Question

French Tutorial: Time

Answer 1

Please do not interrupt this tutorial.

Answer 2

\({\bf{Time}}\)

Quelle heure est-il? What time is it?

Il est ___ heures (put the appropriate # according to what hour it is)
ex: Il est une heure (It is one o'clock)
Il est deux heures (It is two o'clock), etc.

You can also use midi (noon/mid-day) and minuit (midnight)

Il est midi
Il est minuit

À quelle heure...? What time is/does....?

ex: À quelle heure viennent-ils? (What time are they coming?)

À... At...

ex: Ils arrivent à 2 heures (They are coming at 2:00)

du matin: A.M.
de l’après-midi: P.M., afternoon
du soir: P.M., at night

ex: Le film commence à 6 heures du soir. (The movie starts at 6:00 in the evening)

Side note: Be able to use/interpret 24-hour time in this format as well.

Answer 3

\({\bf{After~the~Hour}}\)

Simply write the # of minutes after the hour.

ex: Il est une heure trente. (It is 1:30)

You can also use "quinze" or "et quart" to represent 15 minutes past the hour

ex: Il est deux heures quinze/ deux heures et quart (It is 2:15)

You can use "et demi(e)" to represent 30 minutes past the hour. Note: et demi is masculine and is used before midi and minuit, and et demie is feminine and is used before heures.

ex: Il est trois heures et demie. (It is 3:30)
Il est midi et demi (It is 12:30 P.M.)

\({\bf{Before~the~Hour}}\)

Simply append "moins ___" and the number of minutes goes into the blank

ex: Il est cinq heures moins le quart (It is 4:45, or literally 15 minutes before 5:00)

Answer 4

\({\bf{Other~Time-Related~Expressions}}\)

Il est tard: It's late
être en retard: to be late
Il est tôt: It's early
être en avance: to be early
de bonne heure: early (morning)
être à l'heure: to be on time
être en retard: to be late

examples:

Tu es en retard. (You're late.)
Il est trop tôt pour le dire. (It's too early to tell.)
Il faut qu'on arrive en avance. (We must arrive early.)
On est à l'heure. (We are on time.)
La classe commence tard/est en retard (Class is starting late/is late.)

Answer 5

\({\bf{References:}}\)

Rochester, Myrna B. Easy French Step-by-Step, United States, McGraw-Hill Education, 2009, 75-78.

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/vocabulary/calendar/

CollinsDictionary for French and English translations

Forvo (https://forvo.com/), a French pronunciation database with samples from native French speakers