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<span id="g_t_0040frenchspacing"></span><div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="_0040dmn.html" accesskey="n" rel="next"><code>@dmn</code></a>, Previous: <a href="Ending-a-Sentence.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Ending a Sentence</a>, Up: <a href="Inserting-Space.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Inserting Space</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<span id="g_t_0040frenchspacing-val_003a-Control-Sentence-Spacing"></span><h4 class="subsection">12.3.4 <code>@frenchspacing</code> <var>val</var>: Control Sentence Spacing</h4>
<span id="frenchspacing"></span><span id="index-frenchspacing"></span>
<span id="index-French-spacing"></span>
<span id="index-Sentences_002c-spacing-after"></span>
<span id="index-Space_002c-after-sentences"></span>
<p>In American typography, it is traditional and correct to put extra
space at the end of a sentence. This is the default in Texinfo
(implemented in Info and printed output; for HTML, we don’t try to
override the browser). In French typography (and others), this extra
space is wrong; all spaces are uniform.
</p>
<p>Therefore Texinfo provides the <code>@frenchspacing</code> command to
control the spacing after punctuation. It reads the rest of the line
as its argument, which must be the single word ‘<samp>on</samp>’ or ‘<samp>off</samp>’
(always these words, regardless of the language of the document).
Here is an example:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@frenchspacing on
This is text. Two sentences. Three sentences. French spacing.
@frenchspacing off
This is text. Two sentences. Three sentences. Non-French spacing.
</pre></div>
<p>produces:
</p>
<p>This is text. Two sentences. Three sentences. French spacing.
</p>
<p>This is text. Two sentences. Three sentences. Non-French spacing.
</p>
<p><code>@frenchspacing</code> also affects the output after <code>@.</code>,
<code>@!</code>, and <code>@?</code> (see <a href="Ending-a-Sentence.html">Ending a Sentence</a>).
</p>
<p><code>@frenchspacing</code> has no effect on the HTML or Docbook output;
for XML, it outputs a transliteration of itself (see <a href="Output-Formats.html">Output Formats</a>).
</p>
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