English vs French punctuation: the differences to know
Quotation marks, spacing before double punctuation, the Oxford comma and number separators: what changes between the two languages.
Quotation marks
| French | English |
|---|---|
| « French guillemets », with non-breaking spaces inside | "double quotes", flush against the text |
| Quote within a quote: « … “ … ” … » | Nesting: "… ' … ' …" |
Space before double punctuation
- French: a (thin non-breaking) space before
;:!?— Vraiment ? - English: no space before this punctuation — Really?
Commas and lists
- French: no comma before "et" (and) in a simple list — pommes, poires et bananes.
- English (the Oxford comma, optional but common): apples, pears, and bananas — this comma before "and" sometimes disambiguates a list.
Numbers
| French | English (US/UK) | |
|---|---|---|
| Decimal separator | comma: 3,14 |
period: 3.14 |
| Thousands separator | space: 12 500 |
comma: 12,500 |
Copying a number from an English-locale spreadsheet into a French document (or the reverse) without adjusting the comma/period can shift a value by a factor of 1000 if the mistake goes unnoticed.
Capitalization after a colon
- French: lowercase after
:unless what follows starts a quotation — Il a dit : « je pars ». - English: capitalized if what follows is a complete sentence — He said: "I'm leaving."
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