Be careful! Words can have a different meaning with or without accents. For instance, 'biscuits salés' with accent means 'salted biscuits'. Without the accent, however, they become 'dirty biscuits'.
In Canada, accents must also be used on capital letters, except on acronyms such as REER (French for RRSP where there is an acute accent on the second E).
Metric/Imperial : In Canada, we use the metric system of measurements, although it is permitted to use both imperial and metric measures. It is the responsibility of the client to do the metric conversions. in FRENCH only inc. reminds its clients to do so by indicating, for example (xx cm) following the imperial measure.
Hyphenation rules are quite different in French. Your work should always be proofed after typesetting to ensure proper hyphenation.
Capital letters in heading and sub-headings with upper and lower case letters are only used on the first letter of the first word and in proper names. eg. Great Deal from Rubbermaid! Your French copy will read: Offre avantageuse de Rubbermaid! Entire words in capitals are permitted. For example if your English reads: SAVE! Your French copy could read: ÉCONOMISEZ! Remember, accents do appear on capital letters.
The dollar sign ($) should be after the figure and separated from the figure by a space, e.g. 25 $. Thousands are separated from hundreds by a space, not a comma, e.g. 7 500 $. Decimals are replaced with commas, e.g. 7 500,56 $ or 1,26 %
A space must be left before a percentage sign % (50 %) and before and after a colon -- Liste des caractéristiques : fabrication en plastique moulé.
French quotation marks are represented by chevrons e.g. « Merci beaucoup ». There is a space after the French opening quotation mark « Bonjour » and before the closing quotation mark. There is no space before a semi-colon, exclamation mark and question mark.
Repetitions: Vous vous, nous nous, faire faire. These repetitions are common in French although they may appear as an error to some.
French business correspondence differs significantly in its salutations and closings. For example, 'Dear' as in 'Dear Mr. Black' is not used in French. Instead only Monsieur (Sir) or Madame (Mrs.) is used. The word 'Dear' in French is used only if the correspondence is addressed to a personal friend. Closings such as Sincerely or Regards is replaced with an entire paragraph in French!
