Days, months and dates in French

Level A1

Days, months and dates in French

This lesson teaches the days of the week, the months and how to give a date in French. French writes them all with a small letter, and the week starts on lundi, Monday. The main traps for an English speaker are the little words: French has no word for "on" before a day, and "in May" is en mai.

The days of the week, from lundi to dimanche

A French week starts on Monday, lundi, and ends on Sunday, dimanche. Days are written with a small letter, even at the start of a date: lundi 3 mars. Most of them end in -di, the old word for "day": lundi is the moon's day, mardi the day of Mars.

The twelve months, with a small letter

Most months look like their English cousins: janvier, mars, avril, juillet, octobre. Like the days, they take a small letter in the middle of a sentence: en mai, le 3 février. Août has one syllable: say "oo" or "oot".

Day, week, month, year — and today, tomorrow, yesterday

On a day: mardi, but le lundi for every Monday

Where English says "on Tuesday", French uses the bare day, with no word for "on": J'ai cours d'anglais mardi. Never translate "on" with sur here. In À lundi !, "See you on Monday!", the à belongs to the goodbye (like à demain), not to the day.

For something that happens every week, English adds an -s ("on Mondays"); French puts le in front and keeps the day singular: Le magasin est fermé le lundi. So mercredi means this Wednesday (the next one, or the last one if you're talking about the past), and le mercredi means every Wednesday. You can also say tous les jeudis, "every Thursday".

Two of the examples ask the same thing in two registers: Tu es libre samedi ? is how you ask a friend, and Vous pouvez venir mardi ? is how you ask someone you call vous, like a customer or an older person.

Le magasin est fermé le lundi.

In a month: en mai

English "in May" is en mai in French, with no article: Mon anniversaire est en janvier. Before a month that starts with a vowel, en stays the same and you link the sounds: en avril, en août. You can also say au mois de mai, which means the same thing.

Mon anniversaire est en janvier.

Aujourd'hui, c'est mardi: today, tomorrow and yesterday

To say what day it is, French usually puts the time word first and then c'est: Aujourd'hui, c'est mardi. For yesterday, c'est becomes c'était: Hier, c'était vendredi.

Aujourd'hui, c'est / c'était mardi.

Asking the day and the date: On est quel jour ?

In everyday French, "What day is it?" is On est quel jour ?, literally "We are which day?", and the answer uses on est too: On est jeudi. For the date, the answer is le plus the number and the month: On est le 28 avril. To ask for the date itself, say Quelle est la date d'aujourd'hui ?, and for an event, La fête, c'est à quelle date ?

On est quel jour ? — On est le 28 avril.

Saying a date: le 5 mai, le 1er janvier

In French the day comes before the month, with le in front: le 5 mai, where English says May 5th. The day is a plain number, not "fifth": le cinq mai. The first of the month is the only exception: it's ordinal, written 1er and said premier, as in le 1er janvier.

French needs no "on" before a date either: Le cours commence le 10 mars. Written in numbers, the day also comes first, so 05/06 is the 5th of June, not May 6th.

Making plans for the weekend, between friends

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