Integrate a quotation in French: introduce, quote and explain
Build a French paragraph around a short quotation. Compare a full quote, an integrated fragment and a paraphrase, then practise attribution and commentary.
In short
Introduce the speaker and the point, quote the exact words you need, then explain their role in your argument. Use French quotation marks with spaces: « un lieu ouvert ». Keep any contrast that changes the speaker’s meaning.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learnRed watch out
Read the whole statement first
La coordinatrice précise : « Nous voulons un lieu ouvert, pas un service disponible à toute heure. »
The coordinator explains: “We want an open place, not a service available at all hours.”
The contrast separates welcoming the public from being available at all hours.
| Method | French model | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
| Quote a complete sentence | La coordinatrice précise : « Nous voulons un lieu ouvert, pas un service disponible à toute heure. » | The colon introduces a complete statement with its capital and final full stop. |
| Integrate two short fragments | La coordinatrice souhaite « un lieu ouvert », tout en écartant l’idée d’un « service disponible à toute heure ». | The fragments fit inside the writer’s sentence; its final full stop comes after the closing quotation mark. |
| Paraphrase the contrast | La coordinatrice défend un accueil ouvert au public, mais limité dans le temps. | The wording is reformulated, so the sentence uses attribution without quotation marks. |
Read the quotation inside a complete paragraph
L’accueil du public doit être distingué de la disponibilité permanente. La coordinatrice le précise : « Nous voulons un lieu ouvert, pas un service disponible à toute heure. » L’opposition entre « ouvert » et « disponible à toute heure » invite donc à définir des horaires d’accueil plutôt qu’à promettre une présence continue.
Welcoming the public must be distinguished from permanent availability. The coordinator makes this clear: “We want an open place, not a service available at all hours.” The contrast between “open” and “available at all hours” therefore invites us to define opening hours rather than promise a continuous presence.
The first sentence states the issue. The second supplies the source’s wording. The third explains how that wording guides the discussion.
The commentary focuses on the contrast inside the quotation. Its final step is the writer’s inference: the contrast invites a discussion of hours. The reporting clause keeps the coordinator’s words separate from that inference. This gives the paragraph a direction and makes the quotation worth including.
How do you introduce a quotation in French?
| French frame | Use it when… |
|---|---|
| précise | the speaker makes a detail clearer |
| distingue… de… | the speaker separates two ideas |
| propose | the speaker puts an option forward |
| reconnaît | the speaker acknowledges a point |
For the statement above, précise fits the limit on availability. Reconnaît son erreur would add an admission of error. Match the verb to the words you can point to. When a task asks for full reformulation, use an attributed paraphrase like the third row of the comparison table.