How do you say quarter past in French?

Add et quart to the hour: il est six heures et quart, it's quarter past six. For quarter to, name the next hour and subtract with the article in place: il est sept heures moins le quart.

Why is it moins le quart but moins dix?

Because quart is a noun and needs a determiner, while dix is just a number. So French says cinq heures moins le quart but cinq heures moins dix, with nothing in front of the number.

When do you use et in a French time?

Only before quart and demie: neuf heures et quart, neuf heures et demie. Every other number attaches directly to the hour, so it's neuf heures dix and neuf heures vingt-cinq, with no linking word.

Is it et demi or et demie?

Et demie after heures, because heure is feminine: trois heures et demie. Et demi after midi and minuit, which are masculine: midi et demi. As a noun of duration it's une demi-heure, where demi never agrees.

How do you say around three o'clock in French?

Vers trois heures. Vers is the everyday word for approximately with times, and it replaces à: on se retrouve vers trois heures. For the opposite, use pile or précises: à trois heures pile.

French grammar · Beginner

Quarter Past, Half Past, Quarter To: The Simple French Clock

Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed May 2026

On an ordinary clock face, French adds minutes up to the half hour and subtracts them after it: quatre heures dix, quatre heures et demie, cinq heures moins vingt. The little word et appears only before quart and demie, and moins le quart is the one phrase that keeps an article.

Il est cinq heures moins le quart.

It's quarter to five.

What it is

The everyday French clock works like a dial rather than a digital display. Up to thirty minutes you name the hour you've passed and add the minutes; after thirty you name the hour ahead and take minutes away. Only two fractions have names of their own, quart and demie, and they're the only two that need et.

quatre heures et quart, quatre heures et demie, cinq heures moins le quart — quarter past four, half past four, quarter to five.

How to spot it

Find the half hour first. Everything before it is addition and needs no linking word except before quart and demie; everything after it is subtraction and starts from the following hour.

Il est deux heures et quart. — It's quarter past two.
Il est deux heures vingt. — It's twenty past two.
Il est deux heures et demie. — It's half past two.
Il est trois heures moins vingt. — It's twenty to three.

Quart and demie are the only fractions French names. There's no equivalent of three quarters past.

Telling Time: The Basics Quick Reference

One hour of the clock, five minutes at a time

Clock	French	Point to notice
4:00	quatre heures	on the hour, nothing added
4:05	quatre heures cinq	no et before a number
4:15	quatre heures et quart	et is required here
4:20	quatre heures vingt	back to no et
4:30	quatre heures et demie	et, and demie agrees
4:35	cinq heures moins vingt-cinq	the hour jumps forward
4:45	cinq heures moins le quart	le is required
4:55	cinq heures moins cinq	no article with a number

Common Telling Time: The Basics Examples in French

The four shapes a spoken time can take:

Quarter Past and Quarter To

Il est neuf heures et quart.: It's quarter past nine.
Il est dix heures moins le quart.: It's quarter to ten.
On part à sept heures et quart.: We're leaving at quarter past seven.
Le cours finit à midi moins le quart.: The class finishes at quarter to twelve.

Quart is masculine, so it takes le after moins. Une heure et un quart also exists but sounds fussy.

Half Past

Il est six heures et demie.: It's half past six.
Le train part à huit heures et demie.: The train leaves at half past eight.
Il est midi et demi.: It's half past twelve.
Elle rentre vers minuit et demi.: She gets back around half past midnight.

Demie takes an e after heures and loses it after midi and minuit, which are masculine nouns.

Counting Up to the Half Hour

Il est trois heures cinq.: It's five past three.
Il est trois heures dix.: It's ten past three.
Il est trois heures vingt.: It's twenty past three.
Il est trois heures vingt-cinq.: It's twenty-five past three.

The minutes simply follow the hour, with nothing joining them. English past has no French equivalent here.

Counting Down From the Next Hour

Il est quatre heures moins vingt-cinq.: It's twenty-five to four.
Il est quatre heures moins vingt.: It's twenty to four.
Il est quatre heures moins dix.: It's ten to four.
Il est quatre heures moins cinq.: It's five to four.

Notice that all four sentences are about the three o'clock hour, but every one of them says quatre heures.

How the Simple French Clock Works

Five rules, and four of them are about a single two-letter word.

Et Only Appears Before Quart and Demie

Quart and demie are fractions of an hour, so French joins them with et, the way it joins any two quantities. Plain minute counts aren't fractions, so they attach with nothing at all.

Il est huit heures et quart, pas huit heures et dix.

It's quarter past eight, not ten past eight.

et quart, et demie, but heures dix.

Demie Agrees, Demi Doesn't

In quatre heures et demie the adjective describes heures, which is feminine, so it takes an e. After midi and minuit there's no feminine noun in sight, so it stays demi.

À une heure et demie, pas à midi et demi.

At half past one, not half past twelve.

heures et demie, midi et demi.

Past the Half Hour, the Hour Moves Forward

French doesn't count to sixty on a spoken clock. From thirty-one minutes onwards it names the hour it's heading towards and subtracts what's left, exactly as English does with to.

Il est une heure moins dix.

It's ten to one.

next hour + moins + minutes.

Moins Le Quart Keeps Its Article

Quart is a noun and needs a determiner, so it appears as le quart. Numbers don't need one, which is why moins dix and moins vingt have nothing in front of them.

Il est sept heures moins le quart et non moins un quart.

It's quarter to seven, not a quarter to seven.

moins le quart, moins dix.

This System Belongs to the Twelve-Hour Clock

Quart, demie, and moins all assume a dial you can look at. Once you're using official hours above twelve, minutes are read forwards in full, so 16 h 45 is seize heures quarante-cinq.

Le magasin ferme à 20 h 45.

The shop closes at 8:45 pm.

No moins in the 24-hour clock.

Common Mistakes with Telling Time: The Basics

Incorrect: Il est quatre heures et vingt. — It's twenty past four.

Correct: Il est quatre heures vingt. — It's twenty past four.

Et joins the hour to a fraction, and twenty minutes isn't one. Only quart and demie take et.

Incorrect: Il est cinq heures moins quart. — It's quarter to five.

Correct: Il est cinq heures moins le quart. — It's quarter to five.

Quart is a noun and needs its article. This is the one place in a time expression where an article is compulsory.

Incorrect: Il est sept heures et demi. — It's half past seven.

Correct: Il est sept heures et demie. — It's half past seven.

The adjective agrees with heures, which is feminine and plural here. It stays demi only after the masculine midi and minuit.

Incorrect: Il est trois heures et trois quarts. — It's quarter to four.

Correct: Il est quatre heures moins le quart. — It's quarter to four.

French names only two fractions of the hour. Anything past thirty minutes is expressed by subtracting from the next hour instead.

Exactly, Roughly, and by the Quarter Hour

Once the basic clock is in place, these are the phrases that make a time sound like something a person said rather than something a timetable printed.

On the dot

Three words insist that the time is exact, and they follow the whole expression.

Il est trois heures pile.: It's three o'clock exactly.
Rendez-vous à neuf heures précises.: Meeting at nine o'clock sharp.
Elle est arrivée à midi pile.: She arrived at twelve on the dot.
à huit heures tapantes: at eight on the dot

Précises agrees with heures; pile and tapantes are fixed and used mainly in speech.

Roughly, around, nearly

For an approximate time, put vers or environ in front of the hour. Vers is by far the most common.

On se voit vers cinq heures.: We'll meet around five.
Il est environ deux heures.: It's about two o'clock.
Il est presque midi.: It's nearly midday.
Elle est partie aux alentours de sept heures.: She left somewhere around seven.

Vers replaces à in an arrangement: à cinq heures is a commitment, vers cinq heures isn't.

Quarter hours as lengths of time

The same words also measure duration, and then they behave like ordinary nouns with de.

J'arrive dans un quart d'heure.: I'll be there in fifteen minutes.
Le trajet dure trois quarts d'heure.: The journey takes forty-five minutes.
Attends une demi-heure.: Wait half an hour.
Il y a un bus toutes les demi-heures.: There's a bus every half hour.

Demi-heure is hyphenated and feminine: une demi-heure, des demi-heures, with demi never agreeing.

Telling Time: The Basics FAQs

How do you say quarter past in French?: Add et quart to the hour: il est six heures et quart, it's quarter past six. For quarter to, name the next hour and subtract with the article in place: il est sept heures moins le quart.
Why is it moins le quart but moins dix?: Because quart is a noun and needs a determiner, while dix is just a number. So French says cinq heures moins le quart but cinq heures moins dix, with nothing in front of the number.
When do you use et in a French time?: Only before quart and demie: neuf heures et quart, neuf heures et demie. Every other number attaches directly to the hour, so it's neuf heures dix and neuf heures vingt-cinq, with no linking word.
Is it et demi or et demie?: Et demie after heures, because heure is feminine: trois heures et demie. Et demi after midi and minuit, which are masculine: midi et demi. As a noun of duration it's une demi-heure, where demi never agrees.
How do you say around three o'clock in French?: Vers trois heures. Vers is the everyday word for approximately with times, and it replaces à: on se retrouve vers trois heures. For the opposite, use pile or précises: à trois heures pile.