Q&A for How to Tell Time in French

Though in formal French, it's technically more correct to say the number of minutes after the hour, in spoken French or in less formal situations, most people default to using the "moins" method.

Time is almost always told using a 24-hour clock, which is also known as military time. So, for example, 8 p.m. would be 20 hours. The other thing to remember is that instead of saying, for example, "It's 4:15," you would say "Il y a quatres heures et quart," which literally means "it's four and a quarter." In French, you use quarter, half (demi), and three-quarters (trois-quarts) rather than the actual amount of minutes.

As a full sentence in French, you would write "Il est minuit quinze." Your time is already expressed as the French would. If you translated that time into English and the 12-hour clock, it would be 12:15 a.m., or 15 minutes after midnight.

You would say "Il est dix-neuf heures cinquante-quatre." Since it's so close to 20h, you could also say "Il est vingt heures moins six" or "il est environ vingt heures."

2:10 a.m. would be written 2h10. You would say "Il est deux heures dix." There's a liaison between the words "deux" and "heures," so it would be pronounced "eel eht duhz-uhr dees."

6:55 p.m. would be 18h55 in French. You would say "Il est dix-huit heures cinquante-cinq." You could also say "Il est dix-neuf heures moins cinq."

You would say "Il est sept heures cinquante-cinq." This is pronounced roughly "eel eht seht euhr sank-ahnt-sank."

"Il est dix heures cinq."

If you mean 20 past midnight, that's "minuit vingt" (not "minuit et vingt").

You could say 8:15 two ways: "Il est vingt heures quinze" or "Il est vingt heures quart".

Midnight is 00:00. Go all the way until 12:00, then keep going until 23:59 (or 11:59 pm). Start over at 00:00.

You say "minuit," pronounced /minɥi/.

You write "Midi et quart".

For AM, you would say: "Il est minuit quart." For PM: "Il est midi quart."

00:00 is midnight, so in French, it's "minuit." 20 minutes past the hour is "vingt." Therefore, twenty minutes past midnight is "minuit et vingt."

That is 1:50, so you can write it as; il est une heures cinquante, or as; il est deux heures moins dix.

It is "Il est douze heure moins dix."

Yes, that is the correct way, although "est" may not always be necessary.

If you mean 16 hours, it is; "il est seize heures" or "il est quatre heures (de l'apres midi)."

It would be "il est une heurs."

Du matin means "in the morning." The French do not have AM and PM. For example: Il est sept heures du matin means, "It is 7 AM,"

Il est cinq heures moins quinze. Also written as, il est cinq heures moins le quart.

You may know it as military time, but over there, it's just time. While the French do use the 12-hour clock, you'll see the 24-hour clock used on the digital clocks in France (as well as the rest of Europe).

You say "Il est une heure et demie", or "il est une heure trente". Also depends whether it's AM or PM.

For the morning, you would say "Il est six heures trente-cinq du matin." For the afternoon/night (you decide whether 6:35 is afternoon or night):.Afternoon: instead of "du matin" (which means "in the morning"), use "de l'après-midi". Evening: instead of "du matin", use "du soir", for example, 6:35 pm would be "Il best six heures trent-cinq du soir."

You would write 1:50 as "deux heurs moins dix," which means "ten before two."

9:13 AM would be neuf heures et treize. It is pronounced as "nuff uhr et treze".

23:30 is 11:30 PM using twelve o'clock time. In French, you would write it as: Vingt-trois heures et demie.

You can say: Il est midi-quinze. Here, 12 is written as midi rather than douze.

Seize heures moins le quart. Also, you can write quatre heures moins le quart, trois heures et quarante-cinq, or cinquante et quarante-cinq.