French grammar · Beginner
How Dates Are Expressed in French: Reading 1995 and Everything Around It
Said out loud, a French date is a chain of plain numbers: le trois mai mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze. Nothing links the parts, the year is read as one whole number, and the preposition depends on what you're naming: le for a day, en for a month or a year, au for a century.
Elle est née le trois mai mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze.
She was born on 3 May 1995.
What it is
Writing a French date is a matter of order; saying one is a matter of reading numbers. The day is a cardinal number, the month is a bare noun, and the year is a single number in the thousands. Once you can say the year, you can say any date in the language.
le 14 juillet 1789 → le quatorze juillet mille sept cent quatre-vingt-neuf. — Read straight through, with nothing added.
How to spot it
Decide what you're placing in time. A specific day takes le, a month or a year takes en, a decade takes dans les, and a century takes au. That choice comes before you say any numbers.
- le 8 mars — on 8 March
- en mars — in March
- en 1995 — in 1995
- au XXe siècle — in the 20th century
Only the first of the month is read as an ordinal: le premier mai, then le deux mai, le trois mai.
How Dates Are Expressed in French Quick Reference
From the page to the spoken sentence
| Written | Said aloud | English |
|---|---|---|
| le 3/5/2026 | le trois mai deux mille vingt-six | 3 May 2026 |
| le 1er août | le premier août | 1 August |
| 1995 | mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze | 1995 |
| en 2008 | en deux mille huit | in 2008 |
| ven. 14 juillet | vendredi quatorze juillet | Friday 14 July |
| les années 80 | les années quatre-vingt | the eighties |
| le XVIIIe siècle | le dix-huitième siècle | the 18th century |
| 52 av. J.-C. | cinquante-deux avant Jésus-Christ | 52 BC |
Common How Dates Are Expressed in French Examples in French
Dates as they're spoken, from a single day to a whole century:
Saying a Full Date
- Le mariage est le vingt-deux juin deux mille vingt-sept.
- The wedding is on 22 June 2027.
- Il est mort le premier novembre mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-six.
- He died on 1 November 1986.
- Rendez-vous mardi seize septembre.
- See you on Tuesday 16 September.
- Le document date du douze avril.
- The document is dated 12 April.
Nothing is inserted between the parts: no de before the month and no et before the year.
Placing an Event in Time
- Le mur est tombé en mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-neuf.
- The wall came down in 1989.
- Nous partons en septembre.
- We're leaving in September.
- L'église a été bâtie au XIIe siècle.
- The church was built in the 12th century.
- C'était dans les années soixante-dix.
- It was in the seventies.
En takes no article, au contains one, and dans les is plural. Each span of time has its own habit.
Counting From Today
- Je l'ai vu avant-hier.
- I saw him the day before yesterday.
- On se voit après-demain.
- We're meeting the day after tomorrow.
- Il est parti il y a trois jours.
- He left three days ago.
- Le résultat arrive dans une semaine.
- The result comes in a week.
Il y a looks backwards and dans looks forwards. Neither takes a preposition in front of it.
Counting Inside a Story
- La veille, il avait beaucoup neigé.
- The day before, it had snowed heavily.
- Le lendemain, elle est repartie.
- The next day, she left again.
- Ce jour-là, tout était fermé.
- That day, everything was closed.
- Deux semaines plus tard, il a rappelé.
- Two weeks later, he called back.
Once you're narrating the past, hier and demain drop out and this set takes over.
How a French Date Is Spoken
Five habits carry every date you'll ever have to read out.
The Year Is One Number, Read Straight Through
French doesn't split a year into two halves the way English does. 1995 is mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze, one number, and the alternative dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze is also a single number, just counted in hundreds.
en mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze
in 1995
Read the whole figure, keep cent.
Nothing Joins the Parts of a Date
Article, day, month, year sit side by side with no connecting words. There's no de before the month, no comma before the year, and no et anywhere.
le trente et un décembre deux mille
31 December 2000
le + day + month + year.
Le for a Day, En for a Month or Year
A precise day takes the article le, which already carries the sense of on. A month or a year with no day attached takes en, with no article at all.
Je suis arrivé en juin, plus précisément le douze juin.
I arrived in June, on 12 June to be precise.
le 12 juin, en juin, en 2026.
Decades and Centuries Have Their Own Prepositions
A decade is a plural noun, so it takes dans les. A century is a masculine singular noun with an article, so à plus le contracts to au. Both are read as ordinary numbers.
au XIXe siècle, dans les années trente
in the 19th century, in the thirties
dans les années, au siècle.
The Date Is Given With a Personal Subject
To ask or say what today's date is, French makes a person the subject of être: on est le combien, nous sommes le vingt-quatre. Aujourd'hui can only be an adverb here, never the subject.
On est le combien ? On est le vingt-quatre août.
What's the date? It's 24 August.
nous sommes le… / on est le…
Common Mistakes with How Dates Are Expressed in French
Incorrect: Elle est née le trois de mai. — She was born on 3 May.
Correct: Elle est née le trois mai. — She was born on 3 May.
French dates contain no word for of. The month follows the number immediately, both in writing and out loud.
Incorrect: Je suis arrivé en le douze avril. — I arrived on 12 April.
Correct: Je suis arrivé le douze avril. — I arrived on 12 April.
Le already means on when it sits in front of a date, so no other preposition is needed. En is only for a month or a year with no day attached.
Incorrect: Il a déménagé en dix-neuf quatre-vingt-dix. — He moved in 1990.
Correct: Il a déménagé en mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix. — He moved in 1990.
This is the English two-block reading of a year carried into French. A French year is a single number, so cent has to be pronounced.
Incorrect: Il est arrivé lundi et demain il est reparti. — He arrived on Monday and left again the next day.
Correct: Il est arrivé lundi et le lendemain il est reparti. — He arrived on Monday and left again the next day.
Demain measures from today, so it can't appear inside a story set in the past. The narrative equivalent is le lendemain.
Dates Relative to Now and Inside a Story
French keeps two separate sets of time words: one anchored to the moment you're speaking, one anchored to a moment you're describing.
Anchored to now
These are the words you use when speaking about your own present: they measure from today.
- hier, aujourd'hui, demain
- yesterday, today, tomorrow
- la semaine dernière
- last week
- le mois prochain
- next month
- il y a deux ans
- two years ago
Il y a plus a length of time is the standard way to say ago, and the phrase comes before or after the verb.
Anchored to a story
In a narrative in the past, French switches to a parallel set measured from the moment being described.
- la veille et le lendemain
- the day before and the day after
- la semaine précédente
- the previous week
- le mois suivant
- the following month
- deux ans plus tôt
- two years earlier
Writing il est arrivé demain is a genuine error: inside a past narrative it has to be le lendemain.
Approximate and administrative dates
Business and administrative French has its own compact ways of pointing at a part of a month.
- vers mille neuf cents
- around 1900
- à la mi-juin
- in mid-June
- fin août
- at the end of August
- à compter du premier janvier
- with effect from 1 January
Fin août and début septembre drop the article entirely, which is why they look abbreviated.
How Dates Are Expressed in French FAQs
- How do you say 1995 in French?
- Mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze, read as the single number 1995. Dix-neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze is an equally correct shorter version. To put an event in that year, use en with no article: en mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze.
- Do you say le or en before a date in French?
- Le before a specific day: le 3 mai, il arrive le 3. En before a month or a year on its own: en mai, en 2026. The two never combine, so en le 3 mai is not possible.
- How do you read a full French date out loud?
- Straight through, in the order it's written: le douze octobre mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-quatorze. The day is a plain number, the month is unchanged, and the year is read as one figure. Only the first of the month becomes premier.
- What's the difference between demain and le lendemain?
- Demain is tomorrow, measured from the moment you're speaking. Le lendemain is the next day, measured from a point in a story: il est arrivé lundi, et le lendemain il est tombé malade. The same pair exists for hier and la veille.
- How do you say in the nineties or in the 18th century?
- Dans les années quatre-vingt-dix for the decade, and au XVIIIe siècle, read au dix-huitième siècle, for the century. Both are ordinary numbers; what changes is the preposition, dans les for a decade and au for a century.