French Grammar: Telling the Date
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Identify:
French Grammar: Telling the Date
le grammaire français: dire la date
Learning to tell the date (dire la date) will help you plan for future events! Knowing how to tell dates is also vital for business appointments, taking classes, and holidays and celebrations!
Study:
Learning to tell the date (dire la date) will help you plan for future events! Knowing how to tell dates is also vital for business appointments, taking classes, and holidays and celebrations!
Here is how to ask the date:
Quelle est la date? : What is the date?
Here is another helpful word about time:
quand : when
Quelle est la date ton anniversaire?
What is the date of your (informal) birthday?
Quand est ton anniversaire?
When is your (informal) birthday?
To tell the date in English, we use ordinal numbers (second, seventh, twenty-fourth, thirty-first, etc.). To tell the date in French, we use cardinal numbers (deux, sept, vingt-quatre, trente et un, etc.); the only exception in French is the first of the month: le premier.
In French, the day always comes before the month. The construction for telling the date is le + cardinal number + month:
Aujourd’hui, c’est le neuf février.
Today is February ninth (literally, “the ninth of February”).
Mon anniversaire, c’est le vingt-neuf mars.
My birthday is March twenty-ninth (literally, “the twenty-ninth of March”).
Ils vont se marier le premier mai.
They are going to get married on May first.
Note: The French date is normally written using numerals, just like in English. It is spelled out in the examples above only for the purpose of illustration.
In French, the years 1100-1999 can be expressed in either of two ways:
(a) 1996 – mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-seize : one thousand nine hundred ninety-six
OR
(b) 1996 – dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-seize : nineteen hundred ninety-six
The (b) version – in which the year is expressed in hundreds, just like in English – is the more commonly used way in which French speakers give the year. But notice that, while the word “hundred” is dropped in English, it cannot be dropped in French.
The years from 2000 on are only expressed using the word mille (thousand).
Note that the word mille never ends in letter ‘s’:
2014 – deux mille quatorze : two thousand fourteen
To say in what month or year, use “en”. Do not translate the English word “on” to say that something happens on a specific date. In this case, just continue to use le.
Noël, c’est en quel mois?
Christmas is in what month?
Noël est en décembre. C’est le 25 décembre. Il n’y a pas de classe le 25 décembre.
Christmas is in December. It is December twenty-fifth. There are no classes on December twenty-fifth.
En quelle année est-ce que tu es né?
In what year were you (informal) born?
As you’ve now seen, French dates are expressed as day + month + year (for example, le 16 avril 2014). Therefore, when the French date is written in numbers, the sequence still follows the pattern day + month + year.
le 20 juillet 1989: (20.7.89)
July 20, 1989: (7/20/89)
Sometimes when writing the date in numbers, Roman numerals are used for the month:
le 19 novembre 1966: (19.XI.66)
November 19, 1966: (11/19/66)
Adapt:
Quelle est la date aujourd’hui?
What is today’s date?
Aujourd’hui, c’est le 22 janvier 2014.
Today is January 22, 2014.
Quelle est la date demain?
What is tomorrow’s date?
Demain, c’est le 23 janvier 2014.
Tomorrow is January 23, 2014.
Quand est ton anniversaire?
When is your birthday?
Mon anniversaire, c’est le premier octobre.
My birthday is October 1.
Quelle est la date de la fête nationale française?
What is the date of the French national holiday?
La fête nationale française, c’est le 14 juillet.
The French national holiday is July 14.
La guerre civile américaine a fini en quelle année?
In what year did the American Civil War end?
La guerre civile américaine a fini en 1865 (mille huit cent soixante-cinq OU dix-huit cent soixante-cinq).
The American Civil War ended in 1865.
