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Swiss French
Contents: 1. Grammar and Spelling Section One - Grammar and Spelling 1. Gender: There are no cases in French and two genders - Masculine and Feminine. Lots of words ending with "e" are feminine but there are a lot of
exceptions. 2. Articles: Definite articles are LE (masculine), LA (feminine), LES (plural). Indefinite articles are UN (masculine), UNE (feminine), DES (plural). 3. Spelling: There are a few letters that could be considered as errors such as: à, ç, œ, ê, î, ï. These letters are usually in a word. Ex; façade, vœu, à (one word), ouïe, être. It is a grammatical mistake not to use the accents on the upper case characters. Also, they make it easier to understand the text. Plural forms end with an 's' or an 'x' and are preceded by LES or DES (meaning SOME). The rules are:
The following table shows how plurals are formed for various compound nouns: Noun + noun: Usually, both nouns take the plural ending: des oiseauxmouches, des locations-ventes. There are some exception but they can be quite logical: des timbres-poste (= des timbres pour la poste), des annéeslumière, des gardes-chasse (de la chasse) Noun + preposition + noun: Only the first noun takes the plural ending: des arcs-en-ciel. Here again, there are some exceptions: des tête-à-tête, des pot-au-feu. Adjective + noun: Both nouns take the plural ending: des basses-cours. Exception: the adjective grand + feminine noun takes the plural but does not take the feminine 'e': des grands-mères. Adjective demi + noun : doesn't change: des demi-journées. Also they are always separated by a hyphen. Adjective + adjective: Both adjectives take the plural ending: des sourdsmuets. Verb + noun: 1. Only the noun takes the plural ending: des tire-bouchons; des tourne-disques. 2. Neither the verb nor the noun take the plural ending: des abat-jour Invariable word + noun: Only the noun takes the plural ending: des avantscènes; des non-lieux. Verb + verb: No plural agreement: des laissez-passer. Foreign words: The last noun takes the plural ending: Des snack-bars, des pull-overs, les week-ends No plural agreement: des post-scriptum The formal forms of address are not capitalised apart from Madame, Monsieur, Messieurs, Mademoiselle. These are written in lower-case in the following circumstances: - In a letter when you write about a person that is known to the
addressee. Section Two - Punctuation 1. Full stops: Full stops are not used at the end of headings, titles, subtitles, addresses, dates, no. of pages. E.g.: Le 20 mars 1984 - Page 11. Please note that etc is followed by one full stop and not & (etc.) 2. Speech marks: The French quotation marks must always be used: « and ». " and " are English and should not be used in French text. On the other hand, ' and ' can be used when a quote or a speech is within another quote or speech. Unlike English, French does not always have to have closing and re-opening speech marks around a phrase, like 'he said' when it is embedded within dialogue. « Je veux plus de travail ! », cria Chloé. ("Give me more work!", shouted Chloe.) « Et il s'est exclamé 'Quelqu'un veut du thé ?' comme il aime à le faire. ». ("Would anyone like some tea?" asked George.) « Je m'ennuie. » dit Michelle, « Puis-je rentrer chez moi ? » ("I'm bored - can I go home now?", Michala said.) 3. The apostrophe: The apostrophe is used for elision purposes, especially with an article followed by a vowel. E.g.: L'anglais, l'imprimante. 4. Colons and semi-colons: Colons and semi-colons are preceded by a space (preferably non breakable) and the word following them is not capitalised. The word following ellipsis is usually capitalised. 5. Brackets: The brackets are as follows: ( and ). The following rules apply: - If the text in brackets is a complete sentence (subject + verb at least), there is a full stop BEFORE the closing bracket. E.g.: Nettoyez l'imprimante. (Utilisez de préférence un chiffon doux.) - If the text in brackets is a part of another main sentence, there is not full stop before the closing bracket. E.g.: Utilisez un chiffon (doux et non pelucheux) pour nettoyez l'imprimante. The square brackets are used when there are already brackets. 6. Capitalisation: The capitalisation rules are similar to English in the use of capitals at the beginning of sentences and for proper names, but French doesn't use capitals as often as English. Please note: - In headings, usually only the first word has a capital letter and the rest of the words in the title are lower case. - Names of days/seasons/months are always in lower case, e.g. lundi, mardi/printemps, été/janvier, février. - Languages (anglais, italien, espagnol, etc.) are never capitalised in French. Capitals are only used when it refers to the people. E.g.: les Français, les Espagnols. - Product names are also normally in lower case, apart from the first word of a sentence or phrase. - The noun following a comma, a colon or a semi-colon is never capitalised. The noun following an exclamation mark or an interrogation mark is usually capitalised. Bulleted lists: The rules are as follows: - If the bulleted items are full sentences (subject + verb), each starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop. - If the bulleted items are phrases or just words, they are not capitalised and all end with a semi- colon apart from the last item that ends with a full stop. Space in punctuation: French always has a space before and after the following punctuation marks: : ; ! ? (preferably a non-breakable space). Section Three - Measurements and Abbreviations 1. Measurement: Metric system is used except for computer monitors (inches), inner diameter of pipes/tubes, nautical miles and size of computer disks. Numbers use a comma to denote decimals and a non-breakable space as the thousands separator (not a dot!). E.g.: 4,5 cm - 4 500 - 50 000. 10h30 / midi / 16h30 / minuit (always use the 24-hour clock) There should always be a space before a % symbol There should be a space before °C (preferably a non-breakable
space). 2. Currency: 230 £ / 230 livres sterling / 45 ¬ / 45 euros / 98 milliards de dollars / 98 $ / 5 EUR / 5 USD. The international 3-letter code e.g. GBP for £, should appear in place of the symbol - they should not be used at the same time. 3. Abbreviations: N/a: s/o m (for metre): m EMEA (Europe, Middle-East & Asia): EMOA Days of the week (Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun): lund, mar, mer, jeu, vend, sam, dim Months: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec: Janv, Fév, Mars, Avril, Mai, Juin, Juil, Août, Sept, Oct, Nov, Déc Seasons are not normally abbreviated in French. UE = EU - CEE (Communauté Economique Européenne) = EEC - c.a./c.c. (courant alternatif/courant continu) = AC/DC - PAO (Publication assistée par ordinateur) = DTP - Heure T.U.: UT - réf.: = reference - TVA = VAT - Mo = MB and Go = GB - P-S = post-scriptum - SVP = please - PDG = CEO - p. = pg. (p. 127 et 128) - MHz = megahertz - ppm = page/minute - bps = bit(s)/second - fig. = figure (illustration) - Tél. or Tél. = telephone - TTC = all tax included Section Four - Hyphenation Hyphens are used in: - Verb pronouns: e.g. prends-le-lui 1. Forbidden hyphenations: - Never split a number. 2. Other Divisions
Words joined together using hyphens are quite commons especially with compound nouns and verb pronouns. The prefixes extra, super, multi, semi, ultra are used to form compound nouns.
The dash is usually translated with colons but text in brackets
or a semi colon can as well be used. Section Five - Miscellaneous Peculiarities Written Swiss French is exactly the same as written 'French French'. There are some local words (they can be different in each 'canton') that are used in everyday language, but never in texts which are to be published. An example: we sometimes say 'services' (CH) for 'couverts' (FR), which is the generic term for forks, knifes and spoons. Usually, the ending "burg" is "bourg" in French. In addresses, there is no county or district as the postcode says
it all: Usually surnames are given before the first name (and lists of names
are classified according to surnames) French uses italics as a stylistic form but not the same way as English does. Section Six - Geographic Distribution Language Distribution in Switzerland: French German Italian Rhaeto-Rumantsch (Rumantsch) The many foreigners resident in Switzerland have brought with them their own languages, which taken as a whole now outnumber both Rumantsch and Italian. The 2000 census showed that speakers of Serbian/Croatian were the largest foreign language group, with 1.4% of the population. English was the main language for 1%. Sources: -"Switzerland is yours" website: http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/contexts/german.html "Schweiz in Sicht" website: Section Seven - Character Set [ ] = Alt key codes
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