French

How to Name Punctuation in French

There will be times during your French learning endeavors that you must refer to punctuation. Let's find out how to talk about them!

Published by Ryan from LingoNomad

Full Stop and Comma

A full stop (.) is un point, and a comma (,) is une virgule.

Question and Exclamation Mark

You’d refer to a question mark (?) as un point d’interrogation, and you might be able to infer that an exclamation mark (!) is... un point d’exclamation.

Semicolon and Colon

A semicolon (;) is un point virgule, literally meaning “a dot comma”—remember what a full stop and a comma is en français! A colon (:) is deux points, meaning “two dots”.

Ellipsis

You guessed it—an ellipsis (...) is trois points. It is also sometimes referred to as les points de suspension.

Dash, Parentheses. and Quotation Marks

A hyphen, or a dash (-), is un tiret, whereas parentheses ( ) is les parenthèses. French often uses these symbols: « » as quotation marks in lieu of the typical quotation marks: “ “ that are typically used in English. These are referred to as les guillemets.

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