Once you get the hang of the 24-hour clock, you have to practice using it. One way to do this is to ask questions about time.

Asking time questions in French is like asking about time in English. How long can I play? When do I have to be home? To answer time questions in English, you use “it is” followed by the number of the hour. “It is eight o'clock” or “it's 8:00 A.M.” French kids do the same thing. They start with il est (“it is”) and end up with the numbers and hour, Il est huit heures. “It is 2 o'clock” is Il est deux heures.

But things get a little trickier when you have to include the number of minutes. The French count the minutes in a way you've probably never seen before. They count backwards!

Counting Backwards — Compter en arrière

Here's how it works. In English, you always count toward the next hour. You say, it's “ten to three.” But the French count backwards, so for them it's “three o'clock minus ten,” or trois heures moins dix. And instead of saying “twenty to four,” they say it's “four o'clock minus twenty,” or quatre heures moins vingt.

But wait — there's more. You stop counting backwards at the halfway mark! So 11:30 A.M. is onze heures trente. And 1:15 P.M. is treize heures quinze, just like it is in English. You can also say it another way, too. In French, 11:30 P.M. is also onze heures et demie (“11 hours and a half”) and 1:15 P.M. is also treize heures et quart (“13 hours and a quarter”).

The following are a series of time responses to the question “What time is it?” (Quelle heure est-il?). Pay special attention to the words that name units of time. For example, “half an hour” is une demi-heure, and a “quarter of an hour” is un quart d'heure. Here we go!