Telling time is very essential for effective communication and it will help you become more comfortable and accurate when telling time in French. Now let us get into the depth of it to better understand.
In French, “il est” is used to express time, though it is translated as “he is” it actually means “it is” (as it’s impersonal “il”). Also it is very important to use “heures” when referring to the time. In English, it is fine to say “it’s nine” but this will not make sense in this case.
For example: il est huit heures. (It’s 8 o’clock)
Ref. to the example- It is started with “il est” and “heures” is used to refer the time.
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO ASK THE TIME?
Well, you can simply quote one sentence to ask what time is it.
- Quelle heure est-il?
- Quelle heure il est?
From the above Clock, we can tell the time very quickly and accurately. Let us understand what it says by the words like et quart, moins le quart, et demie, etc.
In English we say it’s “Twelve past fifteen/quarter or It’s noon and a quarter”, similarly, we say that in French, and for that we use “et quart” so the timing that we say when asked or when to express, we will say- Il est midi et quart (12h15).
Le Temps- THE TIME
| 12h | il est midi. |
| 12h15 | il est midi et quart. |
| 12h30 | il est midi et demie. |
| 00h | il est minuit. |
| 7h00 | il est sept heures. |
| 7h10 | il est sept heures dix. |
| 7h15 | il est sept heures et quart. / il est sept heures quinze. |
| 7h30 | il est sept heures et demie. / il est sept heures trente. |
| 7h40 | il est sept heures moins vingt. / il est sept heures quarante. |
| 7h45 | il est sept heures moins le quart. / il est sept heures trois quarts. / il est sept heures quarante-cinq. |
L’heure relatif- TIMES OF DAY
| le midi | noon / mid-day |
| la nuit | night |
| le matin | morning |
| le lever du jour | the daybreak / the rise of the day |
| le lever du soleil | sunrise / the rise of the sun |
| le soleil levant | rising sun |
| …du matin | A.M. (meaning: of the morning) |
| hier matin | yesterday morning |
| l’après-midi | afternoon |
| le soir | evening |
| …du soir | P.M. (meaning: of the evening) |
| le coucher du soleil | sunset |