Telling time in French is just a matter of knowing the French numbers and a few formulas and rules.
- The French word for "time," as in "what time is it?" is l'heure, not le temps. The latter means time as in "I spent a lot of time there."
- In English, we often leave out "o'clock" - it's perfectly fine to say "It's seven" or "I'm leaving at three-thirty." Not so in French - you always have to say heure (except with midi and minuit).
- In French, the hour and minute are separated by h (for heure) where in English we use a colon :
- French doesn't have words for "a.m." and "p.m." You can use du matin for a.m., de l'après-midi from noon until about 6 p.m., and du soir from 6 p.m. until midnight, but time is usually expressed on a 24-hour clock. Thus 3 p.m. is normally expressed as quinze heures or 15h00, but you can also say trois heures de l'après-midi.
| What time is it? | Quelle heure est-il ? | |
| It's one o'clock | Il est une heure | 1h00 |
| It's two o'clock | Il est deux heures | 2h00 |
| It's 3:30 | Il est trois heures et demie Il est trois heures trente | 3h30 |
| It's 4:15 | Il est quatre heures et quart Il est quatre heures quinze | 4h15 |
| It's 4:45 | Il est cinq heures moins le quart Il est cinq heures moins quinze Il est quatre heures quarante-cinq | 4h45 |
| It's 5:10 | Il est cinq heures dix | 5h10 |
| It's 6:50 | Il est sept heures moins dix Il est six heures cinquante | 6h50 |
| It's 7 a.m. | Il est sept heures du matin | 7h00 |
| It's 3 p.m. | Il est trois heures de l'après-midi Il est quinze heures | 15h00 |
| It's 6 p.m. | Il est six heures du soir Il est dix-huit heures | 18h00 |
| It's noon | Il est midi | 12h00 |
| It's midnight | Il est minuit | 0h00 |
Practice! Telling time in French
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