⏰ French: My Day and the Time

To ask the time in French, we say Quelle heure est-il ? It means “What time is it?”

For an o’clock time we say Il est, then the number and heures: Il est trois heures. (It is three o’clock.) For one only, we say une heure, because it is just one hour.

For quarter past, we say et quart. For half past, et demie. After half past, we say the next hour and count back: for 7:45 we say huit heures moins le quart, which means “quarter to eight”.

Twelve at noon is midi, and twelve at night is minuit. On the clock both show twelve, but one is sunny and one is starry!

To ask when something happens, we say À quelle heure ? (At what time?) In the answer, we use à and the time: À sept heures. (At seven o’clock.)

Let’s start the day! Je me lève à sept heures. I get up at seven o’clock. Je prends le petit-déjeuner à sept heures et demie. I have breakfast at half past seven. Me means myself: “je me lève” is like “I get myself up”.

Je pars à l’école à huit heures moins le quart. I leave for school at quarter to eight. Je déjeune à midi. I have lunch at noon.

Je fais mes devoirs à cinq heures. I do my homework at five o’clock. Je me couche à neuf heures du soir. I go to bed at nine in the evening. Du soir means “in the evening”.

Here is our whole day on one clock face: getting up, breakfast, school, lunch, homework and bedtime. Every job has its own time!

The seven days of the week: lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi are school days, samedi, dimanche are the weekend. In French, days of the week are written with a small letter, unlike in English. Le samedi means “on Saturdays”.

Let’s remember: we ask the time with Quelle heure est-il ? We tell it with et quart, et demie and moins le quart. We start the day with je me lève and end it with je me couche. Now try it in Ma Journée!