git:20260629.e4cf32e to git:20260729.2743ee4

# French (fr) — voice doctrine

## The voice in this language

French Tale prose is calm, opinionated, and verb-first. The second-person `tu` is the only address. Imperatives carry walkthroughs (`Ouvre **Paramètres > Membres** et clique sur **Inviter un membre**.`). Sentences are short to medium; relative clauses (`qui`, `que`) carry detail rather than stacked nominal phrases (`de … de … de …`). The French narrator is the same narrator as the English one — peer-to-peer, why-before-what.

> **Positive example.** Ouvre **Paramètres > Membres** et clique sur **Inviter un membre**. Le nouveau membre reçoit un lien par e-mail valide 24 heures et atterrit dans le rôle par défaut que tu choisis — change-le dans le formulaire avant d'envoyer s'il ne doit pas être Membre.

Three sentences, `tu`/`-le`, no `vous`, no `Découvre`, no `N'hésite pas à`. NBSP before `:` and around guillemets. The 24-hour expiry is a consequence the reader needs and the prose lands it inline.

## The drift mode this language slips into

French prose drifts into marketing softening. Three named patterns recur:

1. **Marketing-softener strikes** — `Découvre(z)`, `N'hésite(z) pas à`, `tout simplement`, `il te/vous suffit de`, `simplement`, `facilement`, `clé en main`, `Profite(z) de`, `Bénéficie(z) de`, `puissant(e)`, `en toute simplicité`. Each asserts a quality the page should demonstrate.

2. **Stacked nominal phrases (3+ `de` chains)** — _Une solution clé en main pour la gestion documentaire intégrée multilingue_. Native French uses a relative clause: _Une solution qui gère les documents dans plusieurs langues_.

3. **`vous`-slips** — formal `vous` / `votre` / `vos` in prose. Tale is `tu` uniformly.

> **Drift → target.** _Découvrez notre nouvelle fonctionnalité de Knowledge Base puissante et clé en main._

>

> _Ouvre la **Base de connaissances**. Elle indexe automatiquement les documents que tu charges et les rend disponibles aux agents en 30 secondes._

>

> The drift uses three softeners (`Découvrez`, `puissante`, `clé en main`) and a half-translated compound (`Knowledge Base`). The target switches to the imperative, names the concrete behaviour (30-second indexing), uses the shipped UI label.

Regex-checkable forms live in [`packages/ui/src/i18n/tests/locales/fr/voice.ts`](../../../../../packages/ui/src/i18n/tests/locales/fr/voice.ts) (caught by `voice-strikes`). Nominal-stacking is reviewer-caught.

## Conventions

See [CONVENTIONS.md](../../CONVENTIONS.md) for the template; values below are FR's.

## Loanword stance

French keeps bucket-1 and bucket-2 English; bucket-3 translates. Reminders:

- **Stay English in FR prose:** `Workflow`, `Dashboard`, `Cloud`, `Webhook`, `Token`, `Server`, `Pipeline`, `Pull Request`, `Branch`, `Merge`, `Commit`, `Code Review`, `MCP`.

- **Translate in FR prose:** `Header` → `En-tête`, `Request` → `Requête`, `Email` → `Courriel` (in formal prose) or `e-mail` (in conversational prose), `Help Center` → `Centre d'aide`, `Knowledge Base` → `Base de connaissances`, `Draft` → `Brouillon`, `Attachment` → `Pièce jointe`, `Self-hosted` → `auto-hébergé`, `Engineering` → `Ingénierie`.

## What ships untranslated

| EN | FR |

| --------- | ------------ |

| Owner | Propriétaire |

| Admin | Admin |

| Developer | Développeur |

| Editor | Éditeur |

| Member | Membre |

| Disabled | Désactivé |

Plus every Bucket 1 brand, acronym, and code identifier.

## When the locale-specific test fires

The FR checks live in [`packages/ui/src/i18n/tests/checks/`](../../../../../packages/ui/src/i18n/tests/checks/) and read [`packages/ui/src/i18n/tests/locales/fr/`](../../../../../packages/ui/src/i18n/tests/locales/fr/) data.

The most common firings:

- `pronouns-formal` — `vous` / `votre` / `vos` mid-sentence. Rewrite to `tu`.

- `voice-strikes` — `Découvrez`, `N'hésite pas à`, `tout simplement`, `puissant`, `clé en main`. Demonstrate, don't assert.

- `terminology-loanword` — translate-bucket noun left English. Use the locale form.

- `terminology-half-compound` — `Pull Demande`, `Branch Branche`, `Knowledge Base` in FR prose.

- `style-nbsp` — regular space before `:;!?%»`. Use NBSP (U+00A0).

- `style-apostrophes` — ASCII `'` between letters in prose. Use typographic `’`.

## Worked examples

See [examples.md](examples.md) for positive examples and drift→target pairs.