In this lesson, you will learn the names of the days of the week, months, and how to name the date. First, let's get acquainted with the names of the days of the week.

Days of the week

Everything is standard here, each day has its own name: Lundi- Monday, Mardi- Tuesday, Mercredi- Wednesday, Jeudi- Thursday, Vendredi- Friday, Samedi- Saturday, Dimanche- Sunday.

Prepositions are not used with days for weeks: Je vais au cinema samedi. I go to the movies on Saturday.

To say "for" some days, use the definite article "Le": Le dimanche je suis libre.- I'm free on Sundays.

To name a date (other than the first number), use cardinal numbers with the definite article: Aujourd'hui, c'est dimanche, le cinq juin.- Today is Sunday, the fifth of June.
The first number is denoted by an ordinal: C'est le premier juin, Mercredi.- The first of June, Wednesday.

Before numerals huit and onze truncation of the article does not occur: le huit, le onze.

Months

As for the months, everything is standard here too: four seasons and twelve months. All months in French are masculine. Their names are given in the table:

Season

To say "summer," "autumn," or "winter," you need the excuse en: en été, en autumne, en hiver- but for spring use the preposition "Au": au prentemps.

Of the year

So, after familiarizing yourself with the months and days of the week, it's time to find out what the years are called in French. They do it in the same way as in Russian - with thousands, hundreds and tens.
Interestingly, the word "year" itself is not indicated when reading:
April 12, 2015 - le douze avril deux mille quinze.

If you only need to specify the year, you need the preposition "En": en deux mille quinze je ai vecu a Paris.- In 2015 I lived in Paris.

In French, dates are written in the sequence "day month year" without commas, and the names of the months are written with a lowercase letter.

Lesson assignments

Exercise 1. Write the dates in words.
February 24, 1982
January 18, Saturday
November 29, 2006
August 1, Thursday
in 1983
14 March 2012
December 8, 1999

Answer 1.
vingt-quatre février mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-deux
dix-huit janvier, samedi
ving-neuf novembre deux mille six
le premiere août, jeudi
en mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-trois
quatorze mars deux mille douze
huit décembre mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf

The months and seasons in French are required vocabulary. After all, it is necessary to mention the seasons and the weather in almost every conversation. But you really want to truly glorify your favorite season.

Summer gives us sunny days, flowers and fruits. Autumn pleases the eye with its colors and harvest. Winter is snowy fun and, of course, New Year and Christmas holidays. Well, in the spring everything is reborn. let's try to translate all this!

Learning seasons and months

Friends, if you still do not know how the seasons and months sound in French, then it's time to learn and remember it well, because these words are very often found in French:

Les saisons de l'année- seasons:

• L'hiver - winter
• Le printemps - spring
• L'été - summer
• L'automne- autumn

Les mois de l'année- months of the year

• Janvier - January
• Février - February
• Mars - March
• Avril - April
• Mai - May
• Juin - June
• Juillet - July
• Août - August
• Septembre - September
• Octobre - October
• Novembre - November
• Décembre - December

Months of the year

Some necessary expressions:

• Janvier est le primier mois de l'année. - January is the first month of the year.
• Quand est ton anniversaire? Mon anniversaire est le vingt-quatre avril. - When's your birthday? My birthday is April twenty-fourth.
• Décembre est le dernier mois de l'année. - December is the last month of the year.
• Après février vient le mois de mars. - After February comes the month of March.
• Le huit mars est la fête des femmes. - The eighth of March is a women's holiday.
• On célèbre les Pâques en printemps. - Easter is celebrated in spring.
• L'automne est la saison de récolte. - Autumn is harvest time.

How to talk about your favorite season

Now take a look at how to tell about your favorite saison de l’année in French. Since we already talked about the weather in one of our lessons, then, when talking about your favorite season, use the description of the weather.

You may be asked:

• Quelle est ta saison préférée? Pourquoi? - What's your favourite season? Why?
• Quel temps est le plus agréable pour toi? - What weather (what time) is the most pleasant for you?
• Est-ce que tu es d'accord que toutes les saisons sont belles? - Do you agree that all seasons are good? (that nature doesn't have bad weather?)

You can answer these questions like this:

Ma saison préférée est l'hiver. J'aime beaucoup l'hiver, parce quil neige tout le temps et on peut faire du ski ou patiner. Il fait froid, mais cela n'est rien, car l'hiver apporte beaucoup de fê tes: le Nouvel An, le Noël et les autres. Tout le monde est heureux et tous s'amusent. - Mybelovedtimeof the year- winter... I really love winter, because it snows all the time and you can ski or skate. The weather is cold, but that's okay, because winter brings a lot of holidays: New Year, Christmas and others. Everyone is happy and everyone is having fun.

Le printemps est magnifique, parce que la neige fond, partout apairessent les ruisseaux. Les arbres verdissent, les animaux se reveillent, les oiseaux reviennent des pays chauds. Les fleures et les arbres fleurissent. Toutestbeauetnouveaupartout. - Spring is beautiful, because the snow melts, streams appear everywhere. Trees turn green, animals wake up, birds return from warm countries. Flowers and trees are blooming. Everything around is beautiful and new.

L'été est joyeux et gait. J'aime beaucoup cette saison, car en été on a les vacances et on peut aller à la mer. En été on mange beaucoup de fruits, on va au lac, à la forê t. En été on a plus de temps libre. C'est la saison la plus chaude et la plus belle de toutes les saisons. - Summermerryandjoyful... I really love this time of the year, because in the summer there are holidays and you can go to the sea. In the summer they eat a lot of fruits, go to the lake, to the forest. In the summer we have more free time. This is the warmest and most beautiful season of all.

L 'automneapportetouteslescouleursjoyeuses.Onadmirelesfeuilles jaunes, rouges, parfois vertes, brunes et oranges. En automne il est bien d'aller dans la forê t et admirer toute la beauté là-bas. Les paysans font la moisson. En automne on mange les fruits et les légumes. Les enfants vont à l'école. En automne il pleut souvent et il fait froid, mais la nature est toujours belle. - Autumnbringsallfunnypaints... We admire the yellow, red, sometimes green, brown and orange leaves. In autumn, it would be nice to go to the forest and admire all this beauty there. The peasants are harvesting. In the fall, we eat fruits and vegetables. Children go to school. In autumn it often rains and is cold, but nature is always beautiful.

A moment of French history about the seasons

Friends, since we are talking about the seasons, here it is worth saying a few words about the Limburg brothers and their pictorial work "The Four Seasons" of the 15th century. This is a calendar made for the Duke of Berry. The brothers worked so gloriously that the work turned out to be grandiose and very beautiful. This whole cycle of their painting is called "The Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry", then since today we are talking about the seasons, then it is on this section of the Book of Hours that we will stop.

Duke Jean Berry was the son of the French king John II the Good, he was highly educated for his time. It was he who commissioned a series of miniatures on the theme of the seasons to the Dutch artists.

The cycle "The Seasons" consists of 12 miniatures depicting the entertainment of noblemen or peasant works. Such a calendar was made for the book of hours so that the reader could determine the correspondence of prayers to certain days, days of the week, as well as church holidays. Each miniature has a semicircle (tympanum), which depicts a solar chariot ruled by Phoebus, the signs of the zodiac corresponding to the month and its degrees. The calendar contains the days of the month, church holidays and the names of the saints.

Calendar “Seasons” - miniature “April”

In the background of each image, there is either the castle of the Duke of Berry, or castles that belonged to the king of France. The miniatures of the months January, April, May and August show scenes from the life of the nobles and the Duke of Berry himself, while the miniatures dedicated to other months depict peasants, agricultural work and occupations corresponding to the seasons ...

The illustrations of the cycle "The Seasons" are grandiose and innovative, for those times, work, from the point of view of focus, selected themes for depiction, composition, artistic and technical performance.

Middle Ages History Textbook Cover

In general, the Limburg brothers did their best for the Duke of Berry. And we all know these miniatures - from where? From the cover of the 6th grade medieval history textbook, of course. We all remember this beautiful castle of the Duke and the peasants on the cover of a textbook, busy with sowing.

Do you know the names of the days of the week in French? And the features of their use? If not yet, then let's look at this topic together!

So, in French there are seven days of the week:

Les jours de la semaine (daysweeks)

Monday	lundi
Tuesday	mardi
Wednesday	mercredi
Thursday	jeudi
Friday	vendredi
Saturday	samedi
Sunday	dimanche

I enclose the pronunciation of the days of the week in French below so you can practice.

Also, I would like to note right away that the days of the week in French are written with a small (!) Letter, and not with a capital letter, as in English. This error occurs quite often among students who are fluent in English.

How to ask in French: What day of the week is it today? That's how: Quel jour sommes - nous aujourd'hui? Literally this expression is translated as: What day are we today? I agree that sounds illogical, it would be more reasonable to use the verb “avoir” (“to have”), then we would get the question: What day do we have today? But the French decided that être would sound better. Therefore, we can only accept this. If the question is: Quel jour sommes - nous aujourd'hui?, Then the answer will be: Nous sommes ... (and add the name of the day of the week). For example, if today is Tuesday: Nous sommes mardi.

NB: Remember that the article is not used in front of the names of the French days of the week in the answer! That is, we cannot say: Nous sommes le mardi. The correct version is: Nous sommes lundi, mardi, mercredi, etc. And in what case is it necessary to use the article?

Let's take an example as an illustration: Je vais à la piscine le jeudi et le samedi. In this sentence, we see that the definite article "le" has been used. Why? It turns out that if we use the article "le" before the names of the days of the week, then the meaning of the sentence changes. We will translate this sentence as: "I go to the pool on Thursdays and Saturdays." That is, if there is a definite article in front of the day of the week, then the action is performed regularly “on Mondays, Tuesdays,” etc. Therefore, if we say "le lundi", it means: "on Mondays", "le mardi" - "on Tuesdays", "le mercredi" - "on Wednesdays", "le jeudi" - "on Thursdays", "le vendredi "-" on Fridays "," le samedi "-" on Saturdays "and" le dimanche "-" on Sundays. "

How to say “last Tuesday, Thursday,” etc. or "next Tuesday, Thursday," etc.? For these purposes, the words "dernier" - "past" and "prochain" - "next" are used. If we want to say: "last Monday", then it is said like this: "lundi dernier", if "next Monday" - "lundi prochain".

Here is such a simple science! Do not forget about these important nuances, and your French speech will be correct and beautiful!

If we want to ask in French what date is today, then several options are possible:

• Quelle date sommes-nous aujourd'hui? (most common, using the verb être)
• Quelle date avons-nous aujourd'hui?
• Quel jour (du mois) avons-nous (= sommes-nous)?
• Le combien sommes-nous? (this option is most often found in colloquial speech)

Unlike the Russian language in French dates use cardinal (not ordinal) numbers with the definite article before the date. For example,

• Aujourd'hui nous sommes le deux mai- today is the second of May
• Aujourd'hui nous sommes letrois septembre- today is the third of September

Attention! For the first day of the month, a non-quantitative numeral is used, such as deux, trois, cinq, six, and the adjective premier. For example, le premierseptembre- the first of September.

Remember also two rules:

1. When using the numbers 11 and 8 - onze, huit - the vowel in the article is not omitted (no elision occurs, the article remains unchanged): le onze mai,le huit mai
2. Before the name of the month, the numbers 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 are pronounced as independent, isolated. For example, le cinq mars, le dix septembre, le huit mai(the last letter at the end of the number is pronounced, unlike the case, when after the number there is a noun with a consonant letter (in this case, the last letter of the number is not pronounced)). For example, in words – cinq maisons, six cahiers, dix livres - the last underlined letters in numbers are not pronounced.

The years are read in the following way:

• the preposition EN is placed before the numeral,
• the word YEAR (l'an) is usually not used,
• a thousand is usually written mil(but not mille)

For example, " in 1966 " will - ru(l'an)mil neuf cent soixante-six OR en(l'an)dix-neufcentsoixante-six. Both options are correct, you can use either option.

If we want to say "Now we have 1995", then we use the following construction: nous sommesru 1995 (mil neuf cent quatre-vingt quinze). Preposition EN in this case it is obligatory to use.

But the preposition EN is dropped when we name the day and month together with the year. For example, " today May 2, 1995 " will be in French: Aujourd'hui nous sommes le deux mai 1995.

Note that in questions like "What year, what year" we will use the word « année». For example, En quelle année sommes-nous?
(What is the year now).

And here are the names of the months in French (les mois de l'année). They are all masculine, but they are usually used without the article.

• Janvier - January
• Février - February
• Mars – March
• Avril - April
• Mai - May
• Juin - June
• Juillet– July
• Août– August
• Septembre - September
• Octobre - October
• Novembre - November
• Décembre - December

And these are the names of the seasons (les saisons de l’année):

• L'hiver- winter
• Le printemps- Spring
• L'été — summer
• L'automne- autumn

Remember the expressions:

• What month do we have? - En quel mois sommes-nous?
• It's November - Nous sommes en novembre (= au mois de novembre)
• What time of year is it? - En quelle saison sommes-nous?
• It's autumn (summer, winter) - Nous sommes en automne (en été, en hiver)
• Spring is now - Nous sommes au printemps(the expression with the word spring - le printemps - differs from the others by the use of the continuous article "au" instead of the preposition "en").

And in phrases like "this year, this winter, this week" the preposition is not used. For example, cette année ( can be translated like this year And How this year), ce printemps (this spring or this spring),cette semaine (this week or this week).

Days of the week in French - lesjoursdelasemaine en français is a very important topic to study! After all, almost no conversation can do without these words. Every day of the week is full of events and activities; something happens on Monday, we go somewhere on Wednesday, we meet someone on Friday, we rest on the weekend.

In French, the words for the days of the week are very simple and light. They are easy to remember. But they also have some features that you need to know in order for our French speech to be correct.

Days of the week in French - it's interesting!

These words come from the Latin language. Let's get to know the days of the week in French soon! So, let me introduce:

• Lundi - Monday
• Mardi - Tuesday
• Mercredi - Wednesday
• Jeudi - Thursday
• Vendredi - Friday
• Samedi - Saturday
• Dimanche - Sunday

Since the days of the week originate in Latin, it is natural that they are very consonant with the days of the week in English. And if you study two languages, then it will be easy for you to master many lexical and grammatical rules, since they strongly overlap with each other.

So before us are seven days of the week, which we will soon remember, but first, we will pay attention to important rules:

• All days of the week are masculine in French.
• The days of the week in French are written with a small letter.
• Days of the week can be either at the beginning of a sentence or at the end.
• If in conversation we mean one specific day of the week, the name of this day is used without an article and without a preposition. For example:

Mercredi jesuislibre,donctupeuxvenirchezmoi. “I'm free on Wednesday, so you can come to me.
Aujourd'hui, c'est dimanche... - TodaySunday.
Nous nous rencontrons avec José samedi. - WemeetwithJosevsaturday.

• If we are talking about actions that are regularly repeated on a certain day of the week, then the definite article is used Le (after all, all days of the week are in French masculine):

Marietravaillele lundi ... - Marie works on Mondays.
On prépare toujours le poisson le vendredi... - Wealwayspreparingfishonfridays.

• If a specific, specific day of the week is mentioned in a conversation, then a certain article is also used here Le:

Rappèle-toi le dimanche de notre rencontre. - RememberSundayourmeeting.

Not difficult at all!

How to quickly and easily learn the days of the week?

The task is simple, only seven words with similar endings, except for the word dimanche. And in order to remember them as quickly as possible, there are a couple of practical tips:

• Repeat the days of the week several times a day. If necessary, write them on colorful adhesive stickers and place them around the room. Thus, they will constantly be in front of your eyes.
• If you teach the days of the week with your child - even better! Together it is always more interesting and more fun. List the days of the week to each other. Make it difficult: Tell each other about what you do on each day. For example:

Lundijevais al'école. - On Monday I go to school.
Mardi je chante une chanson. - InTuesdayI amsingingthe song.
Mercredijerencontremonami. - On Wednesday I meet my friend.
Jeudi je visite ma mammie. - VThursdayI amvisitmygrandmother.
Je t'embrasse vendredi. - I AMhugyouvfriday
Je bois du thé samedi. - I AMdrinkteavsaturday.
Jevais al'églisedimanche. - I go to church on Sunday.

• Make as many sentences in French as possible with the days of the week, both orally and in writing.
• Learn the verses and counting rhymes that mention the days of the week, which we include below.

In general, you can learn the days of the week in a few minutes, it is important to fix them so that they remain in your memory forever. And now when you speak French, do not forget to mention the days of the week, then they will firmly sit in your head!

Learning poems and days of the week!

To quickly leave a mark in our memory and remember the days of the week forever, we will use the help of verses. After all, rhyme is remembered much faster than prose, and even more so we are talking about French poetry. Learn and enjoy!

Les 7 souris de la semaine

La souris du lundi
A mis un chapeau gris
La souris du mardi
A croqué deux radis
La souris du mercredi
A dansé toute la nuit
La souris du jeudi
A lavé son tapis
La souris du vendredi
A dormi sous son tipi
La souris du samedi
A ouvert son parapluie
Et la souris du dimanche
A cueilli mille pervenches.

La semaine

Et comme toujours,
jour après jour,
les jours s'enchaînent
toujours les mêmes ...

Et ça commence par un lundi qui arrive à pas de souris.
Il attend le mardi
Qui vient juste après lui.
Quant au mercredi,
Il se fait tout petit pour faire place au jeudi.
Et ainsi petit à petit
Apparaît le vendredi.
Mais la semaine n'est pas finie,
Il reste le samedi
Qui attend le dimanche
Pour que tout recommence

Et comme toujours,
jour après jour,
les jours s'enchaînent
toujours les mêmes ...

Les jours de la semaine

Lundi, je nage à la piscine
Mardi, j'aide dans la cuisine
Mercredi, je fais du sport
Jeudi, j'aide maman encore
Vendredi, j'écoute mes CDs
Samedi, je regarde la télé
Dimanche, c'est un jour marrant
Car, je vois mes grand-parents.

Memorizing the days of the week is easy and fun! Bonne chance, friends!