Using Military Time

In English, we use the expressions AM and PM to specify whether we are talking about the morning or evening. We can also say It’s nine in the morning or It’s six in the evening. How do you specify what time of day you are talking about in French? Below are three useful expressions to do this.

Times of the Day
le soir	the evening
l’après-midi	the afternoon
le matin	the morning

When you want to say in the morning or in the afternoon, you add the preposition de. For masculine words like soir or matin, de combines with le to make du.

For example:

du soir
in the evening

du matin
in the morning

de l’après-midi
in the afternoon

Now sharpen your listening skills. Match each French sentence you hear with the English sentence that means the same thing.

To match items, click or tap an item in the left column and then click or tap its match in the right column. If you change your mind, make a different choice. Once you have matched all items, click "Check Answers" to see how you did. Click "Reset" to try again.

Great job!

French-speakers have another way of telling time. They use what we call in English, military time. That means they use all twenty-four hours instead of starting over at noon. So, one o’clock in the afternoon is 13 hours.

For example:

Il est treize heures. It is 13:00 or It is one o’clock.

Doctors, nurses, and of course military personnel all use military time in the United States. The simplest way to translate military time to civilian time is to subtract twelve. Whatever number is left is what time it is in the afternoon or evening.

Practice telling military time by completing the activity below. Read the time in French and then select the time that matches it. Remember, if the number is larger than 12, subtract 12 from it to find the civilian time.

22 – 12 = 10

14 – 12 = 2

16 –– 12 = 4

19 –– 12 = 7. Et demi = 30.

15 –– 12 = 3. Et quart = 15

21 – 12 = 9. Moins le quart = minus 15.

Questions answered correctly:

Questions answered incorrectly:

Were you able to figure out the last question? If it’s a quarter to 21:00, it’s a quarter to nine, which is 8:45!

Question

What time is dix-sept heures?

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How To

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