4 ms·

Are you sure about that space thing? I live in Europe and I have been browsing the Internet for 20 years now, and this is the first time I hear about it. Also

Are you sure about that space thing? I live in Europe and I have been browsing the Internet for 20 years now, and this is the first time I hear about it. Also, I visit plenty of Eropean news sites, and none does that.

seba_dos1 8y ago
It's a somewhat common error, but I don't think it's ever used deliberately, especially in any professional setting.
Natsu 8y ago
It seems to be pretty common among the French at least. I haven't seen it in print media, only from individuals.
- tajen 8y ago
  In French, no space before a comma or a period (unless want to explicitly communicate your disdain for computery things or you’re above 60) but we do put a space before : ? ! Example: « Pas de palais : pas de palais ! » (^Quote from the Asterix movie that will be way more useful to you for making French friends in a bar than saying « I can’t speak French » in French)
  - ChristianBundy 8y ago
    This is actually a really interesting example of the "space before punctuation" thing rather than " space before punctuation ". Also: it looks like we're using colons differently, is that right?
    - tajen 8y ago
      We use colons for the same reason as in English, but there is a space before colons in French (Microsoft Word inserts it automatically for you in French), and no uppercase after the colon.
GuiA 8y ago
French typographic rules prescribe a space before ‘!’, ‘;’, ‘:’, and ‘?’.
- Krasnol 8y ago
  Interesting. I've never realized it. I learned french in school but couldn't remember learning about that. Example: https://www.gouvernement.fr/argumentaire/parcoursup-la-plateforme-a-rempli-sa-mission https://www.gouvernement.fr/argumentaire/parcoursup-la-plate...
  - alain94040 8y ago
    To be super-pedantic, the correct character is a non-breakable half-space (unicode 0x202F). It actually makes sense: it shouldn't be breakable, or the text layout would be ugly (the colon starting on a new line?). And it should be reduced in size, because indeed you don't want a full space before a colon...
  - jobigoud 8y ago
    This article is using the international quotation marks though, proper typography would be to use « and », which also require non-breaking spaces before and after them. The rule for punctuation is that the nbsp is before the double punctuations, those with two elements (?!;:).

seba_dos1 8y ago

It's a somewhat common error, but I don't think it's ever used deliberately, especially in any professional setting.

Natsu 8y ago

It seems to be pretty common among the French at least. I haven't seen it in print media, only from individuals.

tajen 8y ago
In French, no space before a comma or a period (unless want to explicitly communicate your disdain for computery things or you’re above 60) but we do put a space before : ? ! Example: « Pas de palais : pas de palais ! » (^Quote from the Asterix movie that will be way more useful to you for making French friends in a bar than saying « I can’t speak French » in French)
- ChristianBundy 8y ago
  This is actually a really interesting example of the "space before punctuation" thing rather than " space before punctuation ". Also: it looks like we're using colons differently, is that right?
  - tajen 8y ago
    We use colons for the same reason as in English, but there is a space before colons in French (Microsoft Word inserts it automatically for you in French), and no uppercase after the colon.

GuiA 8y ago

French typographic rules prescribe a space before ‘!’, ‘;’, ‘:’, and ‘?’.

Krasnol 8y ago
Interesting. I've never realized it. I learned french in school but couldn't remember learning about that. Example: https://www.gouvernement.fr/argumentaire/parcoursup-la-plateforme-a-rempli-sa-mission https://www.gouvernement.fr/argumentaire/parcoursup-la-plate...
- alain94040 8y ago
  To be super-pedantic, the correct character is a non-breakable half-space (unicode 0x202F). It actually makes sense: it shouldn't be breakable, or the text layout would be ugly (the colon starting on a new line?). And it should be reduced in size, because indeed you don't want a full space before a colon...
- jobigoud 8y ago
  This article is using the international quotation marks though, proper typography would be to use « and », which also require non-breaking spaces before and after them. The rule for punctuation is that the nbsp is before the double punctuations, those with two elements (?!;:).