Days and months in French
Quelle est la date aujourd’hui? - What is the date today?
Aujourd’hui c’est le premier avril - Today is the first of April.
When you say the date in French - you say - c’est - which means ‘it is’ followed by le and then the date.
(*except when you give today's date and when you give the day - for example "Aujourd'hui c'est lundi 25 décembre")
The months don’t have capital letters in French.
Quelle est la date aujourd’hui?
Aujourd’hui c’est le 25 décembre. Joyeux Noël!
Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire? - When is your birthday?
Mon anniversaire, c'est le 22 janvier.
Remember when you say the date in French you put le before the number: **le 22 janvier.**
Le is also useful when you want to say you do something regularly.
Le mardi je fais du yoga - On Tuesdays I do yoga.
Om!
Numbers, days and months
To go over numbers, days of the week and months of the year, click on the downloadable vocabulary list and listen to the audio clips below:
The days of the week
The months of the year
Asking for and giving the date
When you want to give a date, you say the day, then the number and then the month.
In French, you don’t need to change the numbers from cardinal numbers (five, 16, 20 and so on) to ordinal numbers (such as fifth, 16th, 20th, and so on) when you are talking about the date.
When talking about today you do not need to use a le.
To ask what the date is today, say Quelle est la date aujourd'hui? To reply say:
- Aujourd'hui, c'est jeudi cinq avril - Today is Thursday, 5th April.
You could also say:
- Aujourd'hui, on est jeudi cinq avril - Today is Thursday, 5th April.
The only exception to this rule is the number one, which is premier, not un:
- Aujourd’hui, c’est mardi premier mai - Today is Monday, 1st May.
Days and months don’t need capital letters in French.
Talking about your birthday
To ask the question ‘when is your birthday?’ in French, you can say ‘what is the date of your birthday?’
- Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire? - When is your birthday?
Or, to make it simpler, you could say:
- C’est quand, ton anniversaire? - When is your birthday?
Reply by saying ‘my birthday, it is’ and then the date of your birthday.
- Mon anniversaire, c’est le six septembre - My birthday (it) is on 6th September.
Remember to use cardinal numbers (six, 12, etc.) rather than ordinal numbers (sixth, 12th, etc), except when you’re talking about the 1st of the month (when you use le premier):
- Mon anniversaire, c’est le premier février - My birthday is on 1st February.
Describing when you do activities
To talk about an activity you do on the same day every week, use le and then say the day:
- Le lundi, je joue au tennis - On Mondays/Every Monday, I play tennis.
- Le mardi, Clément travaille au café - On Tuesdays/Every Tuesday, Clément works at the café.
To say that you did something or that you are going to do something on a particular day, you just say the day and then use the correct tense to talk about the activity:
- Vendredi dernier, j’ai joué du piano - Last Friday, I played the piano.
- Mercredi, je vais faire du judo - On Wednesday, I’m going to do judo.
The date in the past and the future
Other people’s birthdays
Quiz
Find out how much you know about days and months in French in this short quiz.
More on Topics
Find out more by working through a topic
- count5 of 12
- count6 of 12
- count7 of 12
- count8 of 12
