Capitalize the word french

France is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and the French tend to hold themselves to very high standards. As such, it is expected that any terminology relating to the nation itself, its people or speech should adhere to strict grammatical rules.

The simplest answer is yes since French, even when used as an adjective, is referencing a proper noun. However, before any explanation is provided, it is wise to explore which parts of speech the term pertains to as it will facilitate understanding.

1. It is a proper noun

Nouns are names of places, people and things, we all know that. The term “French” can be used as a noun and a proper noun for that matter. For example, if we say: “The French has just arrived,’ The word ‘French’ represents nationality. Rules of grammar place nationality under proper nouns. The term can just as well be replaced with a real name such as Donald, James or Sarah. This, therefore, forms one of the bases to why the word “French” should be capitalized.

2. It can also function as a proper adjective

Any word that modifies a noun is known as an adjective. They come before a noun and are used to give more information about the noun. The term “French” not only plays the role of a noun but can also be an adjective. For instance: “The French Economy is quite stable.” The noun, in this case, is the word “Economy.” However, once we add French to the sentence, then the Economy is awarded an identity, a French one to be precise. Thus, the word French modifies the currency as a proper adjective. As per the rules of capitalization, proper adjectives should also be capitalized.

Is French Fries Capitalized?

No, “french fries” is not capitalized. According to the AP Stylebook and Chicago Manual of Style, the “french” in “french fries” refers to the style of cut, not the country of France. Therefore, “french” in this case is a common noun and should be lowercase.

Conclusion

Generally, no matter what part of speech the term “French” represents, it should always be capitalized. I will leave you with the following two examples of how the word can be used as both a proper noun and proper adjective.

How to convert French text into uppercase/lowercase/sentence?

This converter can be used to capitalize and change the case of French words and the app works with all French characters, including accents.

To change the case of your text simply enter the text and then choose the relevant option. 

This converter gives you the folllowing options, which work in each of the following ways:

  • Upper Case — Making all words uppercase: LA CAPITALE DE LA FRANCE EST PARIS. PARIS EST GRAND
  • Lower Case — Making all words lowercase: la capitale de la france est paris. paris est grande.
  • Sentence Case — All words starting a sentence with a capital letter: La capitale de la france est paris. Paris est grand.
  • Capitalize New Word — Capitalizing the first letter of every new word: La Capitale De La France Est Paris. Paris Est Grand.

You just need to enter your text and we will do the conversion for you. You can enter hundreds of lines of text. The converter will keep the same formatting for all the text entered. Once the conversion is done, you can just copy and paste the converted text back into your txt file to save it. Give it a try and see for yourself how easy it is to use!

We have lots of other converters and resources for creating French worksheets for learning, like fill in the gap, scramble words, and create French word number bingo sheets. 


Asked by: Dr. Thora Rutherford

Score: 4.2/5
(42 votes)

You should capitalize the names of countries, nationalities, and languages because they are proper nouns—English nouns that are always capitalized. … English is made up of many languages, including Latin, German, and French.

When should French be capitalized?

Generally, no matter what part of speech the term “French” represents, it should always be capitalized. I will leave you with the following two examples of how the word can be used as both a proper noun and proper adjective. Examples: Noun: The French make great food.

Should French be capitalized in French fries?

Here’s why french fries is usually lowercase. Although we often capitalize a country or city name when it’s part of a food name, that’s not always the case, and it’s typically not the case with french fries. … It is capitalized because the name does relate directly to the Emmental region where the cheese originated.

Is French a proper noun?

‘French’ is a proper noun. The ‘French’ is the name of a specific group of people, so it is a proper noun and is always capitalized.

Should languages be capitalized?

(c) The names of languages are always written with a capital letter. … Note, however, that names of disciplines and school subjects are not capitalized unless they happen to be the names of languages: I’m doing A-levels in history, geography and English. Newton made important contributions to physics and mathematics.

29 related questions found

Is Español capitalized?

Languages. In Spanish, languages are never capitalized, whether used as nouns or adjectives. Ella habla español y francés. She speaks Spanish and French.

Are country names capitalized in French?

Geographical proper names (countries, regions, cities, rivers, mountains, seas, etc.) also start with a capital letter: France, Alsace, Paris, la Seine, les Alpes, la Méditerranée. … Titles and professions do NOT use capital letters: le ministre (the Minister), le prêtre (the priest), le général (the general).

Are job titles capitalized in French?

Titles and occupations that replace a person’s name are capitalized in French, such as le President or Madame la Directrice (madam director). By contrast, these terms are lowercase in English because only official titles that directly precede a proper noun are capitalized in English, never standalone titles.

Why is French capitalized?

You should capitalize the names of countries, nationalities, and languages because they are proper nouns—English nouns that are always capitalized. … English is made up of many languages, including Latin, German, and French. My mother is British , and my father is Dutch .

Are months capitalized in French?

Don’t overuse capitals

French uses a lot fewer capital letters than English — many words that have to be capitalized in English can’t be capitalized in French. … Date words: Don’t capitalize days of the week and months of the year in French unless they’re at the beginning of a sentence.

Do you capitalize French in French toast?

For example, the dictionary lowercases “napoleon” (the pastry gets its name from Naples, not from the emperor). … But it capitalizes the first word in “Bavarian cream” and always capitalizes “French” in food names (“French fries,” “French dressing,” “French toast,” etc.).

What words should always be capitalized?

In general, you should capitalize the first word, all nouns, all verbs (even short ones, like is), all adjectives, and all proper nouns. That means you should lowercase articles, conjunctions, and prepositions—however, some style guides say to capitalize conjunctions and prepositions that are longer than five letters.

How are French titles capitalized?

In French, only the first letter of the title is capitalized unless the title contains a proper name. However, in English, there are capitals almost everywhere! All the words of the title are capitalized, except from articles, conjunctions and prepositions of fewer than four letters (some sources even say three).

What are the 10 rules of capitalization?

Thus, here are 10 capitalization rules you should know for a well written write-up:

  • Capitalize the first word of every sentence.
  • “I” is always capitalized, along with all its contractions. …
  • Capitalize the first word of a quoted sentence. …
  • Capitalize a proper noun. …
  • Capitalize a person’s title when it precedes the name.

Why do French capitalize last names?

It is the counterpart—and will frequently be the mirror of—the French edition’s Question Bête. …

How do they write the date in France?

In France, the all-numeric form for dates is in the order «day month year», using an oblique stroke as the separator. Example: 31/12/1992 or 31/12/92. Years can be written with two or four digits, and numbers may be written with or without leading zero.

Why does English have capital letters?

Capital letters are useful signals for a reader. They have three main purposes: to let the reader know a sentence is beginning, to show important words in a title, and to signal proper names and official titles.

Is French and France are same?

The answer is simply… FRANCE! … The translation of the word ‘French’ in French is français (masc.)

Is Parisian capitalized?

Proper nouns

Because the term is referring to something generic. … But if it’s something non-specific and you’re still referring to a proper name, like your Freudian dream or Parisian cuisine, then you do capitalize the term.

What is à in French?

The French prepositions à and de cause constant problems for French students. Generally speaking, à means «to,» «at,» or «in,» while de means «of» or «from.» Both prepositions have numerous uses and to understand each better, it is best to compare them. Learn more about the preposition de.

How do you say lower case in French?

Similar translations for «lower case letter» in French

  1. présente.
  2. bafouille.
  3. caractère.
  4. lettre.

Is Monsieur capitalized?

Like «Ms.» and «Mr.» in English, madame and monsieur are usually abbreviated and capitalized when preceding a name: Mes professeurs préférés sont Mme Fournier et M. Martin. … (The abbreviation for mademoiselle, Mlle, also has no period.)

Do months get capitalized?

Days, months, and holidays are always capitalized as these are proper nouns. Seasons aren’t generally capitalized unless they’re personified. The maid comes on Tuesdays and Fridays .

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

This is a question our experts keep getting from time to time. Now, we have got the complete detailed explanation and answer for everyone, who is interested!


Asked by: Dr. Tyrese Walsh MD

Score: 4.7/5
(65 votes)

You should capitalize the names of countries, nationalities, and languages because they are proper nouns—English nouns that are always capitalized. … English is made up of many languages, including Latin, German, and French.

Is French uppercase or lowercase?

The simplest answer is yes since French, even when used as an adjective, is referencing a proper noun.

Is French capitalized in French?

Nationalities and languages are not capitalized (unless they are proper nouns): French and le français, Spanish and l’espagnol. “I have a French friend” would become j’ai un ami français.

Are languages capitalized?

(c) The names of languages are always written with a capital letter. … Note, however, that names of disciplines and school subjects are not capitalized unless they happen to be the names of languages: I’m doing A-levels in history, geography and English.

Should French in French fries be capitalized?

Although we often capitalize a country or city name when it’s part of a food name, that’s not always the case, and it’s typically not the case with french fries. … The Chicago Manual of Style also recommends keeping french lowercase because french isn’t being used to literally refer to the country.

42 related questions found

Why is French capitalized?

You should capitalize the names of countries, nationalities, and languages because they are proper nouns—English nouns that are always capitalized. … English is made up of many languages, including Latin, German, and French. My mother is British , and my father is Dutch .

What words should always be capitalized?

In general, you should capitalize the first word, all nouns, all verbs (even short ones, like is), all adjectives, and all proper nouns. That means you should lowercase articles, conjunctions, and prepositions—however, some style guides say to capitalize conjunctions and prepositions that are longer than five letters.

Are country names capitalized in French?

Geographical proper names (countries, regions, cities, rivers, mountains, seas, etc.) also start with a capital letter: France, Alsace, Paris, la Seine, les Alpes, la Méditerranée. … Titles and professions do NOT use capital letters: le ministre (the Minister), le prêtre (the priest), le général (the general).

Is Español capitalized?

Languages. In Spanish, languages are never capitalized, whether used as nouns or adjectives. Ella habla español y francés. She speaks Spanish and French.

Is our country capitalized?

The word country is a common noun, so you follow the same rule as with any other common noun. You capitalize it if it begins a sentence, or if it is part of a proper noun.

Why are months not capitalized in French?

French uses a lot fewer capital letters than English — many words that have to be capitalized in English can’t be capitalized in French. … Date words: Don’t capitalize days of the week and months of the year in French unless they’re at the beginning of a sentence.

What is à in French?

The French prepositions à and de cause constant problems for French students. Generally speaking, à means «to,» «at,» or «in,» while de means «of» or «from.» Both prepositions have numerous uses and to understand each better, it is best to compare them. Learn more about the preposition de.

Is French and France are same?

The answer is simply… FRANCE! … The translation of the word ‘French’ in French is français (masc.)

Is the F in French toast capitalized?

For example, the dictionary lowercases “napoleon” (the pastry gets its name from Naples, not from the emperor). … But it capitalizes the first word in “Bavarian cream” and always capitalizes “French” in food names (“French fries,” “French dressing,” “French toast,” etc.).

How do you say lower case in French?

Similar translations for «lower case letter» in French

  1. présente.
  2. bafouille.
  3. caractère.
  4. lettre.

Why do French capitalize last names?

It is the counterpart—and will frequently be the mirror of—the French edition’s Question Bête. …

Do months get capitalized?

Days, months, and holidays are always capitalized as these are proper nouns. Seasons aren’t generally capitalized unless they’re personified. The maid comes on Tuesdays and Fridays .

Is Spanish capitalized in a sentence?

Nouns are names of places, people and things, we all know that. The term “Spanish” can be used as a noun and a proper noun for that matter. … Additionally, when referring to the language, “Spanish” should be capitalized since it again represents nationality (the language that the Spanish people speak).

Are job titles capitalized in Spanish?

Titles: In formal written Spanish, titles of movies, books, plays and similar works capitalize only the first word and proper nouns. … Other titles: Introductory titles are not capitalized, although common abbreviations of them (such as Sr. for señor, Dr. for doctor, D.

Is Monsieur capitalized?

Like «Ms.» and «Mr.» in English, madame and monsieur are usually abbreviated and capitalized when preceding a name: Mes professeurs préférés sont Mme Fournier et M. Martin. … (The abbreviation for mademoiselle, Mlle, also has no period.)

What is capitalization and examples?

Capitalization is the recordation of a cost as an asset, rather than an expense. … For example, office supplies are expected to be consumed in the near future, so they are charged to expense at once.

What titles should not be capitalized?

Words Which Should Not Be Capitalized in a Title

  • Articles: a, an, & the.
  • Coordinate conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet & so (FANBOYS).
  • Prepositions, such as at, around, by, after, along, for, from, of, on, to, with & without.

What are the 10 rules of capitalization?

Thus, here are 10 capitalization rules you should know for a well written write-up:

  • Capitalize the first word of every sentence.
  • “I” is always capitalized, along with all its contractions. …
  • Capitalize the first word of a quoted sentence. …
  • Capitalize a proper noun. …
  • Capitalize a person’s title when it precedes the name.

How do they write the date in France?

In France, the all-numeric form for dates is in the order «day month year», using an oblique stroke as the separator. Example: 31/12/1992 or 31/12/92. Years can be written with two or four digits, and numbers may be written with or without leading zero.

February 6, 2014

Posted in capitalizing, French fries/french fries at 6:23 am by dlseltzer

A reader writes:

I have a question. My co-worker and I have had a discussion over whether the phrase should be “French fries” or “french fries.” (Microsoft Word wants to capitalize the letter.)  When I tried to find an answer through Google, I basically found “to each his own.” However, this will be in a publication so I would like a more definitive answer.  Thanks!

I did mention that I hated Microsoft Word, didn’t I? The first thing I did, after pasting the email into this document, was to right click (or control click) the word, french, with its red squiggly lines, and select ‘add,’ so I would never again be bothered by Word’s insistence that french should be capitalized. Whew. I feel better now.

I wanted to fix that because, as you might suspect, there is no need to capitalize the F in french fries. All of the major style manuals (including AMA) agree that once a word or phrase with a proper noun becomes common, the capital letters are dropped in favor of lowercase letters. Most of the examples I found referred to foods:

 e.g., baked alaska, brussels sprouts, melba toast, russian dressing, french bread.

 But there are other examples as well:

 e.g., roman numeral, petri dish, italic type, french doors, dutch oven.

 [NOTE: Microsoft wanted to capitalize the first word in most of the these examples; it was okay with roman numeral, petri dish, and italic type.]

 The only time I would capitalize the proper noun is if it provides information about the word. For instance, I would talk about swiss cheese if I were talking about generic swiss cheese which could be from anywhere, but I would talk about Swiss Gruyere if I wanted you to know that the cheese actually was imported from Switzerland.

And french fries really have little to do with France. If using the capital F in french provided more meaning, it would be fine to capitalize it, but it doesn’t, so we don’t.

Some think the word, french, refers to the form of cutting the vegetable that is known as “frenching,” but that doesn’t work either since the concept of  “frenching’ came along long after french fries were first eaten.

The modern trend is to use lowercase words whenever possible, so I would go ahead and do that, and continue to correct Microsoft Word when it is wrong. And someday, we may end up with a spell-checker that actually works!

Permalink

French Rules of Capitalization
Posted by on Sep 27, 2015 in Uncategorized

There are quite a few differences between capitalization in English and in French. You may have already noticed that the first person singular pronoun “I” is not capitalized in French except at the beginning of a sentence. For example, you would write: “Je t’aime,” but “Tu sais que je t’aime.”

Ok, this seems pretty obvious, right? But there are quite a few other differences as well. In general, French words are not capitalized as often as in English, even in titles of published works. For a list of useful French capitalization rules, see below:

  • Months and days of the year are not capitalized: janvier, février, mars, avril, mai, juin, juillet, août, septembre, octobre, novembre, décembre and lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi, dimanche. 
  • Religions are not capitalized: This also holds true to adjectives referring to religious groups. For example: Christian and chrétien, Muslim and musulman, Jew and juif. There are three exceptions to this rule: l’Islam is always capitalized (although le christianisme et le judaïsme are not) and the adjectives Hindou and Bouddhiste are always capitalized as well.
  • Nationalities and languages are not capitalized (unless they are proper nouns): French and le français, Spanish and l’espagnol. “I have a French friend” would become j’ai un ami français. However, if the nationality is used as a proper noun, then it is capitalized in French. For example: “I spoke with an American man today” would become j’ai parlé avec un Américain aujourd’hui.
  • Titles in front of a Proper Noun: For example, in English we would say Professor Smith, because this is a title preceding a proper noun. In French, however, it not be capitalized: le professeur Smith.
  • But…titles in French are capitalized differently than in English: This can get somewhat complicated. In English, important words and words that are over a certain length are normally capitalized in titles. There seems to be less agreement in French. However, an easy rule to remember is that the first word is always capitalized, along with the second word if the first word is an article. So, this would give: Les Misérables or Les Fleurs du mal. Importantly, if another word has the same weight as the first capitalized word, than that would be capitalized, too. Here’s an example of this: Dostoyevsky’s Crime et Chatîment. Because these two words (“crime” and “punishment”) are separated by a conjunction and bear equal weight in the sentence, they are both capitalized.
  • French family names are normally in all caps for official documents: Often, when writing one’s surname on official documents, the French will write their last name in all caps. For example: Pierre RICHARD or Victor HUGO.

Do you have any other questions about capitalization that I may have left out? Leave your questions in the comments and I’ll get back to you.

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Far fewer words are capitalized in French than in English

PhotoAlto/Anne-Sophie Bost/Getty Images

The rules for capitalization are quite different in French and English. Many words that are capitalized in English cannot be capitalized in French. Put another way, French words are not capitalized as often as in English, even for titles of published works. The tables below list various terms and phrases that you would capitalize in English but which are lowercase in French together with explanations for the differences in capitalization rules in the two languages as needed.

Words Capitalized in English but Not in French

The first-person singular pronoun «I» is always uppercase in English but not always in French. The days of the week, geographic terms, languages, nationalities, and even religions are nearly always uppercase in English but rarely in French. The table lists English words or phrases that are capitalized on the left with the French translations, which are not uppercase, on the right. 

1. First person singular subject pronoun (unless it’s at the beginning of the sentence)
He said, «I love you.» Il a dit « je t’aime ».
I’m ready. Je suis prêt.
2. Days of the week, months of the year
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi, dimanche
January, February, March, April, May, June, July,August, September, October, November, December

janvier, février, mars, avril, mai, juin, juillet, août, septembre, octobere, november, décembre

3. Geographic terms
Molière Street rue Molière
Victor Hugo Ave. av. Victor Hugo
Pacific Ocean l’océan Pacifique
Mediterranean Sea la mer Méditerranée
Mont Blanc le mont Blanc
4. Languages
French, English, Russian le français, l’anglais, le russe
5. Nationalities

French adjectives that refer to nationalities are not capitalized, but proper nouns are.
I’m American. Je suis américain.
He bought a French flag. Il a acheté un drapeau français.
She married a Spaniard. Elle s’est mariée avec un Espagnol.
I saw an Australian. J’ai vu un Australien.

Religions
The names of most religions, their adjectives, and their adherents (proper nouns) are not capitalized in French, with a few exceptions, as listed below.

Religion Adjective Proper Noun
Christianity Christian chrétien Christian
Judaism Jewish juif Jew
Hinduism Hindu hindou Hindu
Buddhims Buddhist bouddhiste Buddhist
Islam Muslim musulman Muslim

*Exceptions: a Hindu > un Hindou

a Buddhist > un Bouddhiste
Islam > l’Islam

Titles: The Exceptions

Titles in front of a proper noun are not capitalized in French, whereas they are in English. For example, in English, you would say President Emmanuel Macron or President Macron because «President» is a title proceeding a proper noun. In French, however, the title is not capitalized, such as with le président Macron or le professeur Legrand. But there are exceptions even to this rule.

Titles and occupations that replace a person’s name are capitalized in French, such as le President or Madame la Directrice (madam director). By contrast, these terms are lowercase in English because only official titles that directly precede a proper noun are capitalized in English, never standalone titles. At the other end of the French capitalization spectrum are French family names in official documents, which are often in all caps, such as Pierre RICHARD or Victor HUGO. The reason seems to be to avoid bureaucratic mistakes.

Generally speaking, the lowercase spelling has the upperhand (ho, ho, ho)

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But according to Google books Ngram, the Brits use either indistinctively.

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However, Ngram is not really indicative of spelling preferences because many of the results are from book titles, where it is conventional to capitalise nearly every word. e.g More Than Just French Fries, Who Ate My French Fries?, and French Fries: The Ultimate Recipe Guide etc.

So lets take a look at Google Scholar and find out what they have to say

  • French fries throws up 44,800 results
  • french fries pips them at the post with 45,100 results

Again, I suspect that many of the uppercase results are tied to titles.

Conclusion? Neither is wrong, go with your personal preference.

EDIT

More references, and support. Yikes! I am about to cite Grammar Girl (a few venerable members on EL&U consider her “tips” to, erm… lack authority). Miss Mignon Fogarty writes

Although we often capitalize a country or city name when it’s part of a food name, that’s not always the case, and it’s typically not the case with french fries. Most sources say to keep it lowercase.

  • The reasoning given by the AP Stylebook* writers is that french describes the style of cut and doesn’t refer directly to the country.
  • The Chicago Manual of Style also recommends keeping french lowercase because french isn’t being used to literally refer to the country.

  • They give swiss cheese as another example—it’s lowercase because it’s not made in Switzerland. It’s named after a cheese called Emmental, which it resembles and which is made in Switzerland. It is capitalized because the name does relate directly to the Emmental region where the cheese originated.

On the other hand, four out of five examples of the phrase french fries in the Oxford English Dictionary have the word french capitalized, and the entry in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary has french fry lowercase, but notes that french is often capitalized.

  • Go to Preferences page and choose from different actions for taps or mouse clicks.
Inflections of ‘capitalize‘ (v): (⇒ conjugate)
capitalizes
v 3rd person singular (US & UK)
capitalizing
v pres p (US & UK)
capitalized
v past (US & UK)
capitalized
v past p (US & UK)

WordReference English-French Dictionary © 2023:

Principales traductions
Anglais Français
capitalize [sth],
also UK: capitalise [sth]
vtr
(put [sth] in uppercase letters) écrire [qch] en majuscule, mettre [qch] en majuscule loc v
  Please capitalize the first letter of the word.
  Veuillez mettre la première lettre du mot en majuscule.
capitalize [sth],
also UK: capitalise [sth]
vtr
(give [sth] an uppercase initial) mettre une majuscule à [qch] loc v + prép
    to be capitalized : prendre une majuscule loc v
  Proper nouns should be capitalized.
  Il faut mettre une majuscule aux noms propres.
  Les noms propres prennent une majuscule.
capitalize [sth],
also UK: capitalise [sth]
vtr
(finance: supply capital for [sth]) pourvoir [qch] de capital, fournir du capital à [qch] loc v
    financer⇒ vtr
  An anonymous investor capitalized the project.
  Un investisseur anonyme a fourni du capital au projet.
capitalize [sth],
also UK: capitalise [sth]
vtr
(finance: convert to capital) capitaliser⇒ vtr
  The entrepreneur was able to capitalize his business after two years.
  L’entrepreneur a été en mesure de capitaliser son entreprise au bout de deux ans.

WordReference English-French Dictionary © 2023:

Verbes à particule
capitalize
Anglais Français
capitalize on [sth],
also UK: capitalise on [sth]
vtr phrasal insep
figurative (make the most of) tirer parti de [qch], tirer profit de [qch] loc v

WordReference English-French Dictionary © 2023:

Formes composées
capitalize
Anglais Français
overcapitalize [sth],
over-capitalize [sth],
also UK: overcapitalise [sth],
over-capitalise [sth]
vtr
(market value) surcapitaliser⇒, surestimer⇒ vtr
overcapitalize [sth],
over-capitalize [sth],
also UK: overcapitalise [sth],
over-capitalise [sth]
vtr
(funding) surcapitaliser⇒ vtr

capitalize‘ également trouvé dans ces entrées :

Dans la description anglaise :

Français :

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