French Telling Time

French Telling Time

You use the verb être with numbers to tell time.

Point de départ

Use the following expression to ask what time it is:

quelle heure est-il?

To tell time on the hour...

Use a [number] + heures
Use une heure for one o'clock.
Start your time expression with "il est."

Il est six heures.

Il est une heure.

Multiple Choice

What does "Quelle heure est-il?" mean?

• What's the date?

• What's your name?

• What time is it?

• How are you?

Match

Match the following:

• Il est sept heures.

• Il est une heure.

• Il est huit heures.

• Il est neuf heures.

• Il est trois heures.

It is seven o'clock.

It is one o'clock.

It is eight o'clock.

It is nine o'clock.

It is three o'clock.

• It is seven o'clock.

• It is one o'clock.

• It is eight o'clock.

• It is nine o'clock.

• It is three o'clock.

Express time from the hour to the half-hour

by stating the number of minutes past the hour.

9:05 --> Il est neuf heures cinq.

11:20 --> Il est onze heures vingt.

Match

Match the following:

• Il est huit heures dix.

• Il est quatre heures cinq.

• Il est deux heures vingt-cinq.

• Il est huit heures sept.

• Il est quatre heures six.

8:10

4:05

2:25

8:07

4:06

• 8:10

• 4:05

• 2:25

• 8:07

• 4:06

Use et quart

to say that it is 15 minutes past the hour.

2:15 --> Il est deux heures et quart.

Use et demie

to say that it is 30 minutes past the hour.

4:30 --> Il est quatre heures et demie.

Multiple Choice

Il est neuf heures et quart.

• 9:15

• 9:30

Multiple Choice

Il est neuf heures et demie.

• 9:15

• 9:30

To tell the time from the half hour...

Use moins and subtract the number of minutes or the portion of an hour from the next hour.

2:50 --> Il est trois heures moins dix.
12:45 --> Il est une heure moins le quart.

Match

Match the following

• Il est trois heures moins le quart.

• Il est quatre heures moins le quart.

• Il est deux heures moins dix.

• Il est deux heures moins cinq.

2:45

3:45

1:50

1:55

• 2:45

• 3:45

• 1:50

• 1:55

To say at what time something happens...

Use the preposition à

Le cours commence à neuf heures.
The class starts at 9:00.

Nous avons un examen à une heure.
We have a test at 1:00.

Drag and Drop

Nous avons le français

Placeholder

8:00 heures.

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

à

de

aux

quelle heure

Pronunciation:

Liaison occurs between numbers and the word heure.

Final -s, and -x in deux, trois, six, and dix are pronounced like a z.
The -f is on neuf is pronounced like a v.
Il est deux heures.
Il est neuf heures et quart.

expressions for telling time

​à quelle heure	at what time​ / when	midi	noon​
​de l'après-midi	in the afternoon​	minuit​	midnight​
​du matin	in the morning​	pile​	sharp, on the dot​
​du soir	in the evening​	tard​	late​
​en avance	early​	tôt​	early​
​en retard	late​	vers​	about​

Match

Match the following

• du matin

• du soir

• de l'après-midi

• midi

• minuit

in the morning

in the evening

in the afternoon

noon

midnight

• in the morning

• in the evening

• in the afternoon

• noon

• midnight

24-hour clock

the 24-hour clock is often used to express official time.

Departure times, movie times, and store hours are expressed this way.
Official time is also becoming more popular in everyday conversation.
Only numbers are used to tell time this way.
Expressions like et demie, moins le quart, etc. are not used.

24-hour clock

examples

Le train arrive à dix-sept heures six.
The train arrives at 5:06 PM.

Le film est à vingt-deux heures trente-sept.
The film is at 10:37 PM.

Multiple Choice

22:30

• 10:30 AM

• 10:30 PM

• 9:30 PM

• 11:30 P

H instead of :

When writing the time in French using numbers, the hour and minutes are separatede by the letter h which stands for heure(s), while a colon is used in english.

3:25 --> 3h25 11:10 --> 11h10 5:15 --> 5h15 9:30 pm--> 21h45