How to say and write dates in French
Vocalyra teaching team · Last updated:
French dates follow a simple order, article, number, month, year. Most errors come from English habits: capital letters, ordinal numbers and the wrong preposition with months and days.
The basic pattern
Say le + number + month + year: le 14 juillet 2026. Use cardinal numbers, not ordinals, except for the first day of a month, which is le premier: le premier mai, written le 1er mai. In speech, nous sommes le 3 mars and on est le 3 mars both mean today is 3 March.
| English | French |
|---|---|
| Monday 5 October | lundi 5 octobre |
| on 1 January | le 1er janvier |
| in March | en mars or au mois de mars |
| on Fridays | le vendredi |
| this Friday | vendredi |
| from 2 to 9 May | du 2 au 9 mai |
Lowercase days and months
Days and months are common nouns in French, so they are written in lowercase: lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi, dimanche; janvier, février, mars, avril, mai, juin, juillet, août, septembre, octobre, novembre, décembre. They take a capital only at the start of a sentence.
Prepositions and articles with time words
- Months use en: en avril. You can also say au mois d'avril.
- A single day needs no preposition: je pars samedi means this coming Saturday.
- Le + day means every week: le samedi, je fais du sport.
- A date range uses du ... au ...: du 10 au 15 juin.
- Years use en: en 2027.
Numeric dates
Short dates put the day first: 05/10/2026 means 5 October 2026, not May 10. This matters for forms, appointments and exam registrations in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec, where day-month-year is the usual written order in everyday documents.
Asking about the date
To ask today's date, say Quelle est la date aujourd'hui ? or, in everyday speech, On est le combien aujourd'hui ? To ask which day of the week it is, say On est quel jour ? The answers are On est le 12 and On est mardi. For a birthday, ask C'est quand, ton anniversaire ? and answer C'est le 2 février.
Quick self-check
Translate: on 1 April.
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Le 1er avril (le premier avril).
Correct this: Le Lundi 3 Mars.
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Le lundi 3 mars, with lowercase day and month.
What is the difference between je travaille samedi and je travaille le samedi?
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Samedi means this Saturday; le samedi means every Saturday.
What does 07/11/2026 mean in a French form?
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7 November 2026.