Dates and telling time
Summary
French dates are le + cardinal number + month (le 3 mai), with le premier only for the 1st and no capital letters on days or months; clock time uses heure(s) (il est huit heures), with midi/minuit for 12, et quart, et demie and moins le quart for the quarters, and the 24-hour clock in schedules.
Explanation
To give a date, French uses the definite article le, then a cardinal number, then the month, with no word for "of": le 14 juillet, le 25 décembre. The single exception is the first of the month, which is the ordinal le premier (written le 1er): le premier mai, le premier janvier. Every other day is a plain cardinal: le 2 mai, le 3 mai, never "le deuxième".
Days of the week and names of months are written in lowercase: lundi, mardi, janvier, février. To say something happens on a given weekday in general, you add le: le lundi means "on Mondays". A full date stacks these together, e.g. (le) lundi 3 mai 2026, and in writing the year is read as a single number: deux mille vingt-six.
To tell the time, start with il est, then the number, then the word heure for one o'clock and heures from two onwards: il est une heure, il est deux heures, il est huit heures. Twelve o'clock is not normally "douze heures" in everyday speech: noon is midi and midnight is minuit. Minutes are simply placed after the hour with no extra word: il est huit heures dix, il est neuf heures vingt-cinq.
The quarters and the half-hour have fixed expressions on the 12-hour clock: et quart (quarter past), et demie (half past), and moins le quart (quarter to): huit heures et quart, huit heures et demie, neuf heures moins le quart. Note that with midi and minuit you say et demi without the -e, because midi/minuit are masculine: midi et demi. "Moins" also works with minutes: neuf heures moins dix (ten to nine).
Schedules, transport, opening hours and any official context use the 24-hour clock, where minutes are read as plain numbers and the quarter expressions are dropped: le train part à dix-huit heures quarante-cinq (18 h 45), la réunion est à quatorze heures trente (14 h 30). In casual speech people use 1-12 and add du matin, de l'après-midi or du soir to show the part of the day: à huit heures du soir.
Two small but frequent points. First, ask the time with quelle heure est-il ? and "at what time" with à quelle heure ? Second, the abbreviation in writing is h (with a space): 8 h, 18 h 45 — not a colon. Keeping le premier for the 1st, lowercase days/months, and midi/minuit instead of "douze heures" covers most learner errors.
Examples
Mon anniversaire est le premier août. — My birthday is on the first of August. (Use le premier (1er) only for the first of the month; every other day is a plain cardinal.)
Nous arrivons le 3 mai, un mardi. — We arrive on 3 May, a Tuesday. (Cardinal number, no "of", and the day/month stay lowercase.)
Il est huit heures et demie. — It is half past eight. (12-hour clock: et demie for the half hour.)
Le train part à dix-huit heures quarante-cinq. — The train leaves at 6:45 p.m. (24-hour clock for schedules: minutes are read as plain numbers, no "moins le quart".)
On déjeune à midi et demi. — We have lunch at half past twelve. (Noon is midi (not "douze heures"), and et demi has no -e because midi is masculine.)
Common mistakes
Mon anniversaire est le un janvier.
Mon anniversaire est le premier janvier.
French dates use a cardinal number after le (le 2 janvier, le 3 janvier), but the 1st of the month is the single exception: it takes the ordinal le premier, never le un. Say le premier janvier, le premier mai, and so on for every month.
Prerequisites
Related rules
datestimenumbers