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October 20, 2021 16:35
I have a general question about the French language.
At the moment I am adjusting and changing French Chansons.
Now something is not entirely clear to me, I also did not learn the French language at school.
Take eg this Chanson, Je Reviens Chez Toi Avec Le Soleil, this means in German, Ich komme mit der Sonne nach Hause.
Now my question, in Germany Sonne en Hause is written large, how is this in French, are there also capital letters for certain words, e.g. here in this Chanson Soleil or everything is written small.
Greet John.
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October 20, 2021 17:17
In Dutch , the first letter of the first word of a title is capitalized. Nouns a lower case letter, and further the standard rules regarding capital letters (proper names, names of countries or cities, ...). Unless proper names are used as generic names. eg. a macadam street. Despite the fact that the name actually comes from a person (the inventor). Cardinal points are lowercase unless used as a proper noun. United States is located west of Mexico and belongs to the West, Russia extends east to Alaska and belongs to the countries of the East. Sometimes even more confusing with derived adjectives:  to have a Homeric discussion about the Homeric epic ...  Or: the Catholic Church has a Catholic mission. Titles have a lowercase letter (count).
The days of the week also have a lowercase letter.

Broadly speaking, the same rules apply in French. But there are some special rules that are different from our language. A name of a language eg in French is always with a lowercase letter. Compound geographical names in French are better learned by heart: la mer du Nord, les Pays-Bas, ...
In French, the days of the week are written with a small letter.
In Spanish apply almost the same rules as in French.

In his American every important word in a title (nouns eg) is capitalized. I don't think that's the case in (default) English. Titles in English do have a capital letter (Earl). The days of the week are capitalized in English.

German is completely different. I remember there from a very distant past, from the limited German lessons I had to take at the end of the humanities, that several words (including the nouns) are capitalized. I would capitalize almost every word there, that will give the least errors :)



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October 20, 2021 17:35
Raoul62
Thanks Raoul for the explanation.
I will write all the titles of the Chansons in small, I think it is better.
Greetings John.
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October 20, 2021 20:57
Lyonesse Raoul62 
That's fine to follow the Dutch rules for French titles. But if you're not sure about such things, you can always look in the manual. It also contains a chapter on language use.
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October 20, 2021 21:39
FransS 
They are not rules for an LD language. These are the applicable spelling rules for those languages.
In French, names of languages are written with lowercase letters. Whether you like it or not. Grand Jojo sang 'La mer du Nord' in 2012, not 'La Mer du Nord'. That's Koeter-Waals, but not French. Ronny Verbiest sang 'La mer du Nord' in 2018, and not 'La Mer Du Nord'. That is Bruxelloise language use, not French.
Not as bad as a spelling error or a dt error, but it is spelling with some slack.
PS: don't search for LD: the Music section on LD contains a lot of little French material.
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October 20, 2021 22:06
The complete set of rules from the French language regarding the use of capital letters in titles, which will be an edition of several thick books. I only wanted to briefly share the essentials.
A Puritan detail, for example, is the rule regarding the capital letter of the second word in a title. Depending on the first word (type) of a title, the second word can also be capitalized. On Belgian CDs, with songs in the French language, I think the French language rules are never respected. Arno (ex-Tjens Couter, ex-TC Matic) sang 'Les Filles du bord de mer' in 1993. That's correct French. On one CD, on his Brussels (although Arno is from Ostend) is written 'Les Filles Du Bord De Mer'  (CD 100 French classics). On another CD it is even simpler: 'LES FILLES DU BORD DE MER' (CD Idiots Savants). Everything in capital letters ... always seems correct to me.
A question came up about what the rules are ... I can only show them as they are. Didn't invent them myself :)
I will never fall for it myself, maybe not even 100% consistently apply them myself.

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October 20, 2021 22:14
Raoul62
I understand all that, but my point was that there is a chapter in the handbook about those spelling rules and I think that corresponds pretty well with the applicable rules for French. I don't have it ready right away, I should check the handbook, but I suspect that the rule to write names of languages with a lowercase letter is not there. We could, of course, adjust that.

In French, names of languages are written in small letters.
But here you really should have written it with a capital letter ;-)

PS If you search by genre chanson in the music category, you will soon find over 2300 items.....
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