Unraveling the Mystery of Capitalizing French Titles

Unraveling the Mystery of Capitalizing French Titles First of all, you wouldnt put lumià ¨re (light) in all caps, as we did in the subhead above, just to make a point. There are, indeed, rules to follow, and you shouldnt capitalize French titles willy-nilly. English speakers should understand that the capitalization of titles and names in French and English exhibit several differences, all of which involve words that are capitalized in English but not in French. This means there is, by and large, less capitalization in French than there is in English.   In English, the first word of a proper title and all subsequent words, except short articles, conjunctions and prepositions, are capitalized. The rules are more complicated in French, and the table below examines three schools of thought regarding French capitalization of titles and names*.   Standard Capitalization In French, capitalization depends on the position and the grammatical function of the words in the title. The first word is always capitalized. If the first word is an article or other  determiner, the first noun and any adjectives that precede it are capitalized, like this: Trois Contes Un Cur simple Le Petit Robert Le Nouveau Petit Robert Le Bon Usage Le Progrs de la civilisation au XXe sicle If the title consists of two words or phrases of equal value, they are considered co-titles and each one is capitalized according to the above rules, as in: Guerre et Paix Julie ou La Nouvelle Hà ©loà ¯se This system  is used in Le Petit Robert, Le Quid, and throughout the Dictionnaire de citations franà §aises. Le Bon Usage, considered the bible of French grammar,  briefly discusses an inconsistency in the capitalization of titles. It does not mention the system above, but it does list the systems in 2. and 3. below. Important-Noun  Capitalization In this system, the first word and any important nouns are capitalized, like this: Trois Contes Un Cur simple Le petit Robert Le nouveau petit Robert Le bon Usage Le Progrs de la Civilisation au XXe sicle Le Bon Usage  states that system 2. is more common than 3. and uses it in its own bibliography. Sentence Capitalization In this system, only the first word of the title is capitalized (except proper nouns, which are always capitalized). Trois contes Un cur simple Le petit Robert Le nouveau petit Robert Le bon usage Le progrs de la civilisation au XXe sicle A number of websites use this system, crediting it either to the MLA Handbook  or to normes ISO  (norms of the International Organization for Standardization).  It is difficult to find any official online documentation for either of these sources. If you look at the spines of a few dozen French books, you will see capitalization is split about 50-50 between Important Noun Capitalization and Sentence Capitalization.   In the end, what will probably work best is to  decide which system works best for you, and stick with it consistently.   Proper nouns, as we mentioned above, are not affected by these capitalization systems; they always follow their own rules of capitalization. *Capitalization of Surnames French surnames (family names)  are often capitalized in their entirety, especially in bibliographies and administrative documents, like this: Gustave FLAUBERT Camara LAYE Jean de LA FONTAINE Antoine de SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Inertia and the Laws of Motion

Inertia and the Laws of Motion Inertia is the name for the tendency of an object in motion to remain in motion, or an object at rest to remain at rest  unless acted upon by a force. This concept was quantified in Newtons First Law of Motion. The word inertia came from the Latin word iners, which means idle or lazy and was first used by Johannes Kepler. Inertia and Mass Inertia is a quality of all objects made of matter that possess mass. They keep doing what they are doing until a force changes their speed or direction. A ball sitting still on a table wont start rolling around unless something pushes on it, be it your hand, a gust of air, or vibrations from the surface of the table. If you tossed a ball in the frictionless vacuum of space, it would travel on at the same speed and direction forever unless acted on by gravity or another force such as a collision. Volker Mà ¶hrke / Getty Images Mass is a measure of inertia. Objects of higher mass resist changes in motion more than objects of lower mass. A more massive ball, such as one made of lead, will take more of a push to start it rolling. A styrofoam ball of the same size but low mass may be set in motion by a puff of air. Theories of Motion From Aristotle to Galileo In everyday life, we see rolling balls come to rest. But they do so because they are acted on by force of gravity and from the effects of friction and air resistance. Because that is what we observe, for many centuries Western thought followed the theory of Aristotle, who said that moving objects would eventually come to rest and needed continued force to keep them in motion. In the seventeenth century, Galileo experimented with rolling balls on inclined planes. He discovered that as friction was reduced, balls rolled down an inclined plane attained almost the same height rolling back up an opposing plane. He reasoned that if there were no friction, they would roll down an incline and then keep rolling on a horizontal surface forever. It wasnt something innate in the ball that caused it to stop rolling; it was contact with the surface. Newtons First Law of Motion and Inertia Isaac Newton developed the principles shown in Galileos observations into his first law of motion. It takes a force to stop the ball from continuing to roll once it is set in motion. It takes a force to change its speed and direction. It doesnt need a force to continue moving at the same speed in the same direction. The first law of motion is often referred to as the law of inertia. This law applies to an inertial reference frame. Corollary 5 of Newtons Principia says: The motions of bodies included in a given space are the same among themselves, whether that space is at rest or moves uniformly forwards in a straight line without circular motion. In this way, if you drop a ball on a moving train that is not accelerating, you will see the ball fall straight downward, as you would on a train that was not moving.