Dates and routine
Key points
- Days of the week and months start with a small letter: lundi
- In dates French uses cardinal numbers (three, seventeen etc.) rather than ordinal numbers (third, seventeenth etc.).
- In dates there is no word meaning of (as in the third of May in English).
Writing dates in French is quite similar to English. You'll notice some differences, though. First, days of the week and months start with a small letter:
Il est lundi le dix-sept mars
It’s Monday the seventeenth of March
Second, the French use a cardinal number (three, seventeen etc.) rather than an ordinal number (third, seventeenth etc.).
Il est samedi le trois avril
It’s Saturday the third of April
Note
An exception to this is premier which means first. Of course, as in English, it’s most common to use numerals, e.g. le 17 mars.
Third, there's is no word meaning of:
Mon anniversaire, c’est le premier août
My birthday’s on the first of August
When the French want to say on Monday, on Tuesday etc. they simply say the day of the week. There’s no word for on:
Lundi je vais au supermarché
On Monday I’m going to the supermarket
But when they talk about days of the week as part of a routine (like on Mondays in English), they use the word le:
Le lundi je vais au supermarché
On Mondays I go to the supermarket