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spacing

Spacing with punctuation is not always the same in English and French.  For guidelines on spacing in both official languages, refer to the tables below.

Spacing in English

Spacing in English
Punctuation mark Before After

apostrophe (within a word)

  • the woman’s hat
no space no space

apostrophe (end of word)

  • the employees’ suggestions
no space 1 space

colon

  • We’ll need the following: a tent, sleeping bags and good weather.
no space 1 space

comma

  • She was born on Friday, March 13, 2009.
no space 1 space

decimal point

  • 43.5 hours
no space no space

ellipsis (unspaced):

  • There was little he could say … so he said nothing.
1 space 1 space

em dash:

  • Jean’s car—a silver Lexus—was stolen last night.
no space no space

en dash:

  • pages 84–95

Note: A spaced en dash may be used in a sentence in place of an unspaced em dash. In that case, the en dash has one space before and after it:

  • Jean’s car – a silver Lexus – was stolen last night.
no space no space

exclamation point

  • Wow! That’s wonderful!
no space 1 space

hyphen

  • the bride-to-be
no space no space

oblique (between two letters, symbols or words)

  • n/a
no space no space

oblique (between groups of words with internal spacing)

  • Language and Society / Langue et societé
1 space 1 space

parenthesis or bracket (opening)

  • The em dash (long dash) is a substitute for the comma, colon or semicolon.
1 space no space

parenthesis or bracket (closing)

  • Using personal pronouns (I, you, we) helps us write more clearly.
no space 1 space

period

  • You can drop by tomorrow. I’ll be home.
no space 1 space

question mark

  • What did he say? I wasn’t listening.
no space 1 space

quotation marks (opening)

  • She said, "We have nothing to fear ...
1 space no space

quotation marks (closing)

  • … but fear itself."
no space 1 space

semicolon

  • To err is human; to forgive, divine.
no space 1 space

Spacing in French

Spacing in French
Punctuation mark

Before

After
apostrophe no space no space
colon 1 non-breaking space* 1 space
comma no space 1 space
decimal comma no space no space
dashes (em and en) 1 space 1 space
ellipsis (unspaced) no space 1 space
exclamation point no space 1 space
oblique (between two letters, symbols or words) no space no space
oblique (between two groups with internal spacing) 1 space 1 space
parenthesis or bracket (opening) 1 space no space
parenthesis or bracket (closing) no space 1 space
period no space 1 space
question mark no space 1 space
quotation marks (opening) 1 space 1 non-breaking space*
quotation marks (closing) 1 non-breaking space* 1 space
semicolon no space 1 space

*Back to the textTo create a non-breaking space in Word, hold down Ctrl and Shift when you hit the space bar. In WordPerfect, hold down Ctrl when you hit the space bar. For any other word processors, check the special characters section.

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Date Modified: 2015-10-15

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