Module 5 of 10
Telling the time
Il est, the quarters, and the 24-hour clock every timetable uses.
Time starts with il est and always keeps heures: il est trois heures, never il est trois. One o'clock is the exception that proves it — il est une heure, singular, and feminine, because heure is. Past is et, and the two fixed expressions are et quart and et demie. To is moins: quatre heures moins le quart, quatre heures moins dix. Minutes in between need nothing at all — trois heures vingt is twenty past three.
Then there is the clock everything official uses. Trains, lectures, cinema listings and appointment cards are in the 24-hour clock, said in full: quatorze heures trente, dix-neuf heures. Do not translate it into the 12-hour clock in your head before acting on it — a person who hears dix-huit heures and thinks for two seconds about whether that is six will miss the next sentence. Read the numbers as they come and trust them. Du matin, de l'après-midi and du soir are for conversation, not for timetables.
Played by your device’s own French voice. It is a synthetic voice, not a recording of a teacher — close enough to learn the shape of a word, not close enough to copy exactly.
- Il est quelle heure ?What time is it?
- Il est trois heuresIt is three o'clock — heures is never dropped
- Il est trois heures et quartIt is a quarter past three
- Il est trois heures et demieIt is half past three
- Il est quatre heures moins le quartIt is a quarter to four
- Quatorze heures trenteFourteen thirty — half past two, as a timetable says it
- À huit heures du matinAt eight in the morning
- Le cours commence à neuf heuresThe class starts at nine
Il est + number + heures, with et quart, et demie and moins le quart. Timetables run on the 24-hour clock — read it, do not convert it.