In the pronunciation column, (n) marks a nasal vowel: air goes through the nose and the n itself is not pronounced. “zh” is the s in “measure”, and “uh” is the short vowel in “the”. French stresses the last syllable of a word only lightly, so keep every syllable even.<\/p>\n\n A few points for English speakers. The French r is made at the back of the throat, a little like a light gargle; it is never the English r. The final -re of septembre<\/span> or octobre<\/span> is very short, just a whisper of “uh”.<\/p>\n\n Juin<\/span> and juillet<\/span> are the classic pair to confuse, in both listening and speaking. Juin<\/span> is one short nasal syllable; juillet<\/span> has two syllables and ends in “yeh”.<\/p>\n\n Ao\u00fbt<\/span> is one syllable, never “a-oot”. Both “oo” and “oot” are heard in France and both are correct. Since the 1990 spelling reform, aout<\/span> without the circumflex is also accepted, though the traditional spelling is still the more common.<\/p>\n\n Unlike in many French words, the final s of mars<\/span> is pronounced, and so is the l of avril<\/span>. The p of septembre<\/span> is pronounced too, unlike the silent p of sept<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n Months are the same in every French-speaking country, from France and Belgium to Switzerland and Quebec. For regional differences, look instead at the numbers (septante<\/span>, nonante<\/span>) and at the days (la fin de semaine<\/span> in Quebec).<\/p>\n\n A date in French needs the article le<\/span> and no preposition at all: there is no “of” and no word for “on”.<\/p>\n\n Mon anniversaire, c’est le 12 mars.<\/span>My birthday is on 12 March.<\/small><\/p>\n\n La rentr\u00e9e, c’est en septembre.<\/span>The new school year starts in September.<\/small><\/p>\n\n Il fait tr\u00e8s chaud en ao\u00fbt.<\/span>It’s very hot in August.<\/small><\/p>\n\n The first of the month is le 1er mai<\/span>, read le premier mai<\/span>. From the 2nd onwards, French uses ordinary numbers: le 2 mai<\/span> (deux<\/span>), never “le deuxi\u00e8me mai”.<\/p>\n\n Pupils who also learn Spanish should note the contrast: Spanish says el 12 de marzo<\/span>, French says le 12 mars<\/span>, without de<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n Other useful phrases: le mois dernier<\/span> (last month), le mois prochain<\/span> (next month), d\u00e9but juin<\/span> (at the beginning of June), fin juin<\/span> (at the end of June), mi-juin<\/span> (in mid-June).<\/p>\n\n The odd one out is au printemps<\/span>: the other three seasons begin with a vowel sound and take en<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n A few expressions give the months a cultural angle. On 1 April, French children try to stick a paper fish on someone’s back and shout Poisson d’avril\u00a0!<\/span>, the French April fool. A traditional proverb warns En avril, ne te d\u00e9couvre pas d’un fil ; en mai, fais ce qu’il te pla\u00eet<\/span>: in April, don’t take off a single thread; in May, do as you please. And les grandes vacances<\/span>, the long summer holiday, cover juillet<\/span> and ao\u00fbt<\/span>, before la rentr\u00e9e<\/span> in early septembre<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n The months are learnt in one lesson but only stick with repetition. The most effective approach is to say the date at the start of every lesson, which takes about a minute.<\/p>\n\n This is exactly what a daily routine does: short, predictable and repeated until it becomes automatic.<\/p>\n\n Two one-off activities work well alongside it. Birthday line-ups: pupils ask C’est quand, ton anniversaire\u00a0?<\/span> and stand in order from janvier<\/span> to d\u00e9cembre<\/span>. Month dictation: say a month, pupils write it, then check accents (f\u00e9vrier<\/span>, ao\u00fbt<\/span>, d\u00e9cembre<\/span>) and lower case.<\/p>\n\n With KS2 pupils, a song or chant is enough at first. At KS3, insist on lower case, accents and en<\/span>. At GCSE level, the months should be automatic so that attention can go to tenses: L’\u00e9t\u00e9 dernier, je suis all\u00e9\u2026<\/span>, En ao\u00fbt, je vais aller\u2026<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The twelve months in French, how to say them, the mistakes English speakers make, and a daily routine that makes them stick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"menu_order":7,"template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Months in French: List, Pronunciation, Rules | VocaDial","_seopress_titles_desc":"The 12 months in French with pronunciation for English speakers, the rules pupils get wrong (no capital letters, en or au mois de) and a daily routine.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_vd_topic":"mois","_vd_target":"fr","_vd_module":"fecha","_vd_level":"A1","_vd_minutes":"6","_vd_card_word":"janvier\u2026","_vd_answer":"The 12 months in French are janvier, f\u00e9vrier, mars, avril, mai, juin, juillet, ao\u00fbt, septembre, octobre, novembre<\/span> and d\u00e9cembre<\/span>. Unlike in English, they are written with a lower-case letter, and they are all masculine.","_vd_faq":"[{\"q\":\"What are the 12 months in French?\",\"a\":\"Janvier, f\u00e9vrier, mars, avril, mai, juin, juillet, ao\u00fbt, septembre, octobre, novembre<\\\/span> and d\u00e9cembre<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"Are months capitalised in French?\",\"a\":\"No. Months are written in lower case in French, except at the start of a sentence: le 5 mai<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you say \\\"in June\\\" in French?\",\"a\":\"En juin<\\\/span>, or au mois de juin<\\\/span>. Never \\\"dans juin\\\".\"},{\"q\":\"How do you pronounce ao\u00fbt?\",\"a\":\"As one syllable: \\\"oo\\\" or \\\"oot\\\". Both are heard in France and both are correct.\"},{\"q\":\"Which months have an accent in French?\",\"a\":\"F\u00e9vrier<\\\/span> and d\u00e9cembre<\\\/span> take an acute accent, and ao\u00fbt<\\\/span> a circumflex, which the 1990 spelling reform makes optional (aout<\\\/span>).\"}]","_vd_key":"mois-fr","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-50","vd_ressource","type-vd_ressource","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/vd_ressource"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}French<\/th> English<\/th> Say it like<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> janvier<\/td> January<\/td> zhah(n)-VYAY<\/td><\/tr> f\u00e9vrier<\/td> February<\/td> fay-vree-YAY<\/td><\/tr> mars<\/td> March<\/td> marss<\/td><\/tr> avril<\/td> April<\/td> a-VREEL<\/td><\/tr> mai<\/td> May<\/td> meh<\/td><\/tr> juin<\/td> June<\/td> zhwa(n)<\/td><\/tr> juillet<\/td> July<\/td> zhwee-YEH<\/td><\/tr> ao\u00fbt<\/td> August<\/td> oo, or oot<\/td><\/tr> septembre<\/td> September<\/td> sep-TAH(M)-bruh<\/td><\/tr> octobre<\/td> October<\/td> ok-TOB-ruh<\/td><\/tr> novembre<\/td> November<\/td> noh-VAH(M)-bruh<\/td><\/tr> d\u00e9cembre<\/td> December<\/td> day-SAH(M)-bruh<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n Three rules your pupils need<\/h2>\n\n
Using the months in a sentence<\/h2>\n\n
The seasons<\/h3>\n\n
Months in French culture<\/h3>\n\n
Typical mistakes of English-speaking learners<\/h2>\n\n
In class: the date routine<\/h2>\n\n
Adapting to your class<\/h3>\n\n