How to Write Dates in French

How to write dates in French is quite simple, you just need to remember to use the “date” format. Unlike English, the name of the month or day of the week in French is not capitalized.

Table of Contents

Write and pronounce the date in French

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Learn the names of the months. In the list below, the French name is italicized , with the pronunciation followed in parentheses. ^{[1] X Research Source} The letter (n) in parentheses represents the nasal consonant “n.”

January: janvier (zhah(n)-vyay)
February: février (fay-vree-yay)
March: mars (mahrs)
April: avril (ah-vreel)
May: tomorrow (meh)
June: juin (zhwa(n))
July: juillet (zhwee-eh)
August: août (oot)
September: septembre (sehp-tah(n)br)
October: octobre (ohk-tohbr)
November: Novembre (noh-vah(n)br)
December: décembre (day-sah(n)br)

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Learn how to write dates. In French, dates are written in “day month year” order and do not use commas to separate them. Note: month names are not capitalized. Here are a few examples (along with abbreviated versions):

4 oz 1789 (August 4, 1789)
15 mars 2015 (March 15, 2015)

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Read aloud the day up. To read the date aloud, add le at the beginning of a sentence and read all dates as a count (“year” instead of “Thursday”). ^{[2] X Research Sources} The following examples are written verbally. Learn how to count numbers in French if you are new to reading numbers:

“le quatre août mille sept cent quatre-vingt-neuf”
“le quinze mars deux mille quatorze”
Months are masculine nouns, so the accompanying article is always le .

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Get an exception for the first day of the month. When referring to the first day of the month, use “1er” in writing, and “premier” in reading. This is the only date that uses a sequence number (“first”) instead of a count (“one”). For example:

1er avril (1/4), pronounced “le premier avril”

Write and pronounce the days of the week

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Learn the names of the days of the week. Refer to this list to learn the names of the days of the week in French, along with the pronunciation. ^{[3] X Research Sources} When learning French, remember that the days of the week are not capitalized.

Monday: lundi (luh(n)-dee)
Tuesday: mardi (mahr-dee)
Wednesday: mercredi (mehr-kruh-dee)
Thursday: jeudi (zhuh-dee)
Friday: vendredi (vah(n)-druh-dee)
Saturday: samedi (sahm-dee)
Sunday: dimanche (dee-mah(n)sh)

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Write and say the date with the day of the week. Similar to when writing the date, only you put the day of the week in front of the sentence. Such as:

Vietnamese: Wednesday, June 5
French (written): mercredi, le 5 juin 2001 (formal)
French (written): mercredi 5 juin 2001 (regular)
French (read): mercredi cinq juin deux mille un
French (read): le mercredi cinq juin deux mille un (when you want to express a specific date)

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You need to know when to use articles. Days of the week are masculine nouns, so the article to be used is le . ^{[4] X Research Source} For example, “Le samedi est le sixième jour”, which means “Saturday is the sixth day of the week”. However, when it comes to an event that will take place on a specific date, you need to know the difference between le samedi and samedi : ^{[5] X Research Source}

Samedi, je dîne au restaurant. = On Saturday, I have a meal at a restaurant. (Event happens once.)
Le samedi, je dîne au restaurant. = Every Saturday, I have a meal at a restaurant. (Repeated events..)

Use dates in sentences

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Ask what day is today. If you want to ask someone what day it is, you can say or write: Quelle est la date aujourd’hui?

Aujourd’hui means “today”. Or you can use d’aujourd’hui (“of today”) as a noun instead of an adverb. Both are commonly used.

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Ask what day it is today. To ask someone what day it is, say: Quel jour sommes-nous aujourd’hui? or Quel jour est-on aujourd’hui? ^{[6] X Research Source}

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Answer today’s date in sentences. If someone asks you the above questions, prepare an answer:

To answer that: “Today is Monday, November 15”, you need to write Aujourd’hui, c’est le lundi 15 novembre .
To answer: “Today is Sunday,” say Aujourd’hui, c’est dimanche or simply C’est dimanche .

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Use the preposition en . This preposition is used to write “in July” ( en juillet ), “in 1950” ( en 1950 ), “in April 2011” ( en avril 2011 ), and so on. ^{[7] X Research Sources} This preposition can be placed at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. For example:

J’ai un rendez-vous chez le médecin en mars. = I have a doctor’s appointment in March.
J’ai vecu à Paris en 1990. = I lived in Vietnam in 1990.

Advice

The pronunciation in this article is based on the “French textbook”. Some people from a French-speaking country other than France, or even from another part of France, may pronounce these words differently. We recommend that you pronounce according to the French textbook because the different pronunciations will be difficult for native speakers to understand.

Steps

Write and pronounce the date in French

Write and pronounce the days of the week

Use dates in sentences

Advice

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