How to suppress the space before the colon, in French language?

Question

I would like to suppress the space before the colon, when using [french]babel. I only want to change this locally (that is not everywhere in the document, but just at some place).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[french]{babel}

\begin{document}
Il est 20:20.
\end{document}

enter image description here

For a similar problem when using polyglossia instead of babel see https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/187864/remove-space-before-punctuation — siracusa, Dec 30 '18 at 10:16

score 30 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 20 '14 at 17:32

30

Your problem is with the Babel shorthand for :. To disable this shorthand use \shorthandoff{:} inside your \begin{document}. It will not work when loaded in the preamble.

To re-enable the shorthand, use \shorthandon{:}.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[french]{babel}

\begin{document}
\shorthandoff{:}
Il est 20:20.

\shorthandon{:}
Il est 20:20.
\end{document}

enter image description here

answered Jan 20 '14 at 17:32

Herthog

928

1

Good suggestion, but doesn't work with XeLaTeX ... the log file suggests using \NoAutoSpacing instead. – PatrickT Apr 27 '16 at 20:35
This works sooo fine on bibliography, it's gem !!! Thanks a lot ! – user22744 Feb 02 '24 at 17:00

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '14 at 12:58

15

I'm not sure this is the usual way to denote time in French; here's a workaround:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[french]{babel}

\edef\hc{\string:} % \hc prints a normal colon

\begin{document}
Il est 20\hc20.
\end{document}

Alternatively, use datetime:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage{datetime}

\newcommand\heure[2]{\formattime{#1}{#2}{00}}

\begin{document}
Il est \heure{20}{20}
\end{document}

enter image description here

answered Jan 20 '14 at 12:58

egreg

1,121,712

5

I think the usual way to denote time in French is 20h20. – giordano Jan 20 '14 at 17:33
1

@giordano I also suspect “20:20” is not common. – egreg Jan 20 '14 at 17:35
2

It is true, but in some contexts, 20:20 is better. For instance, if you say : "The digital alarm clock was displaying 20:20". – Colas Jan 21 '14 at 10:56

score 14 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 06 '17 at 07:17

14

As suggested by PatrickT and mentioned in French internationalisation, override babel default spacing, \NoAutoSpacing is the easiest solution in modern (post-2011) TeX distributions.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[french]{babel}

\begin{document}
Il est {\NoAutoSpacing 20:20}.
\end{document}

edited Sep 06 '17 at 07:17

Community

1

answered Aug 04 '16 at 12:18

Frédéric Devernay

141

Could you please add a MWE? – Colas Aug 12 '16 at 10:43
edit: added a MWE – Frédéric Devernay Sep 06 '17 at 07:17
See also the documentation of Babel French http://daniel.flipo.free.fr/frenchb/frenchb-doc.pdf This command is necessary for example for natbib bibliography style plainnat (and \shorthandoff does not work in that case). – yannis Sep 22 '18 at 13:54
Thanks for writing this up, because I had forgotten about my comment of 8 years ago. This issue came up again with the package datetime. To get the correct spacing, I've had to type \NoAutoSpacing\currenttime to get the correct spacing when compiling with XeLaTex. I wish I could upvote again! – PatrickT Jan 14 '24 at 07:14

How to suppress the space before the colon, in French language?

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