What Is Today's Date? — Quelle est la date d'aujourd'hui?
You know how to a write a date in English, don't you? You have to put the dates on your homework. And you need to know how to write dates for your history lessons. First you write the month, then the number of the day, and then the year. For example, you might write April 18, 2007.
The French use the same information we do in a date, but they put it in a different order. In French, the month goes in the middle, so it's
Compare the dates in the following list:
English |
French |
January 12, 1959 |
|
1/15/59 |
|
March 21, 1992 |
|
3/21/92 |
|
May 2, 2005 |
|
5/2/2005 |
|
November 17, 2005 |
|
11/17/05 |
The Year — L'année
Switching the place of the month and day is one thing; saying the year is another. You probably say the year the quick way, so “1996” is “19” and “96.” Or for “1776,” you probably say “17” and “76.” The French do it the long way. For “1776,” French kids say “one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six” or
To say the year in French, you need to remember that it begins with the word for “thousand,”
So “December 25, 2008” is
Look at the following dates and write the same dates the French way. The first one is done for you:
le dix juin mille huit cent quatre-vingt douze? 10 juin 1892 le quatre juillet mille sept cent treize ?le treize février mille cinq cent dix-sept ?le vingt-sept mai mille neuf cent soixante-et-un ?
IMPORTANT TIPS TRUCS IMPORTANTS
In English, the days of the week and the months of the year are capitalized. In French, they don't get capitals because they're not considered proper nouns.
MISTAKES TO AVOID Fautes à éviter
Be careful when you write the dates using numbers. Put the numbers in the wrong order, and everyone gets confused. 2/12/08 looks like December 2, 2008 in French, not February 12, 2008. That's a big difference!
