French Days of the Week

There are a few different formulas you need to know in order to talk about the day of the week in French.

Asking and answering

French has three different ways to ask "What day (of the week) is it?"

1. Quel jour est-ce ?
2. Quel jour est-on ?
3. Quel jour sommes-nous ?

To answer, simply uninvert one of the verb-subject pairs above and then say the day of the week. So "It's Saturday" can be said

1. C'est samedi.
2. On est samedi.
3. Nous sommes samedi.

To say "Today is Thursday," say Aujourd'hui, followed by any of the above phrases.

1. Aujourd'hui, c'est jeudi.
2. Aujourd'hui, on est jeudi.
3. Aujourd'hui, nous sommes jeudi.

When is ___?

To find out "what day" or "when" something will happen, ask Quel jour est ... ? or Quand est ... ? Then to answer, say ... est + the day of the week.

   Quel jour est la fête ? La fête / Elle est samedi.
   What day is the party? The party / It is on Saturday.

   Quand est le repas ? Le repas / Il est lundi.
   When is the meal? The meal / It is on Monday.

When asking which day an annual event will fall on, say Quel jour / Quand tombe ... cette année ? (Note that this question is for when you know the date of the event. To ask about an actual date rather than just the day of the week, see page 1.)

   Quel jour tombe ton anniversaire (cette année) ? C'est dimanche.
   What day is your birthday (this year)? It's (on) Sunday.

   Quand tombe Halloween (cette année) ? C'est mercredi.
   When (What day) is Halloween this year? It's (on) Wednesday.
 

Definite articles

When talking about the day of the week something happened or will happen, you may or may not need a definite article, depending on how far the event is in the past or future and whether it is a one-time event.

1) For an event that occurred last week or will occur next week, you do not need an article. Generally speaking, this is equivalent to using the word "this" in English:

   Il est arrivé samedi.
   He arrived on Saturday, He arrived this Saturday.

   Nous allons faire des achats mercredi.
   We're going to go shopping on Wednesday, this Wednesday.

2) If it occurs further in the past or future, you do need an article. In the English translation, you're likely to need the word "that":

   Il est arrivé le samedi (de cette semaine-là).
   He arrived that Saturday, He arrived that week on Saturday.

   Nous allons faire des achats le mercredi (avant la fête).
   We're going to go shopping that Wednesday (before the party).

3) You also need the definite article when talking about something that occurred, occurs, or will occur on that same day more than once:

   Il arrivait le samedi.
   He used to arrive on Saturdays, every Saturday.

   Nous faisons des achats le mercredi.
   We go shopping on Wednesdays.

   Je ne vais plus travailler le vendredi.
   I'm not going to work on Fridays any more.
 

Day of the week + date

When including the day of the week in answer to the question "what's the date?", there's one slightly tricky aspect to be aware of in French: the day of the week should be placed between the definite article and the numeric date.

   C'est
   On est              + le + day + date + month (+ year)
   Nous sommes

   C'est le samedi 8 avril.
   It's Saturday, 8 April / the 8th of April / April 8th.

   Nous sommes le lundi premier octobre 2012.
   It's Monday, October 1st, 2012.

Or if you really want to say the day of the week first, just be sure to pause before following with the date.

   On est mardi... le 16 juillet.
   It's Tuesday... July 16th.


Related lessons

• Jour vs journée
• C'est vs Il est
• All about être

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