tiret
/ti.ʁɛ/masculine
The English word 'dash' can be translated into French as tiret.
The noun tiret is used to refer to a hyphen or a dash. While English distinguishes between different lengths of marks like the hyphen, en dash and em dash, French speakers often use the single word tiret to refer to all of these typographic marks. If you specifically need to refer to the underscore symbol (_), use the term tiret bas.
Meaning: typographic symbol (noun)
Related words
How does it change in a sentence?
tiret is a masculine noun used to denote a dash or a hyphen.
How do you pronounce it?
/ti.ʁɛ/
Did you know?
- When listing items in a formal French document, a bullet point is referred to as a puce, which is the French word for 'flea'.
- In French literature, the tiret is the primary tool for indicating dialogue. Instead of using quotation marks to open and close speech, a writer simply uses a tiret at the start of a new line when a character begins speaking.
- The word tiret comes from the verb tirer, which means 'to pull'. This creates a mental image of someone 'pulling' a line across the page.
Examples in context
- Le tiret est mon signe de ponctuation chéri.The dash is my favourite punctuation mark.This sentence shows how to express that the tiret is a favorite punctuation mark.Tatoeba #1223623 by sacredceltic, translation #11035559 by sundown
- Le tiret est mon signe de ponctuation préféré.The dash is my favorite punctuation mark.This sentence also demonstrates how to say the tiret is a favorite punctuation mark.Tatoeba #8533007 by Aiji, translation #8419951 by AlanF_US
- Veuillez insérer un tiret entre les deux mots.Please insert a dash between the two words.
- Merci de mettre un tiret bas entre votre prénom et votre nom d'utilisateur.Please use an underscore between your first name and username.
- N'oublie pas de mettre un tiret ici.Don't forget to put a dash here.
- 1 more sentence on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Manon is helping Hugo proofread a document on a computer.
- ManonEst-ce que ce tiret est bien placé ?Is this dash placed correctly?
- HugoOui, c'est parfait pour cette phrase.Yes, it is perfect for this sentence.
- ManonMerci, je vais l'ajouter au texte.Thanks, I'm going to add it to the text.
- HugoBon travail, Manon.Good job, Manon.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “dash” translations and entries tiret, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries tiret, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
