Numbers and time, read 8 of 15, 3 min
Days, months, dates and time
Les jours, les mois et l'heure
Days and months have no capital letters in French, and the week starts on Monday.
The days of the week
« Lundi » alone means on Monday, with no word for "on". « Le lundi » means on Mondays.
- lundiMonday
- mardiTuesday
- mercrediWednesday
- jeudiThursday
- vendrediFriday
- samediSaturday
- dimancheSunday
The months
Use en for "in": en mars, en août. The t in août is often pronounced in everyday speech, but both « oo » and « oot » are accepted.
- janvierJanuary
- févrierFebruary
- marsMarch
- avrilApril
- maiMay
- juinJune
- juilletJuly
- aoûtAugust
- septembreSeptember
- octobreOctober
- novembreNovember
- décembreDecember
Dates
The day comes first, with le in front. Use the plain number, except on the first of the month, which is « le premier ».
- le premier maiMay 1st
- le quatorze juilletJuly 14th
- On est quel jour ?What day is it?
- aujourd'huitoday
- demaintomorrow
- hieryesterday
Telling the time
French uses heure(s) after the number. Timetables use the 24-hour clock, written 17h30. In conversation you'll also hear et quart (quarter past), et demie (half past) and moins le quart (quarter to).
- Quelle heure est-il ?What time is it?
- Il est une heure.It's one o'clock.
- Il est trois heures et demie.It's half past three.
- Il est huit heures moins le quart.It's a quarter to eight.
- Il est dix-sept heures trente.It's 17:30.
- midinoon
- minuitmidnight
The English sound guides are only rough. When they disagree with the voice, go with the voice.