Bonjour ! / Hi! / Salut! / Привет!

Ne jamais s'arrêter est la clé du succès.
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I am a small French contributor who did some years of linguistics at the university. I have always been passionate about languages even though I never wanted to make it my job. I'm currently working in IT. I play the harpsichord the rest of the time and have recently joined a baroque ensemble. Rigor in music has taught me rigor in languages. Do not hesitate to correct my sentences if you notice a mistake or an unnatural formulation, exactly like a music conductor would do.
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First names work in my opinion like those of the Pokemons: they keep the name they are given by their trainer all their life. That's why I'll always conserve the original spelling of first names as Mary, Tom, Sami or Layla.
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I will never translate the progressive aspect by "en train" in French, because this form is colloquial and complicates the sentence. I'll always use the present tense instead.
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French syntax requires a narrow non-breaking space ( ) before every question mark (?), exclamation mark (!), colon (:), semicolon (;) and before and after the text inside two quote marks (« TEXT »).

CORRECT: Il m'a demandé : « Où es-tu ? » ; alors je lui ai répondu : « Je suis là ! »
INCORRECT: Il m'a demandé: «Où es-tu?»; alors je lui ai répondu: «Je suis là!»