How to tell the time in French

Being able to tell the time is an essential life skill, and one of the first things you should master when it comes to learning a foreign language. Follow this guide if you want to learn how to tell the time in French.

First things first, let’s recap our numbers.

N.b. It’s important to note that, while in English we often use am and pm when talking about the time, French speakers usually go by the 24-hour clock. So whereas an English speaker might go to bed at 10pm, a French speaker falls asleep ‘à vingt-deux heures’.

There are exceptions to this, however. If you want to use the 12-hour clock, you can simply add ‘du matin’ or ‘du soir’, depending on the time of day. For instance, ‘it is three in the afternoon’ could be translated as ‘il est trois heures de l'après-midi’. (‘am’ and ‘pm’, or ‘ante-meridiem’ and ‘post-meridiem’, are Latin for ‘before’ and ‘after midday’ respectively, but these terms are not used in French, so don’t worry about how to translate them.)

Now that we have our numbers, let’s take a look at the terms you’ll need to construct different expressions of time.

It is 4:30 am - Il est quatre heures et demie

She wakes up at 5 in the morning - Elle se réveille à 5 heures (du matin)

The next train is at 9:54 - Le prochain train est à neuf heures cinquante-quatre

N.b. For this last example, and for any time in which the minute is not a multiple of five, you would say ‘cinquante-quatre’ rather than ‘moins six’.

Please note, 'demie' and 'quart' are only used for the 12-hour clock. For the 24-hour clock, we always use the number to refer to how many minutes have passed. So 'sept heures moins le quart de soir' would be rendered 'dix-huit heures quarante-cinq'.

You’ll notice that in French we don’t say ‘o’clock’. Instead we just say ‘heure’, meaning ‘hour’. 'Heure' must agree with the number that precedes it, so it will usually take the form 'heures', unless the number is singular, for example 'une heure et quart'.

Another thing English speakers need to watch out for is ‘five/ten/quarter to’. In French, as you’ll see above, we say ‘moins’, meaning ‘less’ or ‘minus’. So ‘quarter to three’ becomes ‘three minus the quarter’.

One final thing to note is that ‘Le quart’ only takes the article when it is quarter to, not when it is quarter past. For example

‘Quarter past five’ = ‘cinq heures et quart’

‘Quarter to six’ = ‘six heures moins le quart’

For more information on how to tell the time, as well as expressions related to ‘faire’, check out Lesson 08 of the Complete French Course or Alexa's YouTube channel.