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Somewhat synonyms
French has two words for each of the following: year, day, morning, and evening, and they cause no end of difficulties for non-native speakers. Why is it that English can get away with one word for each of these temporal markers when French needs two? The answer lies in how you look at them.
Each word pair includes a short, masculine word and a longer, feminine word. The latter is little more than the former with the suffix –ée tacked on:
| year | un an | une année | ||
| day | un jour | une journée | ||
| morning | un matin | une matinée | ||
| evening | un soir | une soirée |
An, jour, matin, soir
The masculine terms are what I like to call division words or quantity words: they express a simple unit of time.
Par exemple…
| J’habite en Guadeloupe depuis deux ans et demi. | I’ve lived in Guadeloupe for two and half years. | |
| J’ai passé trois jours en Italie. | I spent three days in Italy. | |
| Je travaille chaque matin. | I work every morning. | |
| Je me couche à 22h le soir. | I go to bed at 10 in the evening. |
Année, journée, matinée, soirée
In contrast, the feminine words with –ée are duration or quality words: they emphasize the length of time.
Par exemple…
| Pendant la première année, je cherchais une maison. | For the first year, I looked for a house. | |
| J’ai passé trois journées à manger. | I spent three days eating. | |
| Après une matinée de travail, j’aime me promener. | After a morning of work, I like to go for a walk. | |
| Je passe mes soirées à lire. | I spend my evenings reading. |
Quantity vs Quality
There are rules about when to use each type of word, and with rules come exceptions.
Division / quantity words are used with
1) Numbers
| Il a voyagé pendant cinq jours. | He traveled for five days. | |
| Ils sont fiancés depuis 10 ans. | They’ve been engaged for 10 years. |
But! you can use duration words for emphasis:
| Six journées, pas cinq. | Six days, not five. | |
| Dix années, c’est incroyable ! | 10 years, that’s amazing! |
| hier matin | yesterday morning | |
| demain soir | tomorrow night |
| Ce jour où je t’ai vu. | That day I saw you. | |
| Je pars ce matin et lui, ce soir. | I’m leaving this morning and he’s leaving this evening. |
But! when talking about the current year, use année.
| J’ai beaucoup appris cet an. | vs | I learned a lot that year. |
| Je vais en France cette année. | I’m going to France this year. |
Duration / quality words are used with
| quelle journée ? | which day? | |
| en quelle année ? | in which year? |
But! not when asking which day of the week
| Quel jour sommes-nous ? | What day is it? | |
| Quel jour as-tu congé ? | What day do you have off? |
2) Most other types of adjectives …
| une belle matinée | a beautiful morning | |
| plusieurs années | several years |
… including when there’s a number plus an adjective:
| nos deux années ensemble | our two years together | |
| ces cinq journées | those five days |
But! watch out for tout, which has different functions and meanings depending on which type of word it’s used with.
| tous les jours, tous les soirs (tous is an indefinite adjective here) | vs | every day, every evening |
| toute la journée, toute la soirée (toute is an indefinite pronoun here) | all day, all evening |
3) De + noun (often equivalent to an adjective)
| journées d’émeute | days of rioting | |
| une soirée de gala | gala night |
But! all that said, an and année often ignore the above rules.
| l’an prochain l’année prochaine | next year | |
| l’an dernier l’année dernière | last year |
Related lessons
French expressions with
There is a fifth word pair: la nuit / la nuitée, but it doesn’t follow the above patterns. Une nuit = "night" in all senses except when referring to a night in the tourism industry, which is une nuitée.
Par exemple…
| J’ai passé une journée et une nuit à Barcelone. | I spent one day and night in Barcelona. | |
| Une nuitée coûte 80 euros. | One night [in this hotel] costs 80 euros. |
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Bonjour,
I do not understand the difference between “I spent three days eating” and “I spent three days in Italy” – Both sound like quantity to me.
Bonjour Gaurav, Yes, technically that’s true. But spending three days eating is not a normal thing to do, thus the use of the duration word – to emphasize what a long period of time this is.
You are the best! I LOVE your lessons, so clearly and so simply explained. Please keep going.