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17.01 French Typographical Rules—Introduction

In Canada, English documents often contain French-language words, phrases, names, titles, quotations, abstracts and bibliographic references. This appendix gives the basic rules of French typography. If you follow them when writing or revising, you will ensure that French-language material is correctly presented.

For further information, see Le guide du rédacteur.1

___________________

  • Back to the note1 Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada, Translation Bureau, Le guide du rédacteur, Ottawa, 1996.

17.02 French Typographical Rules—Acronyms, initialisms and abbreviations

(a) Use upper-case letters; do not use periods:

  • OTAN
    • Organisation du Traité de l’Atlantique Nord (NATO)
  • SEE
    • Société pour l’expansion des exportations (Export Development Corporation)

(b) Do not retain the accent on initial letters:

  • CEE
    • Communauté économique européenne

(c) The gender of an acronym is normally that of the initial noun:

  • le BIT
    • Bureau international du travail

But acronyms from another language take the gender of the French equivalent of the generic noun:

  • le GATT
    • General Agreement (accord) on Tariffs and Trade
  • la BBC
    • British Broadcasting Corporation (société)

(d) Use a period with the abbreviations for Monsieur and Messieurs, but not with those for Madame and Mesdames:

  • M. Ladouceur
  • MM. Jalbert et Roussel

but

  • Mme Fortier
  • Mmes Joanisse et René

Note 1

When inserting any of these abbreviations into English text, add a period:

  • Mmes. Sauvé and Legros have yet to express their opinion.

Note 2

  • Messrs. is the English equivalent of MM.

Note 3

  • The French title Madame may refer to unmarried as well as married women.