How to Use Hyphens and Dashes in French

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Updated on February 03, 2019

Hyphens and m-dashes are important in both English and French, but they are considerably more common in the latter. This lesson explains when, why, and how to use hyphens and m-dashes in French.

I. Trait d'union - Hyphen

No space before or after

A. Rapport : Indicate a link between words or parts of words.

1. Compound words	grand-mère, couvre-lit, quatre-vingts
2. Hyphenated names	Jean-Luc, Marie-Lise
3. Imperative + pronoun	aide-moi, fais-le, allez-y
4. Inversion	veux-tu, pouvez-vous, a-t-il
5. Prefixes	non-fumeur, quasi-collision
6. Set expressions	c'est-à-dire, vis-à-vis
7. Suffixes	celui-ci, cet homme-là

B. Césure : Link the parts of a word that breaks at the end of a line such as Je veux aller à la bou-

tique.

II. Tiret — M-dash

Space before and after

A. Éléments d'une liste :

— deux bananes
— une pomme
— un kilo de fraises

B. Incise : Emphasize a comment (aside, interjection, etc)

Quand j'étais à la banque — quelle horreur ! — je l'ai vu.
Paul — mon meilleur ami — va arriver demain.

C. Dialogue : Indicate each change of speaker

— J'ai vu Michel aujourd'hui.

— Ah bon ?

— Oui, il était avec sa fille.

Format

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Your Citation

Team, ThoughtCo. "How to Use Hyphens and Dashes in French." ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/hyphens-and-dashes-in-french-4086573. Team, ThoughtCo. (2021, December 6). How to Use Hyphens and Dashes in French. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/hyphens-and-dashes-in-french-4086573 Team, ThoughtCo. "How to Use Hyphens and Dashes in French." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/hyphens-and-dashes-in-french-4086573 (accessed June 4, 2023).