Asking the date in French
The basic question, "What's the date?" is very simple (click to hear it pronounced):Quelle est la date ?
You can also ask for a more specific date:
Quelle est la date aujourd'hui ?
What's today's date?
Quelle est la date de (la fête, ton anniversaire...) ?
What date is (the party, your birthday...)?
Note that quelle is the only way to translate "what" here; you cannot say things like "qu'est-ce que la date" or "qu'est-ce qui est la date." Learn about how to say "what" in French.
Saying the date in French
To say what the date is, the most important thing to remember is that the number must precede the month. Use this construction:C'est + le (definite article) + cardinal number + month
C'est le 30 octobre.
C'est le 8 avril.
C'est le 2 janvier.
The first day of the month is a little different - you have to use the ordinal number: premier (first) or 1er (1st):
C'est le premier avril, C'est le 1er avril.
C'est le premier juillet, C'est le 1er juillet.
Informally, for all of the above, you can replace C'est with On est or Nous sommes:
On est le 30 octobre.
Nous sommes le premier juillet.
If you want to include the year, just tack it on to the end:
C'est le 8 avril 2000.
On est le 1er juillet 1999.
Nous sommes le 18 octobre 2011.
See "what day is it?" for dates including the day of the week.
Writing the short form of dates
When writing the short form of the date in French, it is more important than ever to remember that the day goes first, followed by the month. This is easy for British English speakers, since they use the same format as the French, but can be very confusing for American English speakers!| le 15 décembre 2012 | 15/12/12 | ||||
| December 15, 2012 | 12/15/12 | ||||
| le 29 mars 2011 | 29/3/11 | ||||
| March 29, 2011 | 3/29/11 | ||||
| le 1er avril 2011 | 1/4/11 | ||||
| April 1, 2011 | 4/1/11 | ||||
| le 4 janvier 2011 | 4/1/11 | ||||
| January 4, 2011 | 1/4/11 | ||||
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| Related lesson: Years in French | |||||
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| Important Dates in French | |||||
