Months in French: Days, Seasons and Dates Made Easy

Most learners can recite janvier, février, mars after one lesson. Then they write "le Lundi 3 Mars", say "au juin", or pronounce août as three syllables, and the illusion falls apart. The months in French are easy words wrapped in small rules that English never prepares you for.

This page gives you the months in French with simple pronunciation hints, the days of the week, the four seasons, the prepositions that go with each, how to write and say a date the way a French or Québec speaker would, and a short practice set with answers.

The 12 months in French

All twelve French months are masculine and lowercase. Most look like their English cousins, so focus your energy on the sound.

Tip from class: I teach juin and juillet as a pair. Juin is short and nasal, like June is short. Juillet is longer, like July has the longer days. Say them back to back five times: juin, juillet, juin, juillet.

The août problem

Août is the one month that surprises everyone. Québec's Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) says the general pronunciation is simply oo, with a silent a and a silent t. Oot is also accepted and is more common in France than in Québec. Larousse gives oot, rhyming with outil. What you should drop is the two-syllable "ah-oo": the OQLF describes it as dated.

The name comes from the Latin Augustus mensis, the month dedicated to the emperor Augustus, according to Larousse. One more detail: since the 1990 spelling reform, the OQLF accepts aout without the circumflex. You will see both spellings.

Memory trick for the last four months

Look inside the words. Septembre hides sept (seven), octobre looks like an octopus with eight arms, novembre sounds like neuf (nine), and décembre sounds like dix (ten). The numbers do not match the month's position in the year, and that mismatch is exactly why students remember them. If your numbers are still shaky, review French numbers from 1 to 100 first, because every date uses them.

How to say "in January": en, au mois de

Use en with any month. No article, no exception.

• Mon anniversaire est en mars. (My birthday is in March.)
• Il neige souvent en décembre. (It often snows in December.)
• On part en août. (We're leaving in August.)

If you add the word mois (month), switch to au mois de: au mois de mars. It means the same thing and sounds slightly more formal. What you never say is au mars or dans mars. For the logic behind en and au in other contexts, see our guide to French prepositions à, de, en, dans and chez.

Two handy extras:

• début mai (early May), mi-mai (mid-May), fin mai (late May). No preposition needed: Je rentre fin juin.
• le 15-Août, the August 15 holiday in France, is one of the rare cases where the month is capitalized, because it names a holiday.

The 7 days of the week

French weeks start on lundi on the calendar, not on Sunday. Like the months, the days are masculine and lowercase.

Every day except the weekend ends in -di. Lock in the planet hooks for Monday to Friday and you only have two irregular words left.

"On Monday" vs "on Mondays"

This is the rule English speakers miss most often:

• lundi = this coming Monday, one time. Je te vois lundi. (I'll see you on Monday.)
• le lundi = every Monday, a habit. Le lundi, je vais au gym. (On Mondays, I go to the gym.)
• ce lundi = this Monday, the one we're talking about.
• lundi prochain / lundi dernier = next Monday / last Monday.

Never add a preposition. Sur lundi is a direct translation from English and does not exist.

Weekend in France and in Canada

France says le week-end. In Québec, the OQLF notes that la fin de semaine has been the established term since the 1920s, even though week-end is also heard there. If you live in Canada, say bonne fin de semaine on Friday afternoon and you will sound local.

The 4 seasons in French

The rule is about sound. Été, automne and hiver start with a vowel sound, so en slides in smoothly: en‿été (ahn-nay-tay). Printemps starts with a consonant, so it takes au. In automne, the m is silent: say oh-tun, not oh-tom.

How to write and say the date in French

French puts the day before the month and uses le. The OQLF gives this pattern for letters and everyday texts:

• le 10 octobre 2026 (October 10, 2026)
• le samedi 10 octobre 2026 (Saturday, October 10, 2026), with no comma after the weekday
• Montréal, le 1er février 2026 at the top of a letter

Three rules to remember:

1. Only the first is ordinal. Le 1er mai (le premier mai), but le 2 mai (le deux mai), never le deuxième mai.
2. No leading zero in running text: le 9 septembre, not le 09 septembre.
3. Numbers first in speech too. You say le quatorze juillet, not "July the fourteenth".

The OQLF notes that in technical contexts such as forms, tables and schedules, the date can be written entirely in numbers. Be careful with slashes: in French, 10/11 is the 10th of November, not October 11.

Short forms you will see on forms and receipts

According to the OQLF, mars, mai, juin and août are too short to be abbreviated with the usual rules, and the three-letter codes are written in capitals, with no period, and keep their accents.

Asking for the date: a mini-dialogue

— On est le combien aujourd'hui ? (What's the date today?)

— On est le 10. Samedi 10 octobre. (It's the 10th. Saturday, October 10.)

Quelle est la date aujourd'hui ? is the textbook version. On est le combien ? is what you will actually hear. To answer, use on est or nous sommes + le + date. Once you can say the date, the next step is telling time in French.

Common mistakes English speakers make

• Mistake: Lundi 3 Mars → Say instead: lundi 3 mars. Lowercase days and months.
• Mistake: au juin or dans juin → Say instead: en juin or au mois de juin.
• Mistake: le premier for every date, or le deuxième mai → Say instead: le 1er mai, then le 2 mai, le 3 mai.
• Mistake: "ah-oot" for août → Say instead: oo or oot.
• Mistake: sur lundi for "on Monday" → Say instead: lundi, or le lundi for a habit.
• Mistake: en printemps → Say instead: au printemps.

Practice

Try each one before reading the answer.

1. Translate: "My birthday is in August."
2. Write the date in French: Thursday, July 1.
3. Fill in: Je fais du yoga ___ mardi. (every Tuesday)
4. Fill in: Il fait beau ___ printemps et ___ été.
5. Write the short form of février and septembre.

Answers: 1. Mon anniversaire est en août. 2. le jeudi 1er juillet. 3. le (le mardi). 4. au printemps, en été. 5. févr. and sept.

In short

The months in French are lowercase, masculine, and take en: en janvier, en août. Dates follow le + number + month, with 1er only for the first day, and the days of the week drop every preposition. Practice the sounds with our French pronunciation guide, then put your new dates to use and learn how to say happy birthday in French.

Want these words in your pocket? Grab the free French flashcards. And if you'd like to practice dates, days and everyday phrases out loud with a teacher, book a free 30-minute assessment with Magali and get a plan built around your level.