Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
mètre carré
English translation:
sq. m; m2
French term
France
Accuracy & timeliness
Native in: French 
Works in: English to French, Spanish to French, French
mètre carré
Merci d'avance
| 4 +11 | sq. m; m2 |
Anton Konashenok
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| 5 | square metre |
Carlos Segura
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Nov 16, 2007 14:58: Julie Barber changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Aug 3, 2021 18:41: Andrea Capuselli Created KOG entry
Non-PRO (3): Emma Paulay, David Goward, Julie Barber
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Proposed translations
Czech Republic
Competing on quality, not on price
Native in: Russian , English
Works in: French to English, Czech to English, Danish to English, and 10 more.
sq. m; m2
The first variant is more popular in e.g. real estate; the second one - in engineering and sciences.
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Note added at 11 mins (2007-11-16 14:16:51 GMT)
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The SI rules, of course, allow for m2 only.
| agree |
Donald Scott Alexander
: Also very good explanation of usage in real eastate versus engineering/sciences.
27 mins
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Thanks!
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| agree |
David Goward
: Quite right - both here and above.
37 mins
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Thanks!
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| agree |
Pauline Teale
40 mins
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Thanks!
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| agree |
David BUICK
58 mins
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| agree |
Adsion Liu
: "m²"
1 hr
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| agree |
siragui
: Efficient!
2 hrs
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| agree |
Valeska Nygren
2 hrs
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| agree |
AllegroTrans
2 hrs
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| agree |
Jean-Claude Gouin
: m² only ...
3 hrs
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| agree |
Timothy Barton
: sq m - I don't use dots with abbreviations, but that's personal style (based on various newspapers and other publications).
3 hrs
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| agree |
Katarina Peters
: agree with 1045
13 hrs
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United Kingdom
Technical Translator & Engineer
Native in: Spanish , English
Works in: English to Spanish, Spanish to English, French to Spanish, and 1 more.
square metre
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Note added at 56 mins (2007-11-16 15:01:26 GMT)
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Sorry, I misread your question, you primarily needed the abbreviation/symbol. Obviously, I was not saying that "square metre" is the abbreviation, but I propose the use of the symbol m² which is internationally recognized. Perhaps because I am an engineer, but I don't think you'll be wrong using m².
However, a number of other abbreviations are used (Anton suggests in US English, but also in Britain and elsewhere). Anton proposed sq.m., but others are sq.mt. and their plurals sq.ms. and sq.mts. And look at what Julie Beille has found. Whether this is viewed as richness of the language or confusion and lack of rigour could be the subject of a debate. Whatever, I go for m² (singular and plural) when not using the full words. And I would also write "2000 m²" with a gap, not 2000m² (not uncommon in English to find it without the gap).
| neutral |
Anton Konashenok
: ...Unless one translates into U.S. English ;-) // Actually, I was hinting at the metre/meter dichotomy...
3 mins
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Many thanks. Please see my addiotional note in the main body. -- Understood, many thanks.
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Discussion