Telling Time
Telling time
Knowing how to tell time in French is essential for traveling, meeting up with friends, making appointments, and getting to work or school on time. Once you learn these formulas, you’ll never have an excuse to be late again!
To ask what the time is in French, the phrase you’re looking for is:
❑ Quelle heure est-il ? What time is it?
But one of the other ways to ask for the time in French, particularly if you’re addressing a stranger, is to say:
❑ Excusez-moi, est-ce que vous avez l’heure, s’il vous plaît ? Excuse me, do you have the time please?
So, how should you respond if someone asks you quelle heure est-il ? The phrase you will need is: il est… which means ‘it is’ followed by the hour. Below, you’ll find some of the essential vocabulary you’ll need to ask for and tell the time in French.
Practice
To abbreviate a time in French, don’t use a colon between the hour and minutes like in English. Instead, use the letter h (for heure), like this: 8h10 (8:10).
French has specific words for noon and midnight: midi (noon) and minuit (midnight). Those two words are used without saying heures. For example: Il est minuit. Tout le monde au lit! (It’s midnight. Everybody to bed!)
How to express AM – PM and military time in French “heure officielle”
In France, as well as most other European countries, time is usually expressed on a 24-hour clock (what we in the United States generally refer to as “military time”). The 24-hour system is called “L’Heure Officielle” in French. It is especially used in public announcements such as timetables, bus/train/plane schedules, movie/television/radio listings, sporting events, and business hours of operation.
▫︎ 14h50 ☞ quatorze heures cinquante
When indicating 12-hour clock times (as we usually do in English), you will use such phrases as:
▫︎ du matin – a.m. ☞ dix heures du matin 10a.m.
▫︎ de l’après-midi – p.m. (from noon until 6:00p.m.) ☞ trois heures de l’après-midi 3p.m.
▫︎ du soir – p.m. (from 6:00p.m. until midnight) ☞ sept heures du soir 7p.m.
☞ Je travaille à 9 heures du matin. I work at 9a.m.
Practice
However, these phrases above are not used when expressing time according to the 24-hour system.
With the 24-hour clock, the words minuit, midi, quart, and demi(e) are not used, and the number of minutes is expressed by a full number. Unlike in the 12-hour system, minutes are never subtracted from an hour in the 24-hour system. Instead, minutes are always added to the hour.
▫︎ 14h50 ☞ quatorze heures cinquante