capitals

frenchy-french:

I. generalities :

you can usually find a capital at the beginning of a sentence (Le train entre en gare) and of a proper noun (first name, city, country, planet…)

II. at the beginning of sentences :

you capitalise a/ the first letter of the first mot of a sentence, b/ the first word after an hyphen (un trait d’union -) or a colon (un deux-points 🙂 that expressed direct speech (ex : Elle m’a répondu : “ Je ne viendrai pas. “, c/ at the beginning of verses in classic poetry (ex : Maître Corbeau, sur un arbre perché…)

III. at the beginning of proper nouns :

you capitalise a/ the first letter of a first name or last name (Marianne Dumaret), nb : the preposition in compound names and the article in compound surnames don’t take a capital, ex : Jean de La Fontaine, Pierrot le Fou, b/ the first letter of titles (Madame la Comtesse, Votre Altesse), c/ the first letter of the names of locations, historical monuments or political institutions (la Loire, la Bastille, l’Assemblée nationale), nb : when a location has a compound noun, nouns take a capital but articles or prepositions don’t (Trouville-sur-Mer), d/ the first letter of the nouns of social and cultural institutions (la Sécurité sociale, l’Académie française), e/ the first letter of nouns expressing historical periods (les guerres de Religion, la Libération, la Renaissance)…