In this grammar lesson you will learn about the French calendar.
In this lesson you will learn about:
- the French calendar: days & weeks
- the French calendar: months
- the French calendar: years
- the French calendar: dates
- how all the times unites are used in sentences
- how you can immediately test your knowledge on the French calendar
- how you can download Anki files for the French calendar
Please refer to the French A1 Curriculum to get a better overview of French grammar, if you are curious about how the French calendar fit in French A1 grammar.
By the end of the lesson you will know all about the French calendar!
Table of Contents
the French Calendar: Days & Weeks
| lundi | Monday |
| mardi | Tuesday |
| mercredi | Wednesday |
| jeudi | Thursday |
| vendredi | Friday |
| samedi | Saturday |
| dimanche | Sunday |
| la semaine | the week |
| le week-end | the weekend |
In French, the days of the week don’t begin with a capital letter.
Also, when you mention a day in the week, you always have to use le before it.
Je déteste le lundi.
I hate Mondays.
Le samedi est mon jour préféré.
Saturday is my favourite day.
Le mercredi, je joue au football.
On Wednesday, I play football.
[This is called soccer in U.S. English]
The only time when you don’t have to put le before a day is when you mention a one time event, or ask which day it is.
Je vais au musée mardi.
I am going to the museum on Tuesday.
Dimanche, je vais au cinéma.
Sunday, I am going to the cinema.
Quel jour sommes-nous ? Aujourd’hui, nous sommes jeudi
What day is it? – Today it’s Thursday.
the French Calendar: Months
| janvier | January |
| février | February |
| mars | March |
| avril | April |
| mai | May |
| juin | June |
| juillet | July |
| août | August |
| septembre | September |
| octobre | October |
| novembre | November |
| décembre | December |
In French, the months don’t begin with a capital letter.
Mon anniversaire est en septembre.
My birthday is in September.
La réunion a lieu en mars.
The meeting is in March.
Août est mon mois préféré.
August is my favourite month.
the French Calendar: Years
There are two ways to pronounce years before 2000.
- You can pronounce years before 2000 as a full number: thousands + hundreds + tens + ones
1922
mille neuf cent vingt–deux
1984
mille neuf cent quatre-vingt–quatre
1776
mille sept cent soixante–seize
- You can pronounce years before 2000 by spliting at the hundreds: hundreds + tens + ones
1922
dix-neuf cent vingt–deux
1984
dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt–quatre
1776
dix-sept cent soixante–seize
The years after 2000 can only be pronounced in one way.
- You can pronounce years after 2000 only as a full number: thousands + hundreds + tens + ones
2005
deux mille cinq
2010
deux mille dix
2125
deux mille cent vingt–cinq
Please read numbers in French if you are having some difficulties with numbers in French.
the French Calendar: Dates
If you want to mention a date in French you have to use the following idiom:
- le+ number + month + year
le 2 août 2008
2nd August, 2008
le 3 mars 2020
3rd March, 2013
le 4 fevrier 2015
4th February, 2015
As you can see, in French you use deux (2), trois (3), quatre (4…) and not deuxième (2e), troisième (3e), quatrième (4e…) for dates.
This is consistent for all numbers except for the 1st.
le 1er juin 2000
1st of June 2000
Finally there’s one more thing that you should be aware of.
You say le onze and not l’onze
le 11 octobre
le onze octobre
11th of October
Examples Sentences on the French Calendar
The final section of this lesson on the French calendar is about seeing the time units in action.
This is valuable because you can improve your understanding on the French calendar through examples.
Je déteste le lundi.
I hate Mondays.
Je vais au musée mardi.
I am going to the museum on Tuesday.
Le mercredi, je joue au football.
On Wednesday, I play football.
[This is called soccer in U.S. English]
Dimanche, je vais au cinéma.
Sunday, I am going to the cinema.
Le samedi est mon jour préféré.
Saturday is my favourite day.
Mon anniversaire est en septembre.
My birthday is in September.
La réunion a lieu en mars.
The meeting is in March.
Août est mon mois préféré.
August is my favourite month.
C’est l’an 2020.
It’s the year 2020.
En l’an 2005.
In the year 2005.
le 2 août 2008
2nd August, 2008
le 3 mars 2020
3rd March, 2013
le 4 fevrier 2015
4th February, 2015
le 28 decembre 2020
28th December, 2020
le 1er juin 2000
1st of June 2000
le 11 octobre
le onze octobre
11th of October
1922
mille neuf cent vingt–deux
1984
mille neuf cent quatre-vingt–quatre
1776
mille sept cent soixante–seize
1922
dix-neuf cent vingt–deux
1984
dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt–quatre
1776
dix-sept cent soixante–seize
2005
deux mille cinq
2010
deux mille dix
2125
deux mille cent vingt–cinq
Quel jour sommes-nous ? Aujourd’hui, nous sommes jeudi.
What day is it? – Today it’s Thursday.
Test Your Knowledge on the French Calendar
It’s not enough just to read the article on this lesson.
You should test your knowledge to see if you really understood everything, and to be able to repeat the material.
It is also for this reason that it is recommended to download the Anki Decks and do them.
At the end of every lesson you can do a small test.
You will see the sentences of the previous chapter. It is up to you to give the correct answer.
You will either need to fill in the blanks, choose the correct multiple choice option, or both.
Once you are done the correct answer will be shown.
You can redo the quiz as many times as you want.
Anki File for the French Calendar
It is important to do the Anki excercises for this lesson, so that you can remember what you just studied.
By downloading the Anki File for French A1 you can practice every French A1 lesson that is on Language Atlas.
At this moment the Anki File for this lesson doesn’t exist yet. However, in due time this will be available on Language Atlas.
If you don’t know why you should use Anki, or don’t know how to use Anki or merge Anki files please click here.
Anki can be downloaded from here.
