Step By Step Know How to Tell Time in French
Telling the time in French isn’t too difficult, but it’s not as easy as telling it in English. However, the vocabulary needed to tell time in French is simple and can usually be applied to simple sentence structures.
Know the numbers from 1 to 59 in French
To tell the time, you need to know all the hours and minutes used in French. Check this phonetic list for quick recall if needed. At least you should know:
1. 1-12: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
2. 15, 30, 45: fifteen, thirty, forty-five.
Use ” Quelle heure est-il ” to ask for the time
The way to pronounce it is “kell eurh eh-til”, which means “What time is it?”
1. The word “temps” means “time spent somewhere,” not “hours.” The French for “time” is “heure,” which also means “hour.”
2. In informal situations, you can also say “avez-vous l’heure,” or “What time is it?”
Add the minutes after the “heure”
In French, the literal meaning of 2:15 is “two hours and fifteen.” So if you want to say 2:15 in French you can say “il est deux heures quinze.” or “Il est deux heures et quart.” This is true for any number of minutes that follow.
1. 4:27 — It’s four twenty-seven.
2. 10:12 — It’s twelve past ten.
3. 7:30 a.m. — It’s ten-thirty.
Use “Il est______ heure,” for the hour
To say it’s one o’clock, you can say “Il est une heure” (il eht euhn eurh). While we often drop the word “hour” in English, we can’t do that in French. You should always add “heure” after the hour you mean.
1. Express the time in the plural when it is past one o’clock. For example, two o’clock is “deux heure s, and five o’clock is “cinq heure s.
As in English, French also has vocabulary for times that are widely used, such as half an hour (“demie”) and quarter of an hour (“quart”). Add these words after “heure” along with “et” (French for “and”). Thus, you could say 4:30 in French as, “il est quatre heures et demie.”
1. As in English, there is no “wrong” way of telling time. It’s just that there are different ways to express it.
Use “moins” to indicate how many minutes are before a certain hour
In English, we can say 6:45 as “a quarter to seven,” or 12:50 as “one hour and 10 minutes.” The French do the same by using the word “moins,” which means “less” in Indonesian. So to express 6:45, we can say “Il est sept heures moins le quart.” or “Il est sept heures moins quart.”(without the “le”) which literally means “Fifteen minutes to seven.”
1. Many French speakers use this sentence structure, rather than using larger, more complicated numbers like 45 or 50.
Mark mornings and evenings with “du matin,” and “de l’après-midi
The French do not use AM or PM to mark time. After “heure,” add “du matin” for the morning and “de l’après-midi” for the afternoon. Thus, 3:00 a.m. becomes “il est trois heures du matin,” while 3:00 p.m. becomes “il est trois heures de l’après-midi.”
1. You can also use “du soir” to mean “evening.”
2. But most French speakers use a 24-hour clock. 3:00 p.m. would be represented as 3:00 p.m., or “fifteen o’clock.”
Learn vocabulary for noon and midnight
You don’t need to use the full expression “il est douze heures” for midnight and noon. But you can simply say “il est midi” for “noon” and “il est minuit” for “midnight.”
1. You can’t add minutes to this. Saying “il est midi quinze” for 12:15 pm is wrong.