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Numbers, days and months

To go over numbers, days of the week and months of the year, click on the downloadable vocabulary list and listen to the audio clips below:

Asking for and giving the date

When you want to give a date, you say the day, then the number and then the month.

In ‎French, you ��Dz�’t need to change the numbers from cardinal numbers (five, 16, 20 ‎and so on) to ordinal numbers (such as fifth, 16th, 20th, and so on) when you are talking ‎about the date.‎

When talking about today you do not need to use a le.

To ask what the date is today, say Quelle est la date aujourd'hui? To reply say:

• Aujourd'hui, c'est jeudi cinq avril - Today is Thursday, 5th April.‎

You could also say:‎

• Aujourd'hui, on est jeudi cinq avril - Today is Thursday, 5th April.‎

The only exception to this rule is the number one, which is premier, not un:‎

• Aujourd’hui, ��’e���� mardi premier mai - Today is Monday, 1st May.‎

Days and months ��Dz�’t need capital letters in French‎.

Talking about your birthday

To ask the question ‘when is your birthday?’ in French, you can say ‘what is the date of ‎your birthday?’

• Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire? - When is your birthday?

Or, to make it simpler, you could say:‎

• C’est quand, ton anniversaire? - When is your birthday?‎

Reply by saying ‘my birthday, it is’ and then the date of your birthday. ‎

• Mon anniversaire, ��’e���� le six septembre - My birthday (it) is on 6th September.‎

Remember to use cardinal numbers (six, 12, etc.) rather than ‎ordinal numbers (sixth, 12th, etc), except when you’re talking about the 1st of the month ‎‎(when you use le premier):‎

• Mon anniversaire, ��’e���� le premier février - My birthday is on 1st February.‎

Describing when you do activities

To talk about an activity you do on the same day every week, use le and then say the ‎day:‎

• Le lundi, je joue au tennis - On Mondays/Every Monday, I play tennis.‎
• Le mardi, Clément travaille au café - On Tuesdays/Every Tuesday, Clément works ‎at the café.‎

To say that you did something or that you are going to do something on a ‎particular day, you just say the day and then use the correct tense to talk about the ‎activity:‎

• Vendredi dernier, j’ai joué du piano - Last Friday, I played the piano.‎
• Mercredi, je vais faire du judo - On Wednesday, I’m going to do judo.

The date in the past and the future

Other people’s birthdays

Quiz

Find out how much you know about days and months in French in this short quiz.