In general, French punctuation marks are used the same way as in English. For instance, interrogation and exclamation marks are used in French at the end of a question or exclamation, such as “Comment vas-tu?” (How are you?) and “Quel dommage!” (What a pity!).
Forming a “Oui” (Yes) or “Non” (No) Question from a Statement
Punctuation is also important to distinguish a question from a statement. For instance, the sentence “Tu parles français” (You speak French) is a statement.
1. Adding a question mark to the end of the sentence “Tu parles français?”makes it a question. This is how many questions are informally formed in French. Obviously, the voice intonation needs to change in the spoken language.
2. Another more formal way to form a “oui” (yes) or “non” (no) question from a statement is to place the phrase “Est-ce que” before the statement, e.g., “Est-ce que tu parles français?” (Do you speak French?). The introductory phrase “Est-ce que…” translates literally as “Is it that …”
3. A third way to form a “oui” (yes) or “non” (no) question from a statement is called inversion. The subject pronoun and the verb are inverted and a hyphen is placed in between, e.g., “Parles-tu français?” (Do you speak French?). This method is more common in written language. Notice that inversion requires a subject pronoun such as “je” (I), “tu” (you), or “il/elle” (he/she/it). If the subject is a noun instead of a subject pronoun, the subject is maintained and repeated using the proper subject pronoun, e.g., “Le café, est-il chaud” (Is the coffee hot?). If a verb that ends in a vowel precedes “il/elle” (he/she/it) or “on” (we/one), the letter “t” must be added before the subject pronoun that begins with a vowel, e.g., “Parle-t-il français?” (Does he speak French?).
Contractions
Contractions in French are always mandatory whether they are in the form of using the apostrophe, such as “l’eau” (the water) and “j’ai” (I have), or in the case of compound articles, such as “au” (= “à” + “le”) and “des” (= “de” + “les”).
We will cover more on the definite articles and prepositions in the lessons to come.
Abbreviations
The concepts behind the formation of acronyms and abbreviations in French are very similar to those in English.
For more detail and a list of common abbreviations in French, interested readers can refer to the cheat sheet on Summary of French Acronyms & Abbreviation.
Capitalization
The words in French are capitalized in cases almost identical to those in English, with a few notable exceptions that are not capitalized in French, mainly:
1. Adjectives of nationalities and languages, e.g., “français” (French), “canadien” (Canadian), “espagnol” (Spanish), etc.
2. Days and months, e.g., “mardi” (Tuesday), “janvier” (January), “juillet” (July), etc.
It is also worth noting that all letter of the alphabet are masculine in French. For example, when referring to a letter in French, one may say: le “n” dans “animal” (the “n” in “animal”), referring to the letter “n” using the masculine article “le.”
The word “letter” (letter) itself, however, is feminine; thus, we could also say: la lettre “n” dans “animal” (the letter “n” in “animal”). We will learn more about masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives in the next lesson.
Written Accents
In French, there are five written accents: acute ( ´ ), grave ( ` ), circumflex ( ˆ ), dieresis ( ¨ ), and cedilla ( ¸ ). Let us discuss each in more detail:
1. Acute ( ´ )
This can be found only on the letter “e.” It indicates a closed “e” sound. In some cases, especially at the beginning of some words, it may indicate that the word starts with “s” in the original Latin spelling, e.g., “école” (school), “état” (state), “étudier” (to study), etc.
2. Grave ( ` )
The grave accent is often found on the letters “a” and “e,” and in only one case on the letter “u,” that is “où” (where). If it appears on the letter “e,” it indicates an open “e” sound.
Another use of the grave accent in French is to distinguish between the meaning of monosyllabic words that would otherwise be written in the same manner. For example, “a” is used as a third-person singular form of the verb “to have,” whereas “à” is a preposition that often means “at” or “in.” Similarly, “la” is used as a feminine singular definite article meaning “the,” whereas “là” means “there.”
3. Circumflex ( ˆ )
The pointy hat-like accent can be used with any of the five vowels: “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” or “u.” When used with “o,” it denotes closed “o” sound, whereas it denotes an open sound when used with “a” or “e.” In many cases, the circumflex can point to an “s” that was dropped after the circumflex letter from the original source language, e.g., “forêt” (forest), “hôpital” (hospital), “côte” (coast), “pâté” (paste), “rôtir” (to roast), etc.
Similar to the grave accent, the circumflex is sometimes used to distinguish between the meaning of monosyllabic words that would otherwise be written in the same manner. For example, “sur” is a preposition meaning “above,” whereas “sûr” is an adjective meaning “sure” or “certain.” Similarly, “mur” means “wall,” whereas “mûr” means “ripe” or “mature.”
4. Dieresis ( ¨ )
The dieresis is a special accent that is often used on the second vowel of a two-vowel combination. It denotes that the two vowels must be pronounced separately. The dieresis is often found on the letter “e” or “i,” and in rare cases on the letter “u.”
For example, “naïve” (naïve) is pronounced /na-eev/, not /nev/, despite the “ai” combination. Similarly, “Noël” (Christmas) is pronounced /no-el/, not /neul/, despite the “oe” combination.
5. Cedilla ( ¸ )
This accent is used uniquely with the letter “c” to denote a soft “s” sound even though the letter is followed by “a,” “o,” or “u.” For example, “français” (French), “garçon” (boy), “ça” (this), “leçon” (lesson), “reçu” (receipt), “façon” (way or method), and “façade” (façade).
Other lessons in Level I:
