La date

In French, the format for writing the date is: Day of the week + Number + Month + Year. For example, write le lundi 25 décembre (Monday, December 25). After this lesson you’ll never confuse the date again!

Days of the week

In order to say the date correctly it is necessary to learn the days of the week and months of the year. First let’s look at the days of the week (les jours de la semaine).

The days are very simple and quite straightforward and the pronunciation is not very difficult. Note that in French the days of the week are written in the lower case and not capitalized like in English.

Months of the year

Generally, the months are quite easy to pronounce with the exceptions of June (juin) and July (juillet).

Please also note that French write the months in the lower case. Thus, those aren’t mistakes on the following table!

How to talk about the date in French

How to ask the date

To ask somebody the date, ask:

• Quelle est la date aujourd’hui? What the date today?

How to say the date

There are several ways to say the date. The easiest way is to use this form:

C’est + le + number + month

• For example, it’s July 14: C’est le quatorze juillet.

This construction holds true for all of the days of the month except the first. To say the first of the month you must use the word “premier“ which literally means first (as in first, second, third, etc).

So, to say, “It’s January 1”, say: “c’est le premier janvier“.

There are two more ways to say the date which you should learn:

• Nous sommes + le + number + month
• On est + le + number + month

So, “Nous sommes le 5 avril” literally means, “We are April 5” and “On est le 15 november“ means “One is November 15”.

Practice saying some dates in French:

How to incorporate days of the week into the date

In order to include the day of the week with the date using the following format:

• Nous sommes/c’est le + day of the week + le + number + month

Here are some examples:

• Nous sommes mardi, le 4 octobre. It’s Tuesday, Oct. 4.
• C’est samedi, le 15 mai. It’s Saturday, May 15.

How to write the date in French

Writing the date out in French is different to the North American system. In French, you must reverse the month and day.

This can be a bit confusing at first for Americans but should not cause any confusion for people from the UK as the British use the same system.

Here are some useful examples:

• le 5 juin 2012 or 5/6/2012 June 5, 2012 or 6/5/2012
• le 25 décembre 2012 or  25/12/2012 December 25, 2012 or 12/15/2012
• le 3 november 2012 or 11/03/2012 November 3, 2021 or 3/11/21

Review how to say the date in French:

Downlaod PDF Lesson

Related lessons:

• Telling Time
• Days of the week
• French numbers 1-100

French vocabulary | Lessons by David Issokson

David Issokson

David Issokson is a lifelong language learner and speaks over seven languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private lessons. When not teaching or writing his French Word of the Day lessons, David enjoys his time skiing, hiking and mountain biking in Victor, Idaho.

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