Calendar

French calendar vocabulary
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Le calendrier

Knowing the French days of the week, months of the year, and seasons will come in handy when traveling, making plans with friends, talking about history, and lots more. Click to listen to the sound files.

Les jours de la semaine – Days of the week

lundi   Monday
mardi   Tuesday
mercredi   Wednesday
jeudi   Thursday
vendredi   Friday
samedi   Saturday
dimanche   Sunday

 À noter

  • The French week starts on Monday.
  • French days of the week are not capitalized.
  • les jours de la semaine – days of the week (all seven days)
  • les jours de semaine aka les jours ouvrables – weekdays (5 days: Monday to Friday)

Question: What day is it?

Answer: It’s …  /  Today is …

Question: What day is (your birthday / Christmas) this year?

Answer: It’s on …

 Fais gaffe !

When answering one of the above questions or when talking about someone that happened on a certain day – a one-time event – you do not need the definite article le:

Par exemple…

Nous sommes samedi.   It’s Saturday.
On peut aller au ciné vendredi.   We could go to the movies on Friday.
Je ne travaille pas lundi.   I’m not working (this) Monday.

However, when referring to something that regularly happens on the same day of the week, you do need the article.

Par exemple…

On va au ciné le vendredi.   We go to the movies on Fridays.
Je ne travaille pas le lundi.   I don’t work on Mondays.

Les mois de l’année – Months of the year

janvier   January
février   February
mars   March
avril   April
mai   May
juin   June
juillet   July
août   August
septembre   September
octobre   October
novembre   November
décembre   December

 À noter

  • French months are not capitalized either.
  • To talk about something that happens in a certain month, use the preposition en:

Par exemple…

Mon anniversaire est en septembre.   My birthday is in September.
Nous allons voyager en avril.   We’re going to travel in April.

Les saisons – Seasons

printemps   spring
été   summer
automne   autumn/fall
hiver   winter

 À noter

  • All French calendar words – days, months, seasons – are masculine.
  • To talk about something that happens in a certain season, use au for printemps and en for the other three.

Par exemple…

Il fait beau au printemps.   The weather is nice in the spring.
Je ne voyage jamais en hiver.   I never travel in the winter.

French expressions

 Quizzes

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Le calendrier - French vocabulary

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3 Responses

  1. SpenceB 11 September 2014 / 20:44

    Reread this lesson from the Dates lesson. I also changed my computer calendar, a short while ago, to start with the option of Mondays . Took a little getting used to, but now it makes much more sense to have the two days of le week-end together, instead of split by the weekdays.

    I’m guessing the French adopted the phrase week-end, but they made better use of the concept in their calendar layouts.

  2. Ine Richards 7 August 2014 / 8:31

    With Lawless French I speak flawless french. Thank you Laura

  3. mohamad 7 August 2014 / 0:11

    Thanks, Like always nice, easy, short and useful .

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