Spacing in French typography

Did you know that in French, the word "espace" can have several meanings but also several gender. While we say “un espace” to mean space (you know, Mr Pesquet's favorite playground), the word becomes feminine (“une espace”) to designate the interval between two words typed on the computer.

So... what are the rules for using spaces in French typography?

There are different types of spaces, and their use depends on the language you're writing in... even on the web. So, should you put a space before or after an exclamation mark? And what about colons? Find out below.

The different spaces in French typography

There are several typographical spaces in the French language, mainly:

☑ the justifying space, which corresponds to the space you put between 2 words. Although it can also be called “normal space”, its nickname “justifuying” comes from the fact that its size adjusts according to the justification of your text. This space is like the shoe that fits your foot. Indispensable and super-practical!

☑ the unbreakable space and its little sister, the thin unbreakable space (shorter), which allow two typographic elements to remain unbroken when going to the line. For example, the space before an exclamation mark or before the € symbol is a thin unbreakable space. You could call it the space for BFFs who don't want to leave each other's side. 👩‍❤️‍👩

About the use of spaces in typed French

Each punctuation mark has its own rule. And each language has its own rules for these rules too. Tricky!

For example, in French, double punctuation marks (i.e., those made up of two elements, such as !? ; and « » ) must have a space before and after.

But this only applies to French. Because, yes, typographical rules differ from one language to another.

In English, for example, double punctuation marks only go with a space after. And quotation marks are different, since in English we simply use “..”.

⏩ Got it? or should I say... Compris ?

What's more: within the same language, there even are differences! For example, between the French of France and the French of Canada, which is closer to English since it doesn't accept the use of a space after a double punctuation mark (except for :).

⏩ T'as-tu compris? Ayoye, pas facile!

Serious writing sounds serious

In a few words, punctuation (and its typographic implementation) is serious business. And like everything else when you move from one language to another, it has to be “translated”. With 13 years' experience in communications and a linguistic background, I know this only too well.

That's why I'm offering you my skills in French writing and training. Contact me to know more!