Ponctuation en Français.

1) Le point ( . ) 

 In English, We have 3 words for the same thing. sometimes we say "period", sometimes 'dot' and for math we say "point". The French keep things simple. They always say "point" . The only catch is that the "T" at the end is silent. 

2) La virgule  (  ,  )

"virgule" means comma. Until you get to advanced French class, you can get away with using the same rules as in English.

eg. Marcel, Suzanne. et Jeff sont ici.

3) Le point d'interrogation ( ? )

Just think of a police interrogation of a criminal with all sorts of questions and you will figure out that "point d'interrogation" means a question mark. Riles are the same as in English?

eg. serious: Où sommes-nous ?   Joke: Es-tu fou? 

4) Le point d'exclamation ( ! )

Same as English exclamation mark. 

eg. J'ai gagné !!!  J'ai gagné !!!

5) L'apostrophe ( ' )

Sorry but English is The only language in the world which has the apostrophe  S to show who owns the things. However Fench does use apostrophe for situations where there are 2 vowels from different words pushed together. 

eg. le chien de Paul.  J'ai. Il n'a pas mon stylo.

6) Les parenthèses (      ) 

Just as in English, the French language uses brackets to let you put extra information into your sentence.Some Englsih people say "parentheses" instead of "brackets".

eg. Michelle ( la fille aux longs cheveux bruns ) est ma soeur. 

7) Le deux-points (  :  )

Maybe you thought deux points meant ...but, sorry, you're wrong. It really means "colon" in English andFrench write it like this : Notice that, in French, you have to leave a blank before thencolon  ( deux-points )but in English you put the colon rigth after.

eg. Notre équipe a 3 priorités : gagner, gagner. et gagner.

8) Le point-virgule ( ;  )

In English, a "point-virgule" is called a semi-colon and, in both French and English, it is used to link related sentences.

eg. La ville de Québec est la plus vielle ville en Amérique du Nord; elle a été fondée en 1608 par Samuelde Champlain. 

9) Les guillemets ( <<.....>> )

Guillemets are quotation marks but French quotation marks are not the same as English ones.

English " ....."    French << ......>>

There are all sorts of rukes for les guillemets but, for now, just write them like this :

<< Fermez vos livres! >> dasait le professeur.

For situations where one person is explaining what somebody else said do it like this :

See how English uses Single quotation marks inside and regular Double ones outside and English you haveto put les guillemets outside and English style quotation marks on the side.

Marie protested, "Kim said 'I do not care!' when I invited her to my birthday party.

Marie a protesté : << Kim a dit : "Je m'en fous!", quand je l'ai invitée à ma fête.>>

10) Le trait d'union  ( - )

known as a hyphen in English, the trait d'union does many different things in French:

- When a long word does not fit on one line...........eg. ponctu-action

- for numbers............................................ eg. dix-huit, vingt-et-un

- for words that have a prefix..eg. grand-père, grand-mère, grands-parents,sous-vêtements(underwear)

11) Le tiret ( -- )

In English We call this symbol a dash. ( it looks like 2 hyphens stuck together.) Here are some of the ways the French use le tiret:

-when you are writing about a back and forth conversation and you don't want to keep saying He said..,

She said.... ( Notice how you have to open the French quotation marks ( guillemets ) and the begining and close them at the end.) 

eg. << Le père a dit à ses enfants : 

    -- C'est fantastique que l'école va commencer demain.

    -- oui,bien sûr!

    -- vous allez voir les professeurs! -- et nous allons parler avec nos amis!!!>>

-When you are in the middle of a sentence and you need to put in some extra information.

eg. Immigrants to Canada-- no matter if they are from Hungry or Hong Kong -- all want to get a job.

12) les points de suspension ( ..... )

We all know them in English as DOT, DOT, DOT and the good news is that they are used the same way in both languages. 

eg. Sunddenly the door opened and she saw......

13) la barre oblique ( / )

Sounds like a fancy name for a SLASH, eh ?

eg. www.stimulus.com/education

( back slash is called a "un back slash" )

14) astérisque  ( * )

15) @ "a" commercial

Now that the internet has taken over the world everybody is used to seeing e-mail addresses like me@myplace.ca. English people pronounce @ as "at" and, surprise, surprise, French people say "à".