Knowing the days and months helps you fix appointments, talk about past or future events, and understand simple schedules.

1. Days of the week (les jours de la semaine)

• lundi → Monday

• mardi → Tuesday

• mercredi → Wednesday

• jeudi → Thursday

• vendredi → Friday

• samedi → Saturday

• dimanche /DIMANSH/ → Sunday (not /DIMANSHé/ because final E is ALWAYS silent)

• How to pronounce them:

👉 Notice: In French, days are not capitalized.

Tip: to memorize them, leave _di and focus on the rest: LUN MAR MERCRE JEU VENDRE SAME. And then dimanche is the opposite, remember _MANCHE. Here's another tip, the days of the week in French are named after planets from Roman mythology.

• Lundi is for the Moon (la Lune).

• Mardi is for Mars.

• Mercredi is for Mercury.

• Jeudi is for Jupiter.

• Vendredi is for Venus.

• And Samedi is for Saturn.

  If you say "le dimanche" or "les dimanches" it means every Sunday. Example: Le dimanche, je fais de la randonnée (on Sundays I go hiking).

Ce + day of the week means "this...". Example: Je travaille ce jeudi (I'm working this Thursday).

Mini practice

• On se voit lundi ? → Shall we meet on Monday?

• Je travaille le samedi. → I work on Saturdays.

• Tu es disponible ce vendredi ? → Are you available this Friday?

2. Months of the year (les mois de l’année)

• janvier → January /JANVIé/

• février → February /FéVRIé/

• mars → March /MARSS/ pronounce the final S (for once!)

• avril → April /AVRIL/

• mai → May /Mé/

• juin → June /JU-1/

• juillet → July /JUI-Yé/

• août → August /OOTT/ pronounce the final T, (you won't do that often with other words!)

• septembre → September /SEPTANBR/

• octobre → October /OCTOBR/

• novembre → November /NOVANBR/

• décembre → December /DéSSANBR/

• How to pronounce them:

👉 Notice: Months are also not capitalized in French.

Important: In French, dates are easy. You don't need to say 5th of September, just say the 5 September, litteraly: "aujourd'hui, on est le 5 septembre." or you can evey say: "on est le 5." Because, we obviously know the month.

Mini practice

• Mon anniversaire, c'est en mai. → My birthday is in May. /AN-Mé/ not /ENN-Mé/

• On part en vacances en août. → We go on holiday in August. /AN-NOOTT/ link the two.

3. Talking about dates

As mentioned just before, format in French: le + number + month

• le 5 avril → April 5th | le 1er janvier → January 1st (only “first” uses premier)

Mini practice

• Aujourd’hui, c’est le 20 mars. → Today is March 20th.

• Le rendez-vous est le 15 juin. → The appointment is June 15th.

4. Useful words

• aujourd’hui → today /OJOORDUI/

• demain → tomorrow /DEM-1/

• hier → yesterday /IYERR/ R is pronounced (exceptionally)

• après-demain → the day after tomorrow /APRé-DEUM-1/

• la semaine prochaine → next week /LASEMENN-PROSHENN/ not /SEM-1/ it's feminine

• le mois prochain → next month /LEMOA-PROSH-1/ but not /PROSHENN/ it's masculine

• How to pronounce them:

Mini dialogue

— On se voit demain ?
— Demain, c’est impossible. Mais samedi, je suis libre.
— Parfait, à samedi alors ! — A plus !

👉 After this lesson, you can:

• Say what day it is.

• Give or understand a date.

• Arrange simple appointments with confidence.