The French date is short: the article le<\/span>, the number, the month, then the year. There is no “of” and no word for “on”.<\/p>\n\n Nous sommes le lundi 5 octobre 2026.<\/span>It’s Monday 5 October 2026.<\/small><\/p>\n\n Mon anniversaire, c’est le 12 mars.<\/span>My birthday is on 12 March.<\/small><\/p>\n\n L’examen a lieu le 3 juin.<\/span>The exam is on 3 June.<\/small><\/p>\n\n Pupils who also learn Spanish should note the contrast: Spanish says el 5 de mayo<\/span>, French says le 5 mai<\/span>. Adding “de” in French is a typical mix-up.<\/p>\n\n Quelle est la date aujourd’hui\u00a0?<\/span>What’s the date today?<\/small><\/p>\n\n Quel jour sommes-nous\u00a0?<\/span>What day is it today?<\/small><\/p>\n\n Nous sommes le 5 octobre.<\/span>It’s 5 October.<\/small><\/p>\n\n In everyday speech you will also hear On est le combien aujourd’hui\u00a0?<\/span> and the answers On est le 5<\/span> or C’est le 5 octobre<\/span>. Nous sommes<\/span> and on est<\/span> are the natural way to give the date; “il est le 5 octobre” does not exist.<\/p>\n\n Good news for UK pupils: French writes the day first, as in Britain. 5 October 2026 is 05\/10\/2026 or 5\/10\/2026.<\/p>\n\n At the top of a letter, the place comes first, followed by le<\/span>: Paris, le 5 octobre 2026<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n When space is short, months can be abbreviated: janv., f\u00e9vr., avr., juil., sept., oct., nov., d\u00e9c.<\/span> Mars<\/span>, mai<\/span>, juin<\/span> and ao\u00fbt<\/span> are short enough to be written in full.<\/p>\n\n The year is usually read as one whole number: deux mille vingt-six<\/span>. For years from 1100 to 1999, two readings are heard: the full number, or a grouping in hundreds that works a little like English.<\/p>\n\n Pupils will not get away with an English-style “dix-neuf quatre-vingt-dix-huit”: the word cent<\/span> is always there. In older or formal texts you may also see mil<\/span> for years (l’an mil<\/span>, mil neuf cent<\/span>), an accepted variant spelling.<\/p>\n\n “In 2026” is en 2026<\/span>, never “dans 2026”.<\/p>\n\n Je suis n\u00e9 le 3 mai 2013.<\/span>I was born on 3 May 2013. (A girl writes n\u00e9e<\/span>.)<\/small><\/p>\n\n Decades are les ann\u00e9es 90<\/span> or les ann\u00e9es quatre-vingt-dix<\/span>, with no apostrophe and no s after the figures, unlike English “the 1990s”. Centuries are written in Roman numerals with a raised e and read as ordinals: le XXIe si\u00e8cle<\/span> is le vingt et uni\u00e8me si\u00e8cle<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n Key dates give the routine a cultural angle: le 6 janvier<\/span> (l’\u00c9piphanie<\/span> and the galette des rois<\/span>), le 1er mai<\/span> (Labour Day, when lily of the valley is sold in the streets), le 14 Juillet<\/span> (national day), le 11 novembre<\/span> (Armistice Day, a bank holiday in France).<\/p>\n\n The date is the ideal opening ritual: it changes every day, so the sentence is never quite the same, and it recycles numbers, days and months at once.<\/p>\n\n This is exactly what a daily routine does: a minute a day, until the sentence comes out without thinking.<\/p>\n\n Many UK departments ask pupils to write the date in the target language at the top of their work. It is a good habit, provided the written model is correct: lundi 5 octobre 2026<\/span>, all in lower case, with no “de” and no “th”. Once the class says the date aloud every lesson, the written version follows naturally.<\/p>\n\n At KS2, the day and the date are enough. At KS3, the year is where pupils consolidate the big numbers, including quatre-vingt-dix<\/span>. At GCSE level, the date becomes a springboard for tenses: Le 5 octobre de l’ann\u00e9e derni\u00e8re\u2026<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Le + number + month + year: the pattern, le premier, the year, the questions, and a daily routine for the classroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"menu_order":10,"template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"The Date in French: How to Say and Write It | VocaDial","_seopress_titles_desc":"How to say and write the date in French: le 5 mai, le 1er (premier), reading the year, and the mistakes English-speaking pupils make. For teachers.","_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":"date","_vd_target":"fr","_vd_module":"fecha","_vd_level":"A1\u2013A2","_vd_minutes":"6","_vd_card_word":"le 1er mai","_vd_answer":"In French the date is le + number + month + year: le 12 mars 2026<\/span>. Use ordinary numbers (le deux mai<\/span>, not \"le deuxi\u00e8me\"), except for the 1st: le 1er mai<\/span>, read le premier mai<\/span>. Days and months take no capital letter, and there is no word for \"of\".","_vd_faq":"[{\"q\":\"How do you write the date in French?\",\"a\":\"Day first, then month, then year: 05\\\/10\\\/2026, read le 5 octobre 2026<\\\/span>. Days and months are written in lower case.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you say the first of the month in French?\",\"a\":\"Le premier<\\\/span>, written 1er: le 1er mai<\\\/span>. From the 2nd onwards, ordinary numbers are used: le 2 mai<\\\/span>, le 3 mai<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you say the year in French?\",\"a\":\"As a whole number: 2026 is deux mille vingt-six<\\\/span>. For 1998 you can say mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-huit<\\\/span> or dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-huit<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you ask the date in French?\",\"a\":\"Quelle est la date aujourd'hui\u00a0?<\\\/span> or Quel jour sommes-nous\u00a0?<\\\/span> Informally: On est le combien\u00a0?<\\\/span>\"},{\"q\":\"Do you say \\\"le 5 de mai\\\" in French?\",\"a\":\"No. French has no \\\"de\\\" in the date: le 5 mai<\\\/span>. The \\\"de\\\" belongs to Spanish (el 5 de mayo<\\\/span>).\"}]","_vd_key":"date-fr","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-53","vd_ressource","type-vd_ressource","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource\/53","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\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Asking the date<\/h2>\n\n
Writing the date<\/h2>\n\n
Saying the year<\/h2>\n\n
French<\/th> Year<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> deux mille vingt-six<\/td> 2026<\/td><\/tr> deux mille<\/td> 2000<\/td><\/tr> mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-huit<\/td> 1998<\/td><\/tr> dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-huit<\/td> 1998<\/td><\/tr> mille sept cent quatre-vingt-neuf<\/td> 1789<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n Decades and centuries<\/h3>\n\n
Around the date<\/h2>\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