You might already know your French months and days of the week, but what about telling time in French? What are AM and PM in French? How do you schedule an appropriate time for an appointment? You might have to review your French numbers before diving into telling time in French! Let’s get going! The picture of the clock here is just a brief overview. Don’t worry, we’ll explain it all!
French o’clock
To tell the time in French, first, give the hour, then the minutes.
“Il est [hour number] heure(s) [minute number]”.
o’clock would be translated as “pile” (on the dot) or nothing. “It’s three o’clock” would be “il est trois heures” or “il est trois heures pile”.
To ask what the time is, you say: ”Quelle heure est-il ?”, ”What time is it?”
« When? » is “Quand” ? or “À quelle heure ?”
- Exceptions:
Heure (hour) is a feminine noun: ”une heure”.
Therefore, “it’s one o’clock” is ”il est une heure”.
How to say “past” and “to” in French
Most of the time, you don’t use “past” or “to” in French, but simply add the number of minutes after the number of hours.
For example, “It’s ten past two” is ”Il est deux heures dix”.
“It’s five to three” is usually ”Il est deux heures cinquante-cinq”, or “it is 2 hours 55 minutes”.
However, a French equivalent to “to” is ”moins” (minus). To say “it’s five to three”, you can also say ”Il est trois heures moins cinq”. The structure remains unchanged, as the minutes come after the hours.
“It’s twenty to four” can therefore be ”il est quatre heures moins vingt” (“it’s four hours minus twenty” or ”il est trois heures quarante”, “it’s three forty”.
- Exceptions:
“Quarter past” is ”et quart”, ”quarter to” is “moins le quart”.
“Half past” is ”et demie”, just like in English. However, you cannot say “half to” or “moins la demie”.
How to say “AM” and “PM” in French
In French, you don’t always use “AM” or “PM”. Their equivalents would be ”du matin” (“in the morning”) and ”du soir”ou de « l’après-midi » (“in the evening” or « in the afternoon »), i.e. “two am” is “deux heures du matin” whereas “two pm” is ”deux heures de l’après-midi”.
You can also tell time using the 24-hour clock, with numbers between one and twenty-three, which makes “AM” or “PM” useless. Instead of saying “two pm”, you simply say ”il est quatorze heures” (it’s fourteen hours).
- Exceptions:
12 PM or ”midday” (or “noon”) is ”midi”. 12 AM or ”midnight” is ”minuit”.
Quelle heure est-il is a well-known nursery rhyme.
Discover more French nursery rhymes on Storyplay’r.
Practice telling time in French with Storyplay’r
Practice makes perfect! Audiobooks will improve your listening and pronunciation skills. Even if you don’t understand everything just yet, you can follow the story based on the illustrations and the text.
Having fun and discovering literature is one of the best ways to learn a language. On Storyplay’r, you can also choose what you want to learn from a wide range of stories, based on topic, genre, complexity, and length. Listening to short, easy stories a few times a week before moving on to more complex books will help you improve your French!
