The spelling of the word for electronic mail varies by source, country and writing context. Choosing between e-mail, email and courriel means distinguishing linguistic standards from official recommendations and established professional usage.
The hyphen in e-mail: a typographic convention, not a grammatical rule
In English, the original form is e-mail, short for electronic mail. The hyphen marks the prefix e- as an abbreviation of electronic, following the same pattern as e-commerce or e-learning.
This typographic shift is common: when a compound word becomes widely used, the hyphen eventually disappears. The same thing happened with today (formerly to-day) and online (formerly on-line).
In French, the question is more complicated. We borrow a word whose spelling is already unsettled in its original language, then apply our own conventions to it. No French-speaking authority has established a single spelling for this loanword: e-mail and email coexist in dictionaries, editorial guidelines and style guides, with neither form considered incorrect.
For more on the correct use of e-mail and emails, the distinction depends more on consistency within a document than on an absolute rule.
Courriel, e-mail, mail: official recommendations and actual usage in France and Quebec
The term courriel was coined in Quebec as a contraction of courrier électronique (electronic mail). The Office québécois de la langue française actively recommends it and discourages the use of e-mail and mail in French-language texts.
In France, courriel is recommended in administrative texts and official government publications. This recommendation does not prohibit the use of e-mail in other contexts.
The distinction between an official recommendation and a spelling error is something most general-audience guides gloss over. Writing email in everyday text is not a mistake. Using mail on its own (without the e-) is an informal shortening that means postal mail in English. In French, using mail to mean courrier électronique is considered colloquial and informal.
Which term should you choose for your target audience?
The choice depends not simply on whether the tone is formal or informal, but on the intended readership:
- For text aimed at readers in Quebec (a website, documentation or software interface), courriel is the expected term. Using e-mail may seem careless.
- For French administrative texts (the official journal, circulars or public tenders), courriel or courrier électronique follow terminology recommendations.
- For everyday professional writing in France (newsletters, technical documentation or business correspondence), e-mail and email remain the most widely used forms and are understood without ambiguity.
- In informal exchanges, mail is dominant in speech and instant messaging, with no risk of misunderstanding.
Plural spelling and agreement: emails, e-mails or courriels
Once incorporated into French, the English loanword follows French morphology rules. The plural therefore takes an -s: des emails, des e-mails.
Courriel follows the same pattern, with no room for doubt: des courriels.
Gender and article
E-mail is masculine: un e-mail, un email. The most common mistake is the phrase une e-mail, modeled on une adresse e-mail, where the feminine gender comes from the noun adresse, not from e-mail itself.
Courriel is also masculine: un courriel, des courriels. There is no uncertainty about its gender, as the -iel ending naturally suggests the masculine.
Consistency in writing: the only rule that matters in practice
In an editorial style guide, on a website or in technical documentation, choosing between e-mail, email and courriel matters less than using the chosen form consistently. Switching between spellings in the same document creates an impression of carelessness, whatever the term.
Three points to check in a style guide:
- The chosen spelling (with or without a hyphen) should be stated explicitly, including the plural form.
- The chosen term should be used across all materials: web pages, PDF documents, email signatures and legal notices.
- If a document combines French and English (a bilingual interface or technical documentation), the spelling may differ between the two languages, provided each version remains consistent.
Consistency matters more than the choice itself. A website that consistently uses email without a hyphen will look more polished than one that switches between three forms from one paragraph to the next.
The debate over the correct spelling of this word will probably never be settled universally. Email is gaining ground in everyday usage, courriel remains the standard in official French-language texts, and e-mail retains its typographic legitimacy. Choosing one of these forms and sticking to it in each publishing context remains the only truly professional approach.
