English to French Translation Tips: Tu or Vous, Gender and Punctuation
CorrectNow Editorial Team · 5 min read
French shares a large part of its vocabulary with English, which makes it look easier to translate than it is. A French translation must choose between tu and vous, give every noun the right gender, place accents correctly and follow punctuation rules that differ from English in small but visible ways.
These tips cover the points that most often make a French translation look either polished or obviously machine-made.
Choose between tu and vous
French has two ways to say “you” to one person. Tu is informal and used with friends, family and children. Vous is formal, and it is also the plural form for any group. “How are you?” is “Comment vas-tu ?” with a friend and “Comment allez-vous ?” with a client.
Business documents, customer service, official letters and most websites use vous. Some brands deliberately use tu for a casual tone, but that is a brand decision, not a default. Whatever you choose, use it consistently, including in verbs and possessives (ton, ta, tes with tu; votre, vos with vous).
Machine translation sometimes switches between tu and vous from one sentence to the next, because each sentence is translated on its own. Searching the finished text for tu, ton, ta and tes is a quick way to spot an accidental switch in a text that should use vous.
Get noun gender right
Every French noun is masculine or feminine, and the articles and adjectives around it must agree: le livre, la voiture, une grande maison. English gives no clue, and the gender of a French noun cannot always be guessed from its ending.
Gender errors are among the first things a French reader notices. When a noun is unfamiliar, check it in a dictionary rather than relying on the look of the word.
- Incorrect: le table – Correct: la table (Table is feminine in French.)
Accents are part of the spelling
French accents are not optional. Some distinguish words that are otherwise identical: a (has) and à (to, at), ou (or) and où (where), la (the) and là (there). Leaving them out produces a different word or a spelling error.
Text that passes through systems without proper character support often loses accents, so check them carefully in the final version.
- Incorrect: Il va a Paris. – Correct: Il va à Paris. (À (to) needs the grave accent; a without it is a form of avoir.)
- Incorrect: Ou est la gare ? – Correct: Où est la gare ? (Où (where) takes an accent; ou means “or”.)
Add the space before ; : ! and ?
In standard French typography as used in France, a space goes before the semicolon, colon, exclamation mark and question mark: “Vraiment ?”, “Attention !”. The space is usually a non-breaking one so the mark never starts a new line on its own. French quotation marks are guillemets, with spaces inside them: « Bonjour ».
Conventions differ in some French-speaking regions, such as Canada and Switzerland, so follow the style used by your target audience. What matters most is that the whole document follows one convention.
- Incorrect: Vraiment? – Correct: Vraiment ? (French typography in France puts a space before the question mark.)
Use lowercase where English uses capitals
English capitalises days, months and the names of languages. French does not, except at the start of a sentence: lundi, janvier, le français. Nationality adjectives are also lowercase (un restaurant italien), while nouns for people take a capital (un Italien).
Machine translations often carry English capitalisation into French, so look for capital letters in the middle of sentences.
Dates follow the same rule. “Monday, 3 April” becomes “lundi 3 avril” in French, with the day and month in lowercase and no comma after the day of the week.
- Incorrect: Je parle Français. – Correct: Je parle français. (Names of languages are lowercase in French.)
Proofread the French version
After translating, check tu or vous consistency, gender agreement, accents, spacing before punctuation and capitalisation. Make sure numbers follow French conventions, such as a comma for decimals (3,5), if the text is for French readers.
A French grammar checker can catch many accent, agreement and spacing issues. For contracts, medical information and official documents, ask a qualified French translator to review the final text.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use tu or vous in a business translation?
Use vous unless your brand has deliberately chosen an informal voice. Vous is the expected form for customers, partners and official communication.
Why is there a space before the question mark in French?
It is a rule of French typography in France: a space, usually non-breaking, goes before ; : ! and ?. Some other French-speaking regions follow slightly different conventions.
Can I leave out accents on capital letters in French?
The Académie française recommends keeping accents on capital letters, because they help readability and avoid ambiguity. Keeping them is the safer choice.
Is French in Canada different from French in France?
They are mutually understandable, but there are differences in vocabulary, some expressions and typographic conventions. If your audience is in Quebec or another French-speaking region, follow that region’s usage.
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