In French, the format for writing the date is: Day of the week + Number + Month. For example, write le lundi 25 décembre (Monday, December 25). After this lesson you’ll never confuse the date again!
Dates in French
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 of the week are written in the lower case and not capitalized.
| ENGLISH | FRENCH | PRONUNCIATION |
| Monday | lundi | landee |
| Tuesday | mardi | mahrdee |
| Wednesday | mercredi | mehrkredee |
| Thursday | jeudi | zhurdee |
| Friday | vendredi | vahngdrerdee |
| Saturday | samedi | sahmdee |
| Sunday | dimanche | deemahngsh |
Months of the year
Generally, the months are quite easy to pronounce with the exceptions of June (juin) and July (juillet). Months are also written in the lower case.
| ENGLISH | FRENCH | PRONUNCIATION | SOUNDS LIKE |
| January | janvier | ʒɑ̃vje | zhahnvyay |
| February | février | fevʀije | fayvreeyay |
| March | mars | maʀs | mahrs |
| April | avril | avʀil | ahvreel |
| May | mai | mɛ | may |
| June | juin | ʒɥɛ̃ | zhwang |
| July | juillet | ʒɥijɛ | zhweeyah |
| August | août | u(t) | oot |
| Septembre | septembre | sɛptɑ̃bʀ | sehptahngbr |
| October | octobre | ɔktɔbʀ | novahngbr |
| November | novembre | nɔvɑ̃bʀ | novahngbr |
| Decembre | décembre | desɑ̃bʀ | dayssahngbr |
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:
- 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 premier, which means “first”.
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:
| le 4 avril April 4 | le premier juillet July 1 |
| le 23 mai May 23 | le 28 mars march 28 |
| le 25 juin June 25 | le 2 août August 2 |
| le 6 février February 6 | le 15 octobre October 15 |
| le premier november November 1 | le 6 september September 6 |
| le 17 octobre October 17 | le 25 août August 25 |
| le 22 février February 22 | le 17 janvier January 17 |
| le 13 avril April 13 |
Days of the week and dates
In order to include the day of the week with the date use the following format:
- Nous sommes/c’est le + day of the week + le + number + month
- Nous sommes mardi, le 4 octobre. It’s Tuesday, Oct. 4.
- C’est samedi, le 15 mai. It’s Saturday, May 15.
Writing the date
To write the date in French, you must reverse the month and day. This can be a bit confusing at first for North Americans but should not cause any confusion for people from the United Kingdom.
- 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
Related lessons:
French vocabulary | Lessons by David Issokson
