Telling the time and making plans in French

Level A1

Telling the time and making plans in French

You are getting ready to go out and need to read the clock and give a time for your plans. Ask Quelle heure est-il ? as a fixed question, answer with Il est + time, and attach a time to a plan with à. Start with numbered minutes and et demie; you do not need every way of reading a clock.

Bring back the numbers and a simple plan

The numbers you need are un (1), six (6), sept (7), huit (8), neuf (9), dix (10), treize (13), vingt (20), and trente (30). Listen to the cards if any are new. Demain means tomorrow, aller means to go, travailler means to work, and le café here is the café as a place, not the drink. Je vais au café means I am going to the café; je vais travailler means I am going to work, with travailler naming the planned action. This short recap is enough to start; you do not need to have completed the earlier lessons.

Ask the time; say what time it is

Learn Quelle heure est-il ? (What time is it?) as one useful question, without trying to build other questions this way yet. To answer, use Il est + number + heure(s): Il est une heure is 1:00, and Il est sept heures is 7:00. Here il does not mean a man, and il est stays the same even with plural heures, much like English it is. Heure is feminine, so 1:00 uses une heure; with the other numbers shown here, write heures. Unlike English seven o’clock, the French expression keeps the word heures with minutes too. Listen to the whole phrases: the words join together, as in une heure and sept heures.

Read the hour, then the minutes

In these clock readings, say the hour + heures + the number of minutes: 6 h 10 becomes six heures dix, 13 h 20 becomes treize heures vingt, and 7 h 30 becomes sept heures trente. The two slots in the model are the hour and the minutes; Il est tells us this is the current time. Do not add et between heures and a numbered minute value in this pattern. French schedules often use 24-hour time: 13 h 20 is 1:20 p.m., and you can say treize directly. In writing, h separates the hour from the minutes; it stands for heure(s), not a letter you need to say. Listen to each complete reading before repeating it.

Il est … heures …

A second way to say :30: et demie

For 7:30 you can say Il est sept heures trente or Il est sept heures et demie. Et demie means and a half: half an hour after the named hour, so this is half past seven, not half past eight. In this expression after heure(s), demie has an -e and no plural -s; the half is feminine even though heures is plural. Learn the spoken unit heures et demie together, then try replacing sept with huit.

Give a plan a time with à

Il est gives the current time; à + time tells when something happens. In Je vais au café à huit heures et demie, au café is the destination and à huit heures et demie means at 8:30. Here à plays the role of English at; do not put il est inside the plan. Demain, je vais travailler à neuf heures means Tomorrow I am going to work at nine: demain sets the day, and je vais + travailler expresses the plan. Travailler stays in its dictionary form after vais. The time can use either numbered minutes or et demie, as you have just seen.

… à …

Recognize this: moins le quart

You may hear Il est neuf heures moins le quart: it means 8:45, a quarter of an hour before nine. Moins signals subtraction, and le quart is the quarter-hour, so the named hour is the next one. This is recognition only for now: listen and match it to 8:45, without learning a new pattern to produce. Keep using the numbered-minute pattern for your own clock readings.

Read the clock and pass on your plans

Before looking at the answers, say what time it is at 1:00 and 13:20, then say 7:30 in the two ways you learned. Next, say that tomorrow you are going to work at nine, then that you are going to the café at 8:30. The examples below give those answers in that order; compare your words and listen. Finally, choose another hour from the number cards and replace only the hour in Il est une heure, adjusting une heure to, for example, huit heures. You can use the café as an imagined meeting place while exploring; no visit or completed lesson is required.

A clock reading or a time in a plan?

Ask Quelle heure est-il ? for the current time; answer with Il est and the hour, adding numbered minutes or et demie. For a plan, keep the action and add à + time. The table is a written reminder; the audio is in the examples above. Aim to ask once, answer once, and give one time for your own plan.

Question or written timeSpoken French
Quelle heure est-il ?Il est une heure.
13 h 20Il est treize heures vingt.
7 h 30Il est sept heures et demie.
8 h 30Je vais au café à huit heures et demie.
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