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<span id="Days_and_months_in_French"></span><h2 id="a-days-and-months-in-french">Days and months in French</h2> <p>In French, we use cardinal numbers to talk about the date. The exception to this is the first of the month, here we use the ordinal number <strong><i lang="fr">le premier</i></strong>.</p> <p>In contrast to English, days and months are not capitalised in French, they are written with a lowercase letter.</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="411" src="https://pressbooks.pub/introductiontofrench1/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=h5p_embed&id=86" title="Mois de l'année" width="686"></iframe><script src="https://pressbooks.pub/app/plugins/h5p/h5p-php-library/js/h5p-resizer.js" charset="UTF-8"></script></p> <span id="How_to_say_the_date_in_French"></span><h2 id="a-how-to-say-the-date-in-french">How to say the date in French</h2> <p>To say the date in French, we usually use the following order:</p> <p><i>☞ day (in numbers) + month (in letters) + years (in numbers).</i></p> <p>To say the complete date, we use the article <i>le</i>.</p> <dl> <dt><strong>Examples:</strong></dt> <dd lang="fr">On est le 1<sup>er</sup> janvier mars 2020.</dd> <dd lang="fr">On est le 22 janvier 2022.</dd> </dl> <p>The day of the week comes after <i>le</i> and before the date.</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="411" src="https://pressbooks.pub/introductiontofrench1/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=h5p_embed&id=178" title="Jours de la semaine" width="686"></iframe><script src="https://pressbooks.pub/app/plugins/h5p/h5p-php-library/js/h5p-resizer.js" charset="UTF-8"></script></p> <dl> <dt><strong>Example:</strong></dt> <dd lang="fr">Le mardi 9 octobre 2022.</dd> </dl> <p>We introduce the months with the preposition <i>en</i> or the phrase <i>au mois de</i>.</p> <dl> <dt><strong>Examples:</strong></dt> <dd lang="fr">On est en novembre 2022.</dd> <dd lang="fr">On est au mois de mai 2023.</dd> </dl> <p>The year is always introduced by the preposition en.</p> <p><strong>Example:</strong></p> <p>On est en 2023.</p> <p>In spoken French, there are two ways to say the year:</p> <dl> <dt><strong>Example:</strong></dt> <dd lang="fr">1990 = mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix</dd> <dd lang="fr">or: dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix</dd> </dl> <span id="Asking_about_the_date"></span><h2><strong>Asking about the date</strong></h2> <p><strong>Today’s date</strong></p> <p><em>Quelle est la date aujourd’hui ?</em> What’s today’s date?</p> <p>More informal:</p> <p><em>Nous sommes le combien aujourd’hui ?</em></p> <p><em>On est le combien aujourd’hui ?</em></p> <p><strong>Some other date</strong></p> <p><em>Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire</em> ? What date is your birthday?</p> <p><em>Quel jour est-ce que vous arrivez ?</em> What date are you coming?</p> <p>Note: the only possible translation of “what” here is the interrogative adjective <i>quelle</i></p>
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