Style/Language/French

This page outlines the capitalization rules for the French language. It forms part of the MusicBrainz CapitalizationStandard.

En Français

Résumé des règles pour MusicBrainz

(N'utilisez pas les anciennes règles qui citaient Wikipedia mais qui établissaient l'exception au rang de règle générale)

On ne met en capitale que la première lettre d'un titre ainsi que toutes les majuscules, c'est-à-dire la première lettre des noms, des institutions (comme l'Union européenne) et les choix spécifiques de l'auteur (!eXistenZ et amaroK mais Boucan d'enfer, voir les règles commentées). De plus, si le titre n'est pas une phrase verbale et commence par l'un des schémas suivants, la première lettre de chaque mot du schéma (et uniquement du schéma) est mise en capitale :

• article défini, nom commun
• article défini, adjectif, nom commun
• article défini, adverbe, adjectif, nom commun
• adjectif qualificatif, nom commun

Rappel : les articles définis sont « le », « la », « l' » et « les ».

Règles commentées

Majuscule ? Minuscule ? Capitale ? Bas de casse ?

Pour simplifier, en français, ne sont en majuscule que le premier caractère d'une phrase, d'un des mots d'une institution et de chaque mot d'un nom. Toutes les autres lettres sont des minuscules. Un auteur est cependant libre d'utiliser des majuscules de façon spécifique comme le film !eXistenZ et le lecteur audio amaroK.

L'usage est de noter les majuscules à l'aide de capitales et les minuscules en bas de casse. Il est cependant courant de marquer un titre entièrement en capitales, c'est le cas pour le nom des pistes sur de très nombreuses pochettes. Le contraire est également possible, ainsi sur la pochette de Boucan d'enfer, le titre est en bas de casse, y compris la majuscule initiale.

Les capitales prennent des accents. L'usage de ne pas mettre d'accent vient de ce que les capitales accentuées n'étaient pas présentes sur les machines à écrire et les premières imprimantes dont le nombre de caractères étaient limité. Il suffit de consulter quelques ouvrages à la Bibliothèque nationale pour se convaincre que tous les ouvrages imprimés avant 1920 utilisaient des capitales accentuées.

Sur MusicBrainz, mettez toutes les majuscules en capitale, avec des accents si nécessaire.

Des minuscules en capitales ?

Contrairement à l'anglais, l'écriture des titres ne possède pas de standard en français. L'usage est cependant de mettre certaines minuscules en capitale mais avec parcimonie, en français les capitales ont en effet tendance à heurter l'œil. Le consensus qui ressort des discussions sur Wikipedia est le suivant :

Règle générale : seul le premier mot d'un titre d'œuvre prend une majuscule (plus les noms,...)

Exception 1 : si le titre ne constitue pas une phrase verbale et commence par un des schémas suivants, le premier caractère de chaque mot du schéma est mis en capitale :

1. article défini, substantif
2. article défini, adjectif, substantif
3. article défini, adverbe, adjectif, substantif
4. adjectif, substantif

Exception 2 : quand l'auteur a choisi une typographie peu orthodoxe, il est préférable de la respecter

Exception 3 : en cas de titre double, les principes précédents s'appliquent à chaque partie

Deux cas restent indécis :

• que fait-on quand plusieurs adjectifs sont antéposés ? Écrit-on la Grande et Belle Histoire de Caliméro ou La grande et belle histoire de Caliméro ? (Je préfère la seconde mais il s'agit d'un goût personnel)
• que fait-on lorsque le titre est un mélange de deux langues ? Écrit-on : Femme like u, Femme Like U ou Femme like U (chanson de K-Maro) ?

Ponctuation

? ! ; : » doivent être précédés d'une espace insécable et suivi d'une espace normale. « doit être suivi d'une espace insécable et précédé d'une espace normale.

Sur MusicBrainz, vous pouvez utiliser des espaces normales à la place des espaces insécables.

Exemples

(à remplacer par des exemples de titres de musique)

• Autant en emporte le vent
• Une saison en enfer (« une » est un article indéfini)
• De l'esprit des lois (« de » n'est même pas un article ici mais une préposition)
• Mon oncle (« mon » est un article possessif)
• La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu (il s'agit d'une phrase verbale)
• Les Misérables (exception 1.1)
• Les Liaisons dangereuses (exception 1.1)
• Le Bon, la brute et le truand (exception 1.1)
• Le Petit Chaperon rouge (exception 1.2)
• Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (exception 1.3)
• Tristes Tropiques (exception 1.4)
• !NoKTuRNL (exception 2)
• Steinkerque ou Berceuse pour toi de Julos Beaucarne (exception 3)

Références

1. Le contenu de cette page est adapté de De l'usage des majuscules sur Wikipedia et est disponible selon les termes de la licence GNU Free Documentation License
2. Capitale et majuscule sur Wikipedia
3. Les conventions typographiques utilisées sur Wikipedia : résumé et liens pour l'usage des majuscules, de la ponctuation.
4. Guide pour écrire les majuscules accentuées sur Wikipedia
5. Une page en anglais écrite par un anglophone décrivant les règles (à ne pas suivre) qu'il a appris à l'école : http://french.about.com/library/writing/bl-capitalizationoftitles.htm

---

In English

Summary of Rules for MusicBrainz

(Don't use the former rules which cited Wikipedia as reference but use the exception as general rule)

We put in upper case (capitale) only the first letter of a title and capitalize the first letter (majuscules) in names and institutions (such as l'Union européenne), and if specified by the author (eXistenZ et amaroK but Boucan d'enfer, see French commented rules). Moreover, if the title is not a verbal phrase and begins with one of the following schemas, the first letter of each word of the schema (and only of the schema) is put in upper case:

• definite article, noun
• definite article, adjective, noun
• definite article, adverb, adjective, noun
• qualificative adjective, noun

The definite articles are "le", "la", "l'" and "les".

Rules (to be commented as the French ones)

Unlike in English, there is no standard for French capitalization. The consensus from discussions on Wikipedia is the following:

General rule: only the first word of a title is capitalized (plus names and the first word of institutions such as Union européenne)

Exception A: if the title 'begins with a definite article and is not a verbal phrase (the definite articles are "le", "la", "l'" and "les")

1. the first noun is capitalized
2. if an adjective is before the noun, both the first adjective and the first noun are capitalized
3. if an adverb and an adjective are before the noun, the first adverb, the first adjective and the first noun are capitalized

Exception B: if the title begins with an adjective which is before a noun, the noun is also capitalized

Exception C: when the author has chosen a special writing, you should respect it

Exception D: if the title is a double title (usually separated by "ou"), the previous rules are applied to both parts

Two cases are not defined:

• if there are several adjectives before the noun?
• what about titles mixing two languages? Do we write: Femme like u, Femme Like U ou Femme like U (K-Maro's song)?

By default, it is better to use few capitalization as it is the normal behaviour for French plain text (and don't use the former rules that gave Wikipedia as reference but set the exception as main rule). Note also that uppercase letters are accented, just as lowercase letters are.

Punctuation

Any of the following characters must be preceded by an unbreakable space, and followed by a normal space (unless they end a title): ? ! ; : »

The character « must be followed by an unbreakable space, and preceded by by a normal space (unless it begins a title).

On MusicBrainz, you can use normal spaces instead of unbreakable spaces.

Examples

(to be replaced by examples of music titles)

• Autant en emporte le vent (general rule)
• Une saison en enfer (general rule, "une" is an indefinite article)
• De l'esprit des lois (general rule, "de" is not an article here but a preposition)
• Mon oncle (general rule, "mon" is a possessive article)
• La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu (general rule, it is a verbal phrase)
• Les Misérables (exception A.1)
• Les Liaisons dangereuses (exception A.1)
• Le Bon, la brute et le truand (exception A.1)
• Le Petit Chaperon rouge (exception A.2)
• Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (exception A.3)
• Tristes Tropiques ( exception B )
• !eXistenZ (exception C)
• Le Barbier de Séville ou la Précaution inutile (exception D)

References

• The content of this page is derivated from De l'usage des majuscules (On the use of capitalization) from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
• Guide to write accents on uppercase letters (in French) from Wikipedia
• A page in English written by an English speaker who describes the rules he learnt at school: http://french.about.com/library/writing/bl-capitalizationoftitles.htm

Discussion

Reminder: this is an official style guide. As such, you are expected to follow it.

If you want to ask questions about it, you can either use the UsersMailingList or one of the MusicBrainzForum (or possibly the IRC channel).

If you think you have smart suggestions to make this style guide evolve, it's recommended you first take some time to go through the last *cough* throat cutting session *cough* discussion about it, then submit your suggestion through the traditional RFC/RFV process. -- dmppanda 19:46, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

• Not exactly official, read what's on top of http://musicbrainz.org/doc/CapitalizationStandardFrench. And why having removed the discussion in this, well, discussion section? MLL 2007-03-22
  • Look at the top of *any* page (like http://musicbrainz.org/doc/MultipleTitleStyle) - read the nice *same* statement. Unless you want to consider that no StyleGuide exists and that we should all do what we want the way we want... I removed this "discussion" because it doesn't add any value and is redundant to what has been said numerous times, including in the thread we now link to. It also contained some (admitedly funny and enjoying) chitchat which don't belong here, and in the end this boils down to "this is not the place for chitchat and not the place for UsersMailingList questions". I did so following davitof suggestion, and I did so after having marked it with a "DeleteWhenCooked" tag, to which nobody reacted negatively. This DeleteWhenCooked now applies to this as well, and I'll remove this (renewed) (irrelevant to the content of this SG) chitchat when I'll be sure you had time to read and answer it (around one week). -- -- dmppanda 12:35, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
    • Not *any* page, examples: http://musicbrainz.org/doc/ClassicalStyleGuide, http://musicbrainz.org/doc/OfficialStyleGuideline. More info at http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/WikiDocs. ACK on the rest. MLL
      • Interestingly, the second one (http://musicbrainz.org/doc/OfficialStyleGuideline) which "defines" the other OfficialStyleGuide also bear this "this is unofficial" text blurb. So, what exactly is your point? If it is to prove that our documentation is slackin' and needs cleanup, then yes, agreed. If you really think this is an argument to disregard entirely the french cap styleguide, then I'm afraid you'll have to disregard a good part of our documentation as well. Now, if it was just some random pike to throw discredit on it, let me state it that way: the fact you don't like this SG is well known, you don't have to prove it anymore - especially not by invoking entirely moot (IMHO) arguments. I don't like it either (as I also stated many times), and I even proposed you to help you write a RFC some time ago, which you declined to do. Now, let's stop fuckin' flies: either you take the burden to rewrite it and reach an agreement with the other french editors, or either stop suggesting we shouldn't follow it, especially to n00bs. This attitude IMHO is just irresponsible: we have SGs, good and bad - they are the reason we have some consistency in this database and that this whole project can work - because we all (?) accepted to play by the rules. About the DeleteWhenCooked, feel free to delete this chitchat when you deem it appropriate. Regards. -- dmppanda 13:49, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
        • Well, the second link was an error, sorry. My point is, "this is an official style guide" is not accurate, period. And OK for many beers, and then you'll be drunk before me, and then I'll make you sign a 3-line CapitalizationStandardFrench with your alcoholised blood. MLL
          • Hey :) An error? A quite enlightening one, actually. So, if your point is that it's not an official style guide, then neither are CapitalizationStandardEnglish, MultipleTitleStyle, etc... Which, I'm sorry to say, just looks like you didn't wait for us to start drinking :-). Anyhow, nuff time spent on this. -- dmppanda 16:52, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Come on boys, play nice! -- Bogdanb

• Don't worry, Bogdan, that's only frogs croaking, nothing to worry about :-) Look: I'm going to trigger another bout of "flame": @dmppanda: You could have created a CSFDiscussion to record the dramatic history of this page. @MLL: Do you really believe our sterile discussion (I said "our", which includes me) should be kept for the posterity? @both: when de we have a beer together? -- davitof I Don'T Like This funny Capitalization At all. Please someone organize a vote or something to see how much people really value ComPlexiTy and how much people care about simplicity (First letter CAP + Proper nouns only). Also there are too many ways to communicate here, and I can not write into the ML so maybe I don't count. (even I don't understand everything I write, sorry – We all french speaking english to eachother funny :) ) ♡j2-
  • I suppose I could try to organize something. Last try was 6 months ago, so I suppose I could do it again. But since you are the one suggesting it, that my prefered means of communication is the ML and that you haven't managed to use the ML, I suggest that either you try to start a discussion on the forum (I hope someone will put a warining either here or on the ML) or we end up allowing you to use the ML. About using english to discuss a french issue: I feel it has it's advantages: english is the most widely understood language and the capitalization rules will have to be used even by non-french users. OTOH, some french editors with perfectly valid positions about this issue may have problems discussing it in english... So I suggest that we try to stick to english (I suppose all the MB users know enough english to read it), and if someone really can't use english (for example because he would not be clear enough), he may write in english, those among us who know enough english will translate it back english ASAP for the benefit of other users. BTW, jesus, I think you should do something about your signature! -- davitof 2007-03-22 jesus: actually, you don't like any kind of Capitalization rule, do you? :P About your idea to organize a vote to see "how many people" like this or that: I strongly disagree, and IMHO this is *not* the way to go. I'm sorry, but how would you feel if I state that a vote should be weighted by the number of edits an editor has performed? You would certainly feel it's totally unfair. Exactly my feeling about a simple raw vote "let's see how many people prefer this". Evolution of this styleguide should be based on ideas, and sound arguments, not the expression of unargumented personal preference. That being said, I'm definitely subscribing to reopening this discussion and have this issue sorted out (once and for all?). About the language to use for this discussion, I really feel that english should be used: non-french-native editors sure have a word to say about all this. I'm sure we can all be patient with each other imperfect english. About the MailingList, AFAIK, it's still the prefered medium for style RFCs, and a lot of people interested in style issues actually monitor it (while they don't "monitor" the forums). Please try to use it, it's really not that hard: if you need help, privately mail one of us. But roughly, you subscribe to it, you post... that's it ;). Regards. -- dmppanda 12:34, 24 March 2007 (UTC)