# symbol -- (AE) number sign / pound sign / sharp -- (BE) hash / square -- (FR) dièse / carré / numéro / croisillon | WordReference Forums

# symbol -- (AE) number sign / pound sign / sharp -- (BE) hash / square -- (FR) dièse / carré / numéro / croisillon

S

stevenpomeroy

New Member
USA - English
what is the french word for the symbol "#" pound; found on a standard telephone and keypad, etc.

#​

Moderator note: Multiple threads merged to create this one. If you want a quick answer, see below. Otherwise, keep reading.

English:
  • UK: hash (sometimes square)
  • USA: pound sign (sometimes number sign)
  • Canada: pound
French:
  • France: dièse
  • Canada: carré (sometimes dièse)
  • Belgium: carré
  • Switzerland: dièse

N.B.: Strictly speaking, dièse is the sharp sign (♯) used in musical contexts but that word is used abusively to refer to the hash/pound sign (#).
 
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    • In France it's usually called "dièse".

    "Tapez sur la touche étoile (*) de votre téléphone".

    "Appuyez sur la touche dièse (#)".
     
    dièse is the name of this symbol # when used in music, and also in other contexts as Ishatar explained
     
    And just on a point of interest, in the UK # is called "hash" ("pound" being £, or lb).
    Telephone instructions: press star, press hash. In the US do people say "press pound"?

    F
     
    Yes, americans do say: "press pound," As far as weight measures are concerned, we obviously use lb. (pound) as well. Do British people say press the asterisk?
     
    stevenpomeroy said:
    Yes, americans do say: "press pound," As far as weight measures are concerned, we obviously use lb. (pound) as well. Do British people say press the asterisk?
    Click to expand...
    No, as I mentioned, we say
    "press star" ... *
    "press hash" .. #

    E.g.
    "Type in your account number and then press star"
    "To begin again, press hash"

    F
     
    OlivierG said:
    Isn't the "#" symbol called "number" ?
    Click to expand...
    I know that in the US, "#" is used to mean "number", as in the cast lists of films, where you see such things as

    Soldier #1
    Soldier #2

    # is not used with this meaning in GB. We either use "No" to stand for "number" (Symphony No 3) or, more often than not in situations like the cast list above, just use the bare numbers

    Soldier 1
    Soldier 2

    F
     
    The symbol # is often used to mean number (in references to orders, invoices, etc. for instance). In that case, the French equivalent is n°. My question is : what do you call the symbol in English (in French it is called dièse) ?
     
    I know that in music, the sign is called sharp, e.g. fa# (fa dièse) in French, F# (F sharp) in English, but would you use sharp in the sentence below ?

    The sharp symbol is commonly used to mean number in invoices, orders, etc.
     
    Jean-Michel Carrère said:
    Would anybody use this phrase : the hash mark ?
    Click to expand...
    I always thought it is the hash (sign) and I only know that it is called pound now that I have read this thread. I checked my dictionary which says that calling it pound is American English.
     
    I have only ever heard "hash" for this, none of the other terms before this thread, apart from in terms of music where c# represents "c sharp". Whether it follows that "#" in this context is a "sharp" or not, I'm not sure.

    You hear "hash", at least in the UK, a lot in terms of telephones eg "press 1 for x press 2 for y and press hash to return to the main menu".
     
    timpeac said:
    You hear "hash", at least in the UK, a lot in terms of telephones eg "press 1 for x press 2 for y and press hash to return to the main menu".
    Click to expand...

    Yeah, in the US on the phone you hear "...press pound to return to the main menu."

    I've never heard anybody refer to it as a hash. I always thought a hash mark was just a line.

    Rob
     
    trouvé:

    hash character
    <character> "#", ASCII character 35.

    Common names: number sign; pound; pound sign; hash; sharp; crunch; hex; INTERCAL: mesh. Rare: grid; crosshatch; octothorpe; flash; ITU-T: square, pig-pen; tictactoe; scratchmark; thud; thump; splat.

    The pronunciation of "#" as "pound" is common in the US but a bad idea; Commonwealth Hackish has its own, rather more apposite use of "pound sign" (confusingly, on British keyboards the pound graphic happens to replace "#"; thus Britishers sometimes call "#" on a US-ASCII keyboard "pound", compounding the American error). The US usage derives from an old-fashioned commercial practice of using a "#" suffix to tag pound weights on bills of lading. The character is usually pronounced "hash" outside the US.

    The name "octothorpe" was made up by a Bell Labs supervisor, Don Macpherson.

    Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2005 Denis Howe
     
    Last edited by a moderator:
    I agree with mnzrob that a hash mark in US usage is a line, and # is a pound sign.
     
    In abbreviations, can the symbol # be understood to mean 'number'?

    I am wrestling with abbreviating 'numero', 'nombre', and 'nom' (name), and am having trouble devising distinct abbreviations. '#' would be a handy addition.

    Merci beaucoup,
    Anne
     
    Bonjour, Agnes -- je le sais, le "No" avec superscript. Merci!

    Mais j'ai des difficultes dans mon projet avec pas assez de l'espace, et aussi plusieurs mots qui se rassemblent lui-memes (whew- did I get that right? resemble each other?).

    En anglais la plus belle, nous employons 'number,' bien sur, mais de temps en temps aussi nous pouvons ecrire "#". J'ai l'espoir que c'est le meme cas en francais.

    a bientot--
    Anne
     
    ...qui se ressemblent entre eux :)

    I think we would understand the sign # followed by a number (#27 for number 27), even if we wouldn't use it ourselves... But not if you put the sign # by itself (for example, to indicate that one must fill in a number)
     
    Bonjour!

    Est-ce que quelqu'un sait le mot pour "pound key" en Francais? C'est ce symbole sur le telephone: #.

    Merci!
     
    On dit en général "la touche dièse"
    Car le signe # ressemble au signe "dièse" utilisé dans les partitions musicales.
     
    Certains utilisent aussi la touche "carré", particulièrement au Canada, mais pas exclusivement.
     
    Is "carré" an approrpriate French translation for "pound sign", as in "please enter your acct number, followed by the pound sign."
    I can't seem to find a translation for it online.

    Please help.

    Thank you!
    J
     
    I don't know what a "pound" sign is like, apart from "£". This sign "#" is called a hash in British English phone talk and is translated as "un dièse".

    It is a bit like a square so I wondered if it was the term for which you were looking?:)
     
    # is called pound sign in AE because it is sometimes used to represent pounds (weight): 5# = 5 lbs. = "five pounds"--but this is an old-fashioned usage. It is now mostly used to indicate number (no.), as in the thread postings on this forum (#1, #2, etc.)

    There is no confusion here with BE pound (sterling--"£") since it's not a currency here.
     
    In BE un dièse is either a hash or, in musical notation, a sharp sign. Dièse is also an adjective meaning sharp (in pitch) or 'of or pertaining to a hash' as in "appuyer sur la touche dièse". The only thing that would be recognised as a pound sign in BE is £.
     
    I think it was BT (British Telecom - phone company) or something the other day where I was trying to work my way through their automated telephone system and was surprised to be told to "press square".
     
    Square? Weird! It's not square at all; more of an extended parallelogram - but I sometimes call it 'noughts and crosses'.

    The British, by the way, are notoriously bad at using the correct words for anything to do with IT. A common English solecism is the use of 'forward slash' (for /) instead of 'slash'.

    "Hash", by the way, is potentially ambiguous since it also means "yesterday's muck cooked again" (which I have heard jocularly abbreviated to YMCA) - in other words old food re-heated in some lugubrious sauce - it is the origin of the pleonastic expression "a re-hash"
     
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