capital for the first word only, such as Proust’s classic À la recherche du temps perdu, or the first important word such as Les Fleurs du mal.
The first-important-word approach is also used for organisations, such as le Fonds monétaire international and the OECD: l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques.
Only the important part of a street name gets a capital, such as rue des Fleurs. Religions take lower case letters, except l’Islam.
Food and drink named after a place does not take a capital, so you drink champagne from Champagne and eat roquefort from Roquefort.
One exception to this lack of capitalisation: French people often write their surname in all-capitals. Some say it is the result of centuries of form-filling. However it can also be very helpful if the surname may be confused for a first name. Valentin MARIE is a man, whereas Marie VALENTIN would be a woman.