eLanguage.com


Learn to Speak French Online:
French Grammar Guidebook

« Back to the Guidebook Index | Learn to Speak™ French Deluxe

Telling Time

Back   Numbers and Time
(3rd of 3)

If you want to ask someone "What time is it?," you can use one of two expressions:
 

Quelle heure est-il? What time is it?
Vous avez l’heure? Do you have the time?

You can also ask a question by using the regular word order of a statement but raising the intonation.
 

Il est quelle heure? What time is it?

The answer will begin with Il est ... followed by the hour, the word heure(s), and the minutes.
 

Il est une heure.* It’s one o'clock.
Il est dix heures vingt. It’s ten twenty.
Il est midi. It’s noon.
Il est minuit et demie. It’s half past midnight.
Il est trois heures et quart. It’s three fifteen.

*The word heure normally will take an -s (except for une heure, "one o'clock").

To differentiate between "a.m." and "p.m.," the French use the expressions du matin ("a.m."— literally, "in the morning"), de l’après-midi ("p.m."—"in the afternoon") and du soir (also "p.m."—"in the evening").

THE 12 HOUR CLOCK
 

Il est trois heures du matin.
It’s three o'clock in the morning.
Il est sept heures du soir.
It’s seven o'clock in the evening.
Il est quatre heures de l’après-midi.
It’s four o'clock in the afternoon.

24 HOUR CLOCK

Another way to tell time is to use the 24-hour clock.Consider the following examples:
 

Il est 3h00. It’s 0300.
Il est 19h00. It’s 1900. (7:00 p.m.)
Il est 16h15. It’s 1615. (4:15 p.m.)

Refer to the Basics section of the program for the practice of times.



Examples of Telling Time

  • À quelle heure part le prochain train?
  • Voyons, le 608 vient de partir et le suivant part à 14h01.
  • Le premier train part à 5h08.
  • Il est trois heures moins le quart de l'après-midi.
  • Je ne me lève jamais avant neuf heures.