French Days of the Week, Months, and Seasons

One of the first things you should learn is how to say the French days of the week, as well as the months and seasons of the year.  You’ll need to know these words when you are setting up any kind of rendez-vous (appointment), whether it’s for business or pleasure.  Learning these words will ensure that you mark your calendar correctly!

The French week starts on Monday, instead of Sunday like it does in America:

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French Days of the Week
(les jours de la semaine)

* Important note: the French days of the week are not capitalized like they are in English.

When you are referring to a specific day in relation to the current moment in time, it is helpful to know these three words:

If someone asks you what day today is in French, you can respond in one of three ways:

“Aujourd’hui nous sommes lundi.”
This literally means, “Today we are Monday.”

“Aujourd’hui on est lundi.”
This literally means, “Today it is Monday.”

“Aujourd’hui, c’est lundi.”
This literally means, “Today it’s Monday.”

All of the French days of the week are “masculine” nouns, although you usually do not use articles (“un” or “le”) before the word – as you might have noticed from the three examples above.

The only time you will use an article before a day of the week is when you are referring to something that happens habitually on the same day every week.  For instance, if you swim every Monday, you would say, “Je nage le lundi”.

The French word for “week” is “semaine”.  When referring to a specific week, here are three phrases that are good to know:

Months of the year
(les mois de l’année)

The French months of the year are fairly easy to memorize, because many of them are very similar to the English words for the months of the year:

* Note that just like the days of the week, the months of the year are also not capitalized in French.

Now let’s put the month, date, and day of the week together.  It’s important to know that the French write the days of the week a bit differently than we do in English. For example, we typically put the month first, followed by the day and then the year, like this:

September 28, 2009
or
9/28/2009

In French, this would be written as:

le 28 septembre 2009
or
28/09/2009

If you want to add the day of the week, it would be:

lundi, le 28 september 2009

* Remember to always put the “le” in front of the date when you are writing it out in words.
* Also, note that when you are writing the date in French, there is no comma between the month and the year, like there is in English.

Now let’s learn the four seasons in French!  Knowing the words for the seasons will help you discuss things you like to do during different parts of the year.

The four seasons
(les quatre saisons)

When you say you like to do something “in” a certain season, you use the word “en” or “au” as follows:

There you have it!  Now you know how to say the French days of the week, months, and seasons!

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