In French, dates are expressed differently to English.
Learn about dates in French
Take a look at the way to express dates in French:
le 24 janvier 201224th January, 2012
le 3 mars 2013 3rd March, 2013
Here's the general structure:
le + number + month + year
"Le"
Don't forget the definite article le before the date.
Note that dates are always masculine, so it's never la.
ATTENTION:
You say le onze and NOT l'onze :
le 11 juillet
le onze juillet11th of July
le onze juillet11th of July
Number
The main difference between dates in English and in French is the numbers we use:
English dates use ordinal numbers (2nd, 3rd, 10th...) while French dates require cardinal numbers (deux (2), trois (3), dix (10)...) and NOT deuxième (2e), troisième (3e), dixième (10e)...
EXCEPTION:
For the 1st day of the month only, you always use the ordinal number le premier (1er) = the first (1st).
le 1er avril 19971st of April 1997
Month
In French, months don't take a capital letter :
| janvier | mai | septembre |
| février | juin | octobre |
| mars | juillet | novembre |
| avril | août | décembre |
Year
In French, there are two ways to read years from before 2000:
- as a full number, reading the thousands + hundreds + tens + units
e.g 1465
1615 (mille six cent quinze)1615 (sixteen fifteen -> literally "one thousand six hundred fifteen")
1776 (mille sept cent soixante-seize)1776 (seventeen seventy-six -> literally "one thousand seven hundred seventy-six")
984 (neuf cent quatre-vingt-quatre)984 (nine *hundred* eighty-four)
1900 (mille neuf cents)1900 (nineteen hundred -> literally "one thousand nine hundred")
- by splitting it at the "hundreds" (similarly to English), reading the hundreds + tens + units
e.g 1465
e.g 1465
1615 (seize cent quinze)1615 (sixteen *hundred* fifteen)
1776 (dix-sept cent soixante-seize)1776 (seventeen *hundred* seventy-six)
984 (neuf cent quatre-vingt-quatre)984 (nine *hundred* eighty-four)
1900 (dix-neuf cents)1900 (nineteen hundred)
Note that in French, you always need the word cent in this case.
You cannot say : dix-sept vingt (1720)
As for the years post 2000's,
There is only one way to read them, and that is as a full number:
2003 (deux mille trois)2003
2013 (deux mille treize)2013 (twenty thirteen -> literally "two thousand thirteen")
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Examples and resources
le onze juillet11th of July
