French email etiquette

When someone types an email in all caps in France, is it considered to be shouting, as it is in the U.S.? I was a little offended by an email I got in all caps from a French person I just met (don%26#39;t really want to go into details), and am wondering if email etiquette is different in France.

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I would also take this as shouting, but i think some people are not aware of an %26quot;etiquette%26quot; and just want to be clear, they don%26#39;t want to offend

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Actually we were doing e-mail etiquette in class last Friday.

www.arobase.org/rediger/commandements.htm check out this article. Capitals do mean the same but I think your person was probably not aware of what they had done.

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Not about using caps, but it%26#39;s good to know that the French appreciate messages that close with thanks and perhaps something like %26quot;We look forward to staying at your hotel.%26quot; The French aren%26#39;t as abrupt as most of us in the U.S. when writing letters.

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also some folks (not specifically the French, folks in general) unaware of the %26quot;shouting%26quot; like to use caps because it%26#39;s easier to read.

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Messages in all caps are certainly not easier to read - in fact, if you want to make a text of more than a few words unreadable, put it in all caps and most people won%26#39;t even try to read it.

In most cases, it is just ignorance when people use all caps - although I think it%26#39;s no coincidence when software licence agreements are in all caps...

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Study after study show that mixed case is easiest to read. NOT upper case.

I%26#39;m sure it is ignorance.

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I%26#39;m sure it was a mistake. The all caps button was probably on.

Les

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Thanks, everyone, for your feedback. I%26#39;ll take it with a grain of salt. I agree, though, that all caps are nearly impossible to read.

Underhill, the email I got from a French person was very abrupt. That%26#39;s why I was so taken aback.

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It probably no longer matters, but telegrams used to be all caps. At least with French, if you do all caps, you don%26#39;t have to worry about accents anymore. TripAdvisor seems to bounce messages that have too many caps. That could be a challenge if you refer to too many acronyms. France has no shortage of acronyms. tgv sncf rer rsvp etc

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Mediachick ~ if the person was writing in a non-native language, that might be the reason for its abruptness.