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.

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