Days and dates in French: making plans

Level A1

Days and dates in French: making plans

You and a colleague are comparing work schedules. Use the day and month lists as maps, then say two dates that matter to you. The key is to place a familiar action in time: aujourd’hui or demain, lundi or le lundi, and le + day number + month.

Bring back a familiar action

Travailler means “to work”: je travaille is “I work”, tu travailles is “you work” to someone you use tu with, and the final -s is silent. Je travaille aujourd’hui means “I work today”; aujourd’hui is today and demain is tomorrow. Demain, je vais travailler means “Tomorrow I’m going to work”: vais + travailler presents a plan. In a work schedule, the present can also describe an arranged future day, as English does in “I work on Monday”. Listen to these two examples before adding a date.

A map of the week

Today is aujourd’hui and the following day is demain; neither takes le in the examples here. The seven days below run from Monday to Sunday. Listen to the day you need, then find the day after it; keep the map open rather than learning the whole list first. French day names, like month names, normally start with a small letter, unlike English.

Ask when: Tu travailles quand ?

Quand means “when”: Tu travailles quand ? asks when the other person works. In this everyday question, keep tu + travailles and put quand at the end; French does not need an English-style do. Tu addresses one person on familiar terms, so use this model with a colleague you already use tu with. You can answer with a day, a date or a time.

Tu travailles quand ?

First the day, then the time

Two familiar colleagues compare a shift: “When do you work?” — “I work on Monday.” The first then asks “Sorry, at what time?” and hears “On Monday I work at eight.” Pardon is “sorry”; à quelle heure asks “at what time”, while à huit heures is “at eight”. Huit is 8, and heures names the clock hours here. Listen for the day first and the time second; these are two pieces of the same appointment.

Monday or every Monday?

Je travaille lundi means “I work on Monday”: one particular Monday understood from the situation. Je travaille le lundi means “I work on Mondays”: a regular weekly habit. In these short schedule statements, the article le changes the meaning; do not add an equivalent of on before lundi. The same contrast works with the other day names. Later, le also appears before a date: le douze juin means one date, not a weekly habit.

Je travaille lundi / le lundi

A month map to consult

The months below run from January to December. Listen especially to mai (May) and juin (June), which the date models use, then find the months you need for your own two dates. You do not have to memorize all twelve on this first reading. Keep their names visible when you speak.

Build a date: le premier mai, le douze juin

For the dates here, use le + day number + month: le douze juin is June 12th, with the day before the month. Use premier for day 1: le premier mai is May 1st, usually written le 1er mai. From 2 to 31, use ordinary counting numbers rather than English-style ordinals: le douze juin, not an equivalent of “the twelfth”. There is no word meaning “of” between the number and the month. Recall douze = 12, vingt = 20 and trente = 30; 21 is vingt et un and 31 is trente et un. Listen to the two work dates, then swap only the day and month.

Je travaille le premier / douze mai / juin

Recognize a year, with help

For recognition only, listen to Je travaille le douze juin deux mille vingt-six: “I work on June 12th, 2026.” The full date is 12/06/2026: day, month, year. Read 2026 with this support: deux mille = 2000 and vingt-six = 26, together deux mille vingt-six. The year follows the month without a linking word. You do not need to produce or memorize years in this lesson.

Say two dates of your own

First, ask your colleague Tu travailles quand ? and answer for one particular Monday, then for a Monday habit: Je travaille lundi; Je travaille le lundi. Now choose two actual work dates from your calendar, or invent a schedule if you do not work. Keep the month map open and say Je travaille le… twice, adding your chosen day number and month, without a year. Use premier if one of your dates is the first day of the month, and an ordinary number for another day. The two examples below are models, not dates you must copy; listen, replace their dates, then say yours once more without reading the whole sentence.

Keep the calendar contrast

Quand asks when; aujourd’hui is today and demain is tomorrow. Lundi locates one Monday in the situation, while le lundi describes a Monday habit in these schedule sentences. For a full day and month, use le premier mai or le douze juin: day 1 is premier, and the other dates use counting numbers. If you can ask the question and give two dates with the maps open, you have completed the task; learning all the months can come through reuse.

Practise this lesson