I/ 12 hours or 24 hours?

 

            In French, people express time using the whole 24 hours, i.e. twice the 1-12 quadrant. They don't stop at 12:00 "twelve", but keep going with "thirteen hours", "fourteen hours", all the way to "twenty-three hours".

            Unlike in US English, it is not something only the military use; it is very much the way to tell the everyday time. Don't panic! The French also broadly say: "It's one." to say it's 13:00, but only in an informal situation which - furthermore - is not ambiguous. You wouldn't want to miss your train by showing up at 7PM instead of 7AM...

 

            The French use a little "h" instead of the colon (:) when writing down the time.

11h00 NOT 11:00

 

II/ 05, 10, 20, 25.

 

            For these minutes, the system is really easy, as the French don't use any word to introduce them. They simply say the number.

 

10h05	Il est 10 heures 5.
10h10	Il est 10 heures 10.
10h20	Il est 10 heures 20.
10h25	Il est 10 heures 25.

III/ O'clock and half past.

 

            O'clock is the easiest one in French, as it is literally omitted. The French don't have a word for it. In an informal situation, you might hear "pile" in case the situation requires a clarification, but it's not necessary.

            They do use a word for hours. It translates literally as: "It is 9 hours."

 

09h00	Il est 9 heures.	09:00	It's 9AM.
10h00	Il est 10 heures.	10:00	It's 10AM.
14h00	Il est 14 heures.	14:00	It's 2 PM.
18h00	Il est 18 heures.	18:00	It's 6PM.

            In addition to this, and as previously mentioned, they have two ways of telling the time in the afternoon. Informal "Il est 1 heure." and formal (or necessary) afternoon distinction "Il est 13 heures."

 

 

 

            The same goes for the minutes. You can say:

 

10h30

            - Il est 10 heures 30. Formal

OR       - Il est 10 heures et demie. (and half)

            If you want to perfect your knowledge, you should learn not to mix these two ways. You shouldn't use "et demie" with a formal afternoon hour/time:

 

16h30

            - Il est 16 heures 30. Formal

OR      - Il est 4 heures et demie de l'après-midi. Informal

NOT    - Il est 16 heures et demie.

 

IV/ Quarter past, quarter to.

 

            For the quarters, the French use the translation "quart" - mind the pronunciation!

 

            They add small words to say "past" = "et" (and)

                                                              "to"= "moins le" (minus the)

 

            In the same way as for "et demie", you cannot use "quart" with formal afternoon hours, you should say the exact number of minutes "15" and "45".

 

            So, you get:

 

10h15	Il est 10 heures et quart.
10h45	Il est 11 heures moins le quart.
18h15	Il est 18 heures 15. Formal
18h45	Il est 18 heures 45. Formal

 

V/ Noon, midday, midnight.

 

            For these words it gets easier, as there are direct translations in French.

 

midi	midday/noon
minuit	midnight

            Another nice, common, easy way of referring to time is by using phrases such as "at lunchtime", "tonight", etc. Though they are not c    they are still very relevant to this lesson, as, sometimes, that's all you need!

 

- au déjeuner                                                - at lunchtime

- ce soir                                                         - tonight

- demain après-midi                                    - tomorrow afternoon

- après-demain                                             - the day after tomorrow

Put it into practice!

 

            Now, have fun telling the opening hours of the following French places!

 

LA POSTE   Horaires d'ouverture : Du lundi au vendredi, de 08h00 à 19h00 et le samedi, de 08h30 à 16h30.   Fermé le dimanche.

 

RESTAURANT **   Horaires :   En semaine, de 10h15 à 22h00. Le samedi, de 09h45 à 00h00.   Fermé le dimanche.

 

PISCINE MUNICIPALE   Ouverte : Semaine, 07h30 - 19h10. Weekend, 09h05 - 18h45. Noctures les mardis jusqu'à 23h00.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some other stuff here