French translation
France or Canada,
decided before drafting
French for France and French for Canada are separate target choices on the agency’s language list. Canadian texts, and Québec texts in particular, differ in vocabulary, terminology and some punctuation, and commercial content there is subject to language legislation. The intended province or institution belongs in the brief.
French typography shows on every page. Spacing around punctuation, guillemets, accented capitals and lower-case month names mark a text as professionally set, and layout tools that strip them leave errors a French reader notices at once.
Language and locale facts
French
conventions to specify
French has rules of spacing and format that English-language software and layout tools often break. Canada keeps the language but changes several conventions.
| Convention | French |
|---|---|
| Punctuation spacing | France: a non-breaking space before ; : ! ? and inside « »; Québec practice puts a space before the colon but not before ; ! ? |
| Quotation marks | Guillemets « … » with inner spaces; nested quotation marks use “ ” |
| Numbers | Decimal comma; thousands separated by a space, ideally non-breaking: 1 250,50 |
| Date | 31 octobre 2026, month in lower case; numeric DD/MM/YYYY in France, year-month-day frequent in Canada |
| Currency | France: 1 250,50 €; Canada: 1 250,50 $ |
| Vocabulary | Courriel in Canada, e-mail or mail in France; many other everyday and institutional terms differ |
| Address | Formal vous is the business default; tu for informal brand voices |
| Capitals | Accents are kept on capital letters (À, É) |
Typical source material
French documents
and their translation focus
French texts pass between administrations, subsidiaries and consumer channels, each with its own expectations of register.
| Material | Translation focus |
|---|---|
| Contracts and administrative documents | Formal register with vous; legal terms matched to French or Canadian law and institutions |
| Technical and medical texts | Terminology fixed per product line; units, decimal commas and non-breaking spaces preserved in tables |
| Websites, packaging and product text | Market vocabulary and Québec language requirements checked before strings are adapted |
| Software and apps | Spacing before punctuation and gender agreement in dynamic strings |
Language-specific checks
Details that change
the finished translation
Three French-specific checks follow from the table above.
Canadian French is its own market
French for Canada is not French for France with changed spelling. Vocabulary, institutional names and punctuation habits differ, and the intended province should be named.
Spacing before punctuation
In France a space precedes ; : ! ? and layout teams need a non-breaking space so the mark never starts a line. Systems that remove the space produce text that looks wrong to French readers.
Agreement and gender in short strings
French adjectives and participles agree with gender and number, so strings with placeholders such as ‘{count} selected’ need variant forms or rewording.
France or Canada, and how French text is typeset
A French brief starts with the market: France or Canada, with the province or institution named where it matters. It states the typography to be applied, including non-breaking spaces and guillemets, and the address form, with the formal vous as the usual business default. Feminised job titles and inclusive writing follow the client style guide.
A native French translator living in the target country produces each text, and a second linguist revises it within the agency’s ISO 17100-certified process. Customer-facing pages are handled through website translation, and company or administrative texts through business translation.
Buyer questions
Questions about
French translation
Is French for Canada different from French for France?
Yes. French (France) and French (Canada) are separate listed variants. Vocabulary, institutional terms and some punctuation and number conventions differ, and Québec has language legislation for commercial content. A text for Canadian readers should be briefed as such rather than adapted from a France version afterwards.
What should a brief specify for Canadian French?
State that the audience is in Canada, name the province where relevant, and supply approved product or legal terminology. Mention whether Québec language requirements apply to packaging, websites or contracts. Canadian French is more than French spelling with a different label, so market-aware choices are made throughout.
Why does French need spaces before question marks and colons?
In France, French typography places a non-breaking space before the semicolon, colon, exclamation mark and question mark, and inside guillemets. Canadian practice is narrower, with a space before the colon only. Layout and software tools should preserve these spaces, or the text appears wrongly set.
How are numbers, dates and currency written in French?
French uses a decimal comma and a space between thousand groups, as in 1 250,50. Months are written in lower case, so a date reads 31 octobre 2026. The euro or dollar sign follows the amount, separated by a space. Canadian documents often use year-month-day numeric dates.
Should French business texts use vous or tu?
Vous is the standard in business correspondence, contracts and regulated information. Tu appears in informal brand voices and youth-oriented marketing. The register is fixed in the brief and applied consistently across websites, apps and documentation, since mixing the two within one customer journey reads as an error.
Can one French translation serve France and Canada?
Sometimes, for neutral technical text, but it should not be assumed. Product names, terminology, legal references and punctuation may need market-specific decisions, and Québec rules can apply to consumer content. The brief should state whether one version must serve both markets, so a review can be planned for each.