TELLING THE TIME IN FRENCH

TELLING THE TIME IN FRENCH

L'HEURE

E Omutere

The Basics

Suppose you want to ask someone the time in French. You can ask what time it is - Quelle heure est-il?  Or you can inquire if they have the time - Vous avez l'heuere?/Tu as l'heuere? English-speakers use these same questions to ask for the time.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).

It's one o'clock	Il est une heure1h00
It's two o'clock	Il est deux heures2h00
It's noon Il est midi12h00
It's midnight Il est minuit		0h00

 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. /of the morning, If the hour is from midnight to noon, (e.g. cinq heures du matin/five of the morning); de l'après-midi/of the afternoon, from noon until about 6 p.m., (e.g. cinq heures de l’après-midi/five of the afternoon);  and du soir/of the evening, from 6 p.m. until midnight, (e.g. neuf heures du soir/nine of the evening); 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. 1 P.M. is treize heures/13 hours,  2 P.M. is quatorze heures/14 hours and so on, until midnight when the clock is reset to zero. Beyond these minor differences, telling time in French and English are pretty much the same.  Throughout the 60 minutes of an hour, you can just use the number for the hour + heure(s) followed by the number for the minutes (e.g. 8:13 A.M./huit heures treize/eight thirteen;  4:39 P.M./seize (16) heures trente-neuf/four thirty-nine) Il est  trois heures moins vingt(2h45) - it is twenty to three (or two forty). just as in English.
When it comes to specific fractions of the hour, you do have 2 options though. 
 For 8:15 for example, you can say huit heures quinze/eight fifteen or huit heures et quart/eight and a quarter. 

It's 4:15 Il est quatre heures et quart

Il est quatre heures quinze

For 10:30 for example, you can say dix heures trente/ten thirty or dix heures et demie/ten and a half.

It's 3:30

Il est trois heures et demie Il est trois heures trente

3h30

Past the half-hour mark, with every five-minute increment you can use:
– the straightforward hour + heure(s) followed by the number for the minutes (e.g. 5:35 A.M./cinq heures trente-cinq/five thirty-five)
–  or  a construction equivalent to the English “so many minutes to the hour.”  In French, this translates into:  the number for the next hour + heure(s) + moins followed by the number for the minutes remaining in the hour (e.g. 5:35 A.M./six heures moins vingt-cinq/six minus twenty-five).  This construction only applies for minutes that are multiples of five (e.g. 35, 40, 45, 50 and 55).

As with HH:15, you can use quarter instead of forty-five for HH:45.  In this case, you have to use the “so many minutes to the hour” construction (e.g. 8:45 A.M./neuf heures moins le quart/nine minus the quarter).

It's 4:45

Il est cinq heures moins le quart Il est cinq heures moins quinze Il est quatre heures quarante-cinq

4h45

Asking time?

#  You can ask for the current time (e.g. What time is it?) in the following ways:   Quelle heure est-il? (always correct);  Quelle heure il est? (informal);  Il est quelle heure? (informal).  The answer should start with: Il est…/It is…

#  You can ask for a time in the future (e.g. What time will it be?) in the following ways:  Quelle heure sera-t-il? (always correct);  Quelle heure il sera? (informal);  Il sera quelle heure? (informal).  The answer should start with: Il sera…/It will be…

#  You can ask for a time in the past (e.g. What time was it?) in the following ways:  Quelle heure était-il? (always correct);  Quelle heure il était? (informal); Il était quelle heure? (informal).  The answer should start with: Il était…/It will be…

To ask someone what time an event is at, ask Á quelle heure...? At what time...? If you want to know specifically when something occurs, especially habitually, ask Quand...? When...?

Telling time

To tell the time, you begin by saying Il est... (it is...). Then you insert the number of the hour plus the word heure(s).

·         For example, if it is three o' clock, you will say Il est trois heures.

·         If it is three fifteen, add quinze or et quart after heures.

·         If it is three thirty, add trente or et demie after heures.

·         If it is three forty-five, there are two different ways to tell the time: by still looking forward from 3:00 - Il est trois heures quarante-cinq, or by looking backward from 4:00 - Il est quatre heures moins le quart or Il est quatre heures moins quinze.

To explain that an event happens between certain hours, use the formula entre ___ et ____ or de ___ (jusqu')à.

Different periods of time

·         If you want to be able to tell time, it is helpful to know not only the basic time telling words, but also words that identify different periods of time, especially times of the day. That way, you can tell a friend, "Meet me at dawn" or an accomplice, "Meet me at dusk."

·         : l'aube (f) – dawn,,  Viens me rencontrer l'aube.- meet me at dawn.

·         le lever de soleil – sunrise

·         midi - noon -Il est midi - it is noon.

·         le matin - morning

·         l'après-midi - afternoon

·         le soir - evening

·         le crépuscule - dusk

·         le coucher de soleil - sunset

·         la nuit - night Il est minuit. it is midnight