Two articles can report exactly the same facts and still leave you with opposite impressions. One headline says a city promises fewer traffic jams; another says workers will pay $8 a day. Neither is false. Each outlet chose an angle, a set of words, the people it quoted and the people it did not. In Grade 11 you learned to tell a news report from an opinion piece and met the journalistic conditionnel. Now you will take a news text apart: name each part of the page, spot the words that carry a judgment, notice whose voice is missing, and compare how outlets in Ontario, Québec and elsewhere cover one event. This is how you read the news in any language, and French gives you some precise grammatical clues to work with.
The anatomy of a news page
| Term | What it is | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| la une | the front page (faire la une = to make the front page) | Why is this story on the front page today, and what was pushed inside? |
| le surtitre | a short label above the headline (TRANSPORT, EXCLUSIF) | Which category does the outlet put the story in? |
| le titre | the headline | Which word carries the angle? Is it a statement, a question or a quotation? |
| le chapeau | the short opening paragraph in bold that sums up the story (the lede) | Who, what, when, where: and what is presented first? |
| l'attaque | the first sentence of the body of the article | Does it start with a fact, a person or a scene? |
| l'intertitre | a subheading inside the article | Which parts of the story are given most space? |
| la légende | the caption under a photo | Who is shown, and what feeling does the photo create? |
| la source, la citation | where information comes from; a quotation | Who is quoted directly, who is paraphrased, who is absent? |
Fact, opinion and loaded words
ASignals of reported fact
- numbers, dates, places: Le conseil a voté 14 contre 9 mardi soir.
- attributed statements: selon la police, d'après Statistique Canada
- neutral verbs: a déclaré, a indiqué, a annoncé
- the passé composé for verifiable events
BSignals of opinion or judgment
- evaluative adjectives and adverbs: un projet ambitieux, malheureusement, enfin
- obligation: la Ville doit…, il faut que…
- judgment + subjonctif: Il est scandaleux que le conseil ait ignoré…
- rhetorical questions and exclamations: Qui paiera la facture?
| Attribution verb | What the journalist suggests | Example |
|---|---|---|
| dire, déclarer, indiquer | nothing: neutral reporting | La mairesse a déclaré que le projet serait prêt en 2028. |
| affirmer, assurer | the speaker is confident | Elle a assuré que les tarifs resteraient bas. |
| prétendre | doubt: the claim may be false | Il prétend que personne n'était au courant. |
| admettre, reconnaître, avouer | a concession or a fault | Le ministre a reconnu que le budget avait été dépassé. |
| dénoncer, s'indigner | the speaker is protesting | Le syndicat dénonce une décision injuste. |
| marteler | repeated insistence | Le chef de l'opposition martèle que les familles paieront. |
The journalistic conditionnel, present and past
News French uses the conditionnel to report information that has not been confirmed, the way English uses reportedly or allegedly. Use the conditionnel présent for a present or future situation: Selon des sources, le ministre songerait à démissionner (The minister is reportedly considering resigning). Use the conditionnel passé for a past event: Le ministre aurait démissionné hier soir (The minister reportedly resigned last night). Court reporting uses it to respect the presumption of innocence: Le suspect aurait volé trois véhicules, together with présumé: l'auteur présumé du vol (the alleged perpetrator). Once the fact is confirmed, the article switches to the indicatif: Le ministre a démissionné.
| Neutral | Favourable framing | Unfavourable framing | English (neutral) |
|---|---|---|---|
| des manifestants | des citoyens mobilisés | des casseurs (rioters) | protesters |
| une réforme | une modernisation | des compressions, des coupes | a reform |
| un péage | une contribution à la mobilité | une nouvelle taxe | a toll |
| le gouvernement a modifié le projet | le gouvernement a amélioré le projet | le gouvernement a reculé | the government changed the project |
One event, three newsrooms
Here is an invented scenario: the City of Ottawa adopts a toll for cars entering downtown. Many people who work in downtown Ottawa live across the river in Gatineau, Québec. Read three invented headlines that could appear the next morning.
| Outlet (invented) | Headline | English | Angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| an Ottawa francophone outlet | Péage au centre-ville: la Ville promet moins de bouchons | Downtown toll: the City promises fewer traffic jams | the city's goal; promet keeps a little distance |
| a Gatineau daily | Les travailleurs gatinois paieront 8 $ par jour pour aller à Ottawa | Gatineau workers will pay $8 a day to go to Ottawa | the cost for local readers; a precise, striking number |
| a national network | Ottawa rejoint les villes qui taxent les automobilistes | Ottawa joins the cities that tax drivers | a national trend; the loaded verb taxent |
- Who is quoted? The mayor, a business owner, a commuter, a transit expert? Count the voices on each side.
- Who is missing? People without cars, residents of the affected area, people from outside the outlet's region.
- What do the numbers compare to? 8 $ par jour sounds large or small depending on the cost of parking downtown, which the headline does not mention.
- What does the photo show? A traffic jam suggests the problem the toll is meant to solve; an empty street at night suggests a dead downtown.
Writing about First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples
| Term | Use | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| les Autochtones; adjective autochtone | the collective term in Canada for First Nations, Inuit and Métis | Capital as a noun (les Autochtones), lower case as an adjective (les peuples autochtones). |
| les Premières Nations | First Nations only | Does not include Inuit or Métis. |
| les Métis, une Métisse | the Métis people | Capital M and the accent on é. |
| les Inuits, une Inuite or un Inuk, des Inuit | Inuit | Two systems coexist in French: French agreement (des Inuits), or the Inuktitut forms (Inuk singular, Inuit plural), also used in English. The OQLF accepts both. |
| the nation's own name | whenever you know it | les Anishinaabe, les Cris, les Innus, les Haudenosaunee: more precise than a general term. |
| Indien, Esquimau | avoid | Indien survives in legal names such as la Loi sur les Indiens; Esquimau is outdated and considered offensive. |
French-language media you can compare
Radio-Canada is the French-language service of the public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada, with regional newsrooms across the country, including Ontario. Le Droit was founded in Ottawa in 1913 to fight Regulation 17, the Ontario rule that severely restricted French-language schooling. APTN is a national network that broadcasts in English, French and Indigenous languages. Comparing a Québec outlet, a Franco-Ontarian outlet and an Indigenous outlet on the same story is the quickest way to see framing at work.