Punctuation in Ecriture.

A. M.B2Kwiziq community member

Punctuation in Ecriture.

I am making a lot of incorrect punctuation choices.   It seems that there are significant differences in punctuation conventions between English and French.   Do you address these?   

Asked 3 years ago
CélineNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Bonjour Alexandra,

I would agree with both Maarten and Chris here. First and foremost, concentrate on the language content. The intricacies of French punctuation will come bit by bit the more you read the language and the more practice you get. I have to say that I still struggle a little with English punctuation from time to time. ;-)   

Here is a link to a similar question where both Chris and Cécile answered: quotation marks

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Translating fragments and individual clauses isn’t ideal for learning punctuation. I almost totally ignore punctuation as an aim doing these exercises, too frustrating trying to match !

 If improved French-style punctuation is a goal, I think it might be better to do the exercise, rewrite or type elsewhere and punctuate with complete sentences and paragraphs. Trying to get the grammar and vocabulary and spelling and accents and punctuation right all in one swoop is just too much for me at this stage !

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I wouldn't sweat punctuation. Get everything else right, and punctuation will have sorted itself out by then.

G B.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Whilst I try to get the punctuation right, I ignore it when it comes to marking myself.

My way of doing these exercises has evolved over the years. These days I type my responses on a separate word doc and highlight my mistakes in red and new vocab in blue. I then mark myself at the end rather than after each sentence by looking at the overall piece. Then I keep repeating the exercise until I get reasonably close to a perfect score.

A. M. asked:

Punctuation in Ecriture.

I am making a lot of incorrect punctuation choices.   It seems that there are significant differences in punctuation conventions between English and French.   Do you address these?   

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