Musical terms in English / German / French

Note and rest values / Noten- und Pausenlängen / Valeurs des notes et des pauses

CC BY Mira Traiger, 2022

As in American English, note and rest values are expressed as numerical fractions in German. In British English and in French they are expressed as graphic images.

For example, the American Quarternote is the German Viertelnote. But in British it’s called a crotchet, meaning a hook. In French, the eighth note, croche is the hook.

The American eighth note is logically a German Achtelnote. But the British call it a quaver, meaning a shake or* trembling*.

Her voice quavered with emotion.

Ihre Stimme zitterte vor Rührung.

Half a quaver is the semiquaver (sixteenth note) or a Sechzehntelnote in German.

Half of the French croche is a doublecroche. French also uses the shape ronde (round), blanche (white) and noir (black) for whole notes, half notes and quarter notes respectively.

The double whole note has a similar name in British, German and French: breve, Brevis,and brève meaning brief or short. While a double whole note may seem long now, in Medieval mensural notation the breve was only half of a quadruple note (long or longa), making the breve one of the shortest note values used in its time.

Here are the binary (German: binär) note values and subdivisions (German: Unterteilungen) used in standard modern rhythmic notation.

	Note value		Notenwert	valeur de la note
	American	British	German	French
1	double whole note	breve	Brevis	carré, brève
2	whole note	semibreve	(die) ganze Note	ronde
3	half note	minim	halbe Note	blanche
4	quarter note	crotchet	Viertelnote	noire
5	eighth note	quaver	Achtelnote	croche
6	sixteenth note	semiquaver	Sechzehntelnote	doublecroche
7	thirtysecond note	demisemiquaver	Zweiunddreißigstelnote	triplecroche
8	sixtyfourth note	hemidemisemiquaver	Vierundsechzigstelnote	Quadruplechroche

	American	British	German	French
	Length of rest		Pausenlänge	durée de la pause
1	double whole rest	breve rest	Brevis Pause	bâton de pause
2	whole rest	semibreve rest	ganze Pause	pause
3	half rest	minim rest	halbe Pause	demi-pause
4	quarter rest	crotchet rest	Viertelpause	soupir
5	eighth rest	quaver rest	Achtelpause	demi-soupir
6	sixteenth rest	semiquaver rest	Sechstehntelpause	quart de soupir
7	thirty-second rest	demisemiquaver rest	Zweiunddreisigstelpause	huitième de soupir
8	sixty-fourth rest	hemidemisemiquaver rest	Vierundsechsigstelpause	seizième de soupir

Here are other subdivisions (German: Unterteilungen) used in standard modern rhythmic notation.

American	British	German	French
Note value		Notenwert	valeur de la note
dottet half, dotted quarter, dottet eighth, etc.	dottet minim, dotted crotchet, dottetd quaver, etc.	punktierte Halbenote, punktierte Viertelnote, punktierte Achtelnote, usw.	blanche pointée, noire pointée, croche pointée, etc.
duplet	(same as American)	Duole	duolet
triplet		Triole	triolet
quadruplet		Quartole	quartolet
quintuplet		Quintole	quintolet
sextuplet		Sextole	sextolet
septuplet		Septole	Septolet