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French Language Question
- Thread starter 48thStreetCustom
- Start date
I believe it to be a purely stylistic choice!
Since it’s just a phrase (“that’s life”), the capitalization rules only apply for a title.
I could be wrong, I can speak Spanish and only a small bit of French, but like I said, I’m pretty sure it’s only a stylistic choice.
Since it’s just a phrase (“that’s life”), the capitalization rules only apply for a title.
I could be wrong, I can speak Spanish and only a small bit of French, but like I said, I’m pretty sure it’s only a stylistic choice.
Well, if it is like Spanish, I've seen it in lower case most of the time. Havent taken French since middle school, so, best of luck! (But if they publish titles with it either way I guess it doesn't matter.)
If it were in sentence form I think it would just be “C’est la vie” but since it’s a title of a book we’re talking about, it’s pretty much up to the author to choose which words get capitalized.
Yep, he’d be the guy to give a definitive answer on this.
Didn't read the question but the answer probably is: You pronounce the first 5 letters and the last 9 are silent. Yer welcome
A) is correct.
You would make the L capital when starting a sentence, IIRC.
You would make the L capital when starting a sentence, IIRC.
That would always give me some serious difficulty when learning French because in Spanish, everything is pronounced straightforwardly. Even though they’re both Romance languages, French really flips your perspective upside down. Fun stuff though regardless.
Hm. Have you seen b) in a French language publication, as opposed to an English-language book with a title in French?
My money is on a). I've never encountered what this Wiki article calls "start case" in any Romance-language title capitalisation practices. I've been wrong before, though. Many times since I got up this morning, in fact.
Italian and, as far as I know, Spanish follow "sentence case" - i.e. only the first word and words that are capitalised in ordinary text, nothing else - except occasionally, when the author, editor or publisher's whim opts for capitalising one or two significant words for emphasis (mostly occurs in novels or popular-interest non-fiction, rarely in technical or scientific publications).
The question of where French stands in this respect appears to be a non-trivial one:
http://sites.univ-lyon2.fr/lettres/zdoc-varia/MajusculesInBiblio.pdf
Title Case in French — Majuscules Dans Les Titres
Unraveling the Mystery of Capitalizing French Titles
The last link identifies three styles.
1) first word; first noun if the first word was an article (especially a definite one, it would seem); any adjective referring to said noun and preceding it (and also adverbs referring to the adjectives); other nouns which are symmetrically coordinated to the first:
L'Insoutenable Légèreté de l’être
Guerre et Paix
2) first word and significant nouns (with a certain degree of subjectivity in longer titles with many noun candidates):
L'insoutenable Légèreté de l’Être
3) only first word and words that are capitalised in normal text (proper nouns etc., but of course according to French's own rules, which are different from English ones), sentence-style:
L'insoutenable légèreté de l’être
(By the way, I've no idea which of the three styles was actually chosen by the French-language publishers of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.)
None of the three options would place an upper case "L" in "la" from your example.
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If you want strict French grammar, only the first letter of each sentence and proper nouns should be capitalized. It should be written "C'est la vie".
Now there is a lot of stylistic freedom when it comes to titles. In this context there is no proper way, merely an artistic statement.
Now there is a lot of stylistic freedom when it comes to titles. In this context there is no proper way, merely an artistic statement.
There is nothing trivial about French language, ever. We take it very seriously.
The “h” is actually silent and not pronounced in the Spanish language. For example “honor” or “honesto” would be pronounced as if the “h” wasn’t there!True for the most part in Spanish. Except this isn't a Chiwawa or Chihoowahoowa.
View attachment 3183969
If it is the submissive voice, you should us the lower case. If it is the canine voice, you will need a bigger font. In all cases, French is actually not an acknowledged language and is a cunning mix of Latin, Mespotamian and lower East Side Boogie. The Normans first defeated the Agiles in 1972, in La Tourese de Commode, in the winter of our disconnect. This was discovered by Midwestern soothsayers, who first laid claim to plaid clams in the summer Olympics, which were held in Jersey. Many of the players actually wore jerseys, made from Jersey Cotton, which was ironically grown in Atlanta, or Atlantis, depending on who you ask. (scholars tend to lean towards Atlanta; insane, drug addicted droolers almost always choose Atlantis, or Antarctica.) Several of the boys got lost on their way to the train station, and an all-out panic ensued, until it was realized that no one actually cared.
The “h” is always silent in Spanish, in English it can have a sound like in “hello”.
1) to distinguish otherwise identically pronounced words:
aceros "steels; blades" vs. haceros "(to) do to you (pl.)"
2) merely to show etymology, original form in the language it was borrowed from, or in Old Spanish
(English is heavy into this. After all, why write the p- in "psychology"? or the -h- in it, for that matter? Why the -b in "thumb"?)
In some Andalusian accents, the h- is actually pronounced; not all aitches though: original Latin H is long gone in them just as in any other Romance language, but h- derived from older (Latin or Arabic) f- persists in those accents. To re-use some examples, these folks do not pronounce the h- in honor nor honesto, but they do in hacer.
Finally, -h- is used as a necessary part in digraph <ch>, just like in English.
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Great answer, I’m so glad you answered that cause I would have had to dig into the books to remember that. A fellow language nerd, awesome stuff!
