Locale Fr Ca

Reference data for the French (Canada) locale — endonym Français (Le Canada), written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: fr-CA
• ISO 639-1: fr
• ISO 639-3: fra
• Script: Latn (Latin)
• Region: CA (Canada)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 7,800,000
• L2 (additional): 2,900,000
• L1+L2 (total): 10,700,000

Base locale

This is a regional variant of Locale Fr 001 (French), the base/macro locale for this language.

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, many, other (3 forms).

• one — i = 0,1 (e.g. 0, 1)
• many — e = 0 and i != 0 and i % 1000000 = 0 and v = 0 or e != 0..5 (e.g. 1000000, …)
• other — everything else (e.g. 2~17, 100, 1000, 10000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Apply Locale Fr 001 with Canadian (mostly Québécois) conventions. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) is the reference for terminology and style in Quebec.

• Law: the Charter of the French Language requires French to be available in commercial communication in Quebec; check requirements for the product (including product labelling and websites) before finalizing.
• Typography: Canadian French does not insert a space before ; ! ?; the non-breaking space is kept before the colon and inside guillemets. The OQLF writes time as "17 h 30" and amounts as "12,50 $" with a non-breaking space; check OQLF guidance for the project.
• Terminology: use Québécois technical terms from the OQLF: "courriel" (email), "clavardage" (chat), "téléverser" (upload), "télécharger" (download), "infolettre" (newsletter), "balado" (podcast), "magasiner" (shop), "fin de semaine" (weekend), "stationnement" (parking), "logiciel", "mot de passe".
• Feminization: feminine forms of job titles are the norm ("la ministre", "la directrice", "la présidente").
• Register: the tutoiement is more widely accepted in brand voice than in France; "vous" remains the default for formal contexts.
• Anglicisms: the OQLF discourages literal anglicisms ("faire du sens", "dans le but de", "opportunité").

Common pitfalls

• Using France-only terms ("e-mail", "week-end", "parking") where the OQLF form exists.
• Using a space before ; ! ?, or the 12-hour clock without justification.
• The general pitfalls in Locale Fr 001 also apply.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• Microsoft Localization Style Guides, French (https://aka.ms/french-france-styleguide and https://aka.ms/french-canada-styleguide)
• Office québécois de la langue française, Grand dictionnaire terminologique and Banque de dépannage linguistique (https://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca)